Language Wars – New Zealand style
The first posting to this blog will focus on the race and
language issue that is bedevilling New Zealand. There are other posts in
progress. Too often the knee-jerk reaction to any criticism of Maori and/or
Non-Maori is that the critic is a racist. We certainly have a racial divide in
New Zealand which has been growing for all manner of reasons.
To me language rates well up the scale in causing division
and feeds into and off many other issues. We have a movement afoot, and
accelerating at present, which is seeking to radically re-engineer the English
language as it is written and spoken in New Zealand (NZ English or NZE).
Where is the evidence? It is all around us on many fronts. Start
with a simple issue - what I call the naming and renaming juggernaut. New
Zealand is constantly being referred to as Aotearoa. Institutions and place
names are being given Maori names which have no relevance whatever to the NZE
name. The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) Maori title is given as Waka
Kotahi. From my basic English/Maori dictionary Waka Kotahi translates as either
Canoe Number One or Vehicle Number One. No doubt there will be a convoluted
story attached to the name Waka Kotahi. And, therein is the greatest weakness
of the Maori language. It is no more than a story-telling language which often
becomes almost untranslatable.
There are numerous examples of this naming juggernaut which,
as the word suggests, is out of control. I visited the Johnsonville library a
while back. As libraries go it works reasonably well. There are of course quite
a number of shelving units. Each carried an NZE category title and a Maori
language word. I could not tell whether the Maori language word was simply a “name”
or truly a category descriptive. I daresay very few library visitors would have
sufficient Maori language fluency – I certainly do not. The main point is that
the Maori language word was the top line in a font much larger, considerably so,
than the NZE title. I don’t get it.
There was concern some time ago in Kapiti where the old main
road was to be given a new series of several Maori names. Question: Why not
name it Old Main Road. For example, Old Mountain Road, New Plymouth. Or Old Renwick
Road, Blenheim. There are any number of named “Old” roads all over New Zealand.
The locals concern was that the proposed Maori names were basically unpronounceable.
As far as I can make out there are no simple naming conventions within the
Maori language. I am not sure whether the naming exercise is actually complete.
Does anyone know where the naming juggernaut and language
push (putsch?) had its beginnings? My understanding of the Maori Language Act
of 2016 is that it carries no provisions for Maori to hold any form of
universal naming rights or to have the right to infect the English language. My
own feeling is that some amorphous collective of Maori language supremacists is
holding sway behind the scenes.
Not only are we being force-fed a Maori language diet via
the naming juggernaut we are now seeing instances, in news write-ups and
broadcasts, of NZE words being routinely replaced by Maori language words.
Often without an accompanying translation. To which point I must ask if the
writer/editor is writing for an NZE readership why is there an overpowering
need to replace perfectly adequate NZE with Maori language words? I pursued
this issue recently with the Media Council and I am planning a later post
dealing with their position.
I am not concerned with established Maori place names and the
relatively small number of Maori words absorbed into general use – apart from
the current deluge that is. Like many NZE speakers I cannot accept any
wide-ranging Maori replacement of English language terms and place names –
especially where such terms and names have stood happily in place for
generations. Dual naming is an excessively clumsy nonsense.
To the matter of pronunciation of Maori language words. Here
again we find the social engineering brigade beating its drums nationwide.
Brainwashing? I am not putting myself out there as a total expert in
linguistics but I feel I have sufficient nous to be able make some sensible
comments. It is a given that all pronunciations of whatever language will change
over time as accents evolve. Today we are being asked to, demanded to, FAKE a
Maori accent when pronouncing any Maori language word, place names or
otherwise. Let me put it on the record, I am not going there. The anglicised
pronunciations have been acceptable and well understood, again for generations,
and were probably used by many Maori.
Question: how many accents/dialects are there in Maori?
Maybe a small number. Do we require Maori to apply an accent when speaking NZE?
Do we expect Asian people to apply an NZE or Maori accent? Put aside the fact
many Asian languages rely on tone to be understood within whichever Asian language
and those tones are hard wired as it were – tonal habits might not be overcome
so easily. If New Zealanders visit another English speaking country are they
expected to mimic that country’s accent? I am told that the Irish take a dim
view of visitors mimicking the local accent. There are endless arguments on
this part and all parts of the language issue.
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