MAORI PRONUNCIATION

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 26, 4 January 1935, Page 5

MAORI PRONUNCIATION

MAORI names have long been a debatable point, and the pronunciation by the New Zealand radio announcers has roused the ire of some listeners and the admiration of others. Commenting on this aspect of broadcasting the "‘Christchurch Press,"’ in an editorial says: All the New Zealand announcers, and the 3YA announcer with more success than most, have lately been trying to get away from the Anglicised versions of Maori words current in ordinary speech. Naturally enough, the attempt has outraged the feelings of some listeners, who feel that their own pronunciation is being gratuitously corrected; and the 83Y¥A announcer has had thrown at him such unpleasant epithets as "effeminate," "pedautic," "affected," and "didactic." It can be said at ounce that, in ‘o dar as these accusations relate to the general standard of announcing at 3YA,- they are the reverse of the truth. The impersonal voice of 3YA is admirable, and will stand comparison with broadcast Inglish in any other part of the Mmpire. The question of Maori pronunciation is perhaps a little more difficult. Where the pronunciation of a place namé is sanctioned by usage, there must be some very good reason for departing from it. ‘Lhere would, for instance, be just ground for complaint if the Broadcasting Board tried to induce the people of Canterbury to say "Arthur Pass" instead of "Arthur’s Pass." But there are very good reasons why the Broadcasting Board should not be willing to follow usage in the pronunctation of Maori words. | One is.that for most Maori place names there is no usage which can be accepted as general. There are many different pronunciations of ‘"Papanui" and "Wanganui" in common speech; and the Broadcasting Board has therefore an excuse for ignoring them all and setting its own standards, Another reason is that many popular pronunciations of Maori names are so slovenly and ugly that they are worth fighting against. The Broadcasting Board’s attempt to check the tendeney to cut off final vowels and syllables deserves particular encouragement. No seusible person. wants "Waimak" or "Punakaik" to be accepted into the language. A third reason is that it would be an act of courtesy, indeed of justice, to the Maori race to retain pronunciations of Maori place names which are at any rate approximately correct. It has been asserted by some correspondents that what the announcers achieve is sometimes neither BEnglish nor Maori. Though that may be true it does not affect the argument.