NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Kahu

Youngsters change shape of te reo Maori

NZ Herald
22 Jul, 2012 05:30 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Marama, Teina, 3, and Paul Davidson are a family who choose to converse in te reo Maori in their Auckland home. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Marama, Teina, 3, and Paul Davidson are a family who choose to converse in te reo Maori in their Auckland home. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Marama, Teina, 3, and Paul Davidson are a family who choose to converse in te reo Maori in their Auckland home. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Researchers say te reo Maori could be shedding vowels as pronunciation of the language changes. And while that is troubling for some, they say it is a sign of a living language.

Native speakers have long bemoaned the changing state of te reo. Associate Professor Jeanette King of Canterbury University led a team of researchers comparing Radio New Zealand and TVNZ archival recordings of men born in the 1880s who were interviewed in the 1940s with kaumatua of today and people born in the 1980s, to see if they could quantify changes.

The project found that the long vowel sounds, a,e,i,o,u, which generally are twice the sound of short vowels a, e, i, o, u, were getting shorter. For the three groups the short sound was measured at 60 milliseconds. The long sounds from the 1940s material typically measured twice as long, but the long sounds spoken by modern kaumatua and young people recorded dramatic decreases in length.

Measurement changes for u and i were the most affected.

The analysis revealed that te reo Maori could eventually have only six vowel sounds - the long a is likely to be retained while the rest of the long vowels may go the way of the moa. Losing the vowels was not likely to lead to confusion, Professor King said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The way second-language learners spoke English was also having an effect on spoken te reo.

"One you always hear, and I get annoyed with my students, is waahi which is said wahi, or timata is pretty much said timata nowadays.

"The point here is that we don't have that short/long distinction in our English vowels. Some vowels are produced a little longer but we just don't have that same sort of pairs of vowels."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Diphthongs, where two vowels are put together for sounds such as ae, and ai, were getting harder to differentiate, so the sounds for ae [yes] and pai [good] sounded the same from some speakers. Rhythms of speech were also changing.

The research paper noted that such was the concern from pockets of kaumatua that some had noted it might be better for the "beautiful" language to die.

"However, the attitudes of older speakers tells us this: If it really didn't matter about how we pronounced a language, older generations wouldn't bother commenting about it. The way we pronounce a language says a lot about who we are."

Professor King said "most of us do like to hear an older person speaking, because we do appreciate the lovely way they sound", but change was a reality for all living languages.

Discover more

Kahu

Poet stuns presenter with te reo

15 Jan 05:09 PM
Kahu

Surprise at number of parents speaking Maori

22 Mar 05:37 PM
Kahu

Jury's out on compulsory use of Maori in court

17 Jul 05:30 PM
Kahu

Te reo masthead to mark Maori Language Week

22 Jul 05:30 PM

Maori had the capacity to absorb this and thrive, she said, but as a way of positively addressing concerns, her team was developing pronunciation aids modelled on native speakers.

-

E ai ki nga kairangahau ka ngaro haere pea nga oro puare o te reo Maori na te rereke haere o te whakahua i te reo, ahakoa he raruraru tenei mo etahi, he tohu ano tenei kei te ora te reo.

Kua roa e amuamu te hunga i tipu ake i roto i te reo mo te rereke haere o te reo.

I arahi te Ahorangi Tuarua a Jeanette King o Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha i tetahi ropu rangahau, ko ta ratau mahi he whakataurite i nga ripene tawhito o Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa me TVNZ o nga tane i whanau mai i nga tau o te 1880 i uiuitia i nga tau 1940 me nga kaumatua o enei ra, tae atu ki te hunga i whanau mai i nga tau o te 1980.

I kitea kei te poto haere nga oro puare roa a, e, i, o, u, e rua pu atu tona roa i nga oro puare poto, a, e, i , o, u. I inea nga oro poto o nga ropu e toru ki te 60 mirihekona. E rua pu atu te roa o nga oro roa o nga kaikorero o tau 1940, engari ko nga oro roa o nga kaumatua onaianei me nga rangatahi he tino poto ake te roa.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Ko nga ine rereketanga nui ko te u me te i. I roto i nga tataritanga i kitea ka whaiti mai pea nga oro puare ki te ono, te ahua nei ka noho tonu te a roa, ka mutu ko etahi atu o nga oro puare roa ka ngaro pera i te moa.

Hei ta Ahorangi King, kaore he porarutanga mena ka ngaro nga oro puare.

He panga ano to te ahua o te korero Ingarihi a te hunga ako i te reo ki te reo Maori.

"Ko tetahi mea e tino rongohia ana, a, ka riri au ki aku akonga, ko te kupu 'wahi' kua'wahi' inaianei, me te kupu 'timata', kua 'timata'. "Ko te mea ke kaore taua rereketanga roa me te poto i nga oro puare reo Ingarihi.

"Kei etahi oro puare he ahua roa ake engari kaore he takirua o nga oro puare o te reo Ingarihi." Ko nga ororua, koinei nga kupu e whakapirihia nga oro puare e rua penei i te 'ae' me te 'ai', a, kua uaua ake nei ki te wehewehe, no reira mo etahi kaikorero he rite tonu te tangi oro mo te 'ae' me te 'pai'.

E rereke haere ano te manawataki o te reo.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Hei ta te pepa rangahau ano na te kaha awangawanga o etahi kaumatua ki te ahua o te reo he pai ake pea kia tukuna te reo 'ataahua' ki te mate.

"Heoi, ko te ahua o nga whakaaro o nga kaikorero pakeke he penei: mena kaore he raruraru mo te ahua o ta tatau whakahua i te reo, kua kore nga pakeke e korero.

He whakamarama tenei mo te ahua o ta tatau whakahua i te reo.

Hei ta Ahorangi King, "he rawe ki te nuinga o tatau te whakarongo ki te pakeke e korero ana na te ataahua o tona reo", engari ahakoa te aha ka rereke haere te reo.

Hei tana ano, kei te Maori tonu te kaha ki te whakatutaki i tenei me te momoho haere ano, heoi ko tetahi huarahi pai hei whakatika i etahi o nga awangawanga ko te waihanga a tona ropu i etahi awhina whakahua e whai ana i nga tauira a nga kaikorero tuturu i te reo.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

19 Jun 06:00 AM
New Zealand

Rotorua chef denies arson of his own home

19 Jun 06:00 AM
New Zealand

Peter Jackson seeks consent to create museum in Shelly Bay

19 Jun 05:21 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
Peter Jackson seeks consent to create museum in Shelly Bay
New Zealand

Peter Jackson seeks consent to create museum in Shelly Bay

19 Jun 05:21 AM
How to celebrate Matariki in Rotorua
Rotorua Daily Post

How to celebrate Matariki in Rotorua

19 Jun 05:01 AM
Hawks retire No 14 to honour the career of Willie Burton
Hawkes Bay Today

Hawks retire No 14 to honour the career of Willie Burton

19 Jun 04:57 AM
Man broke into office, had a coffee then stole two company cars worth $110k
New Zealand

Man broke into office, had a coffee then stole two company cars worth $110k

19 Jun 04:37 AM
Meth, ammunition, homemade taser seized in dawn police raid
Waikato Herald

Meth, ammunition, homemade taser seized in dawn police raid

19 Jun 04:30 AM

Latest from New Zealand

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

19 Jun 06:00 AM

Residents say there is more to the story than Gisborne's economic ranking suggests.

Rotorua chef denies arson of his own home

Rotorua chef denies arson of his own home

19 Jun 06:00 AM
Peter Jackson seeks consent to create museum in Shelly Bay

Peter Jackson seeks consent to create museum in Shelly Bay

19 Jun 05:21 AM
Premium
‘Ardern lives in exile’: Jones attacks gas ban, calls for apology in fiery hearing

‘Ardern lives in exile’: Jones attacks gas ban, calls for apology in fiery hearing

19 Jun 05:00 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search