New Zealand has 2 official languages - English and Maori. The majority of us aren't bilingual, but we understand words and phrases - most of our countries towns, rivers, lakes, mountains, islands and beaches are Maori names, so really we are speaking the language everyday.
Pronunciation has changed over the years as the lazy European way to say things is frowned upon....easy for the youngsters, harder for me who may have pronounced something a certain way for decades, then has to change.
Now we have spelling changes. For a few years Wanganui has been an issue, local Maori want it changed to Whanganui (wh is spoken as F)...but actually both spellings are correct, so has been made optional.
And now in a local election pamphlet delivered yesterday I see the word Maori spelled as Maaori. I have heard nothing about this, but it appears it's now considered correct. They did use the little dash above the a, but I guess that's hard for people to do ( I can't do it on my computer easily). So now I'll have to get used to a word I've seen and spelled a certain way all my life, turn into another word that looks different but sounds the same.
Pronunciation has changed over the years as the lazy European way to say things is frowned upon....easy for the youngsters, harder for me who may have pronounced something a certain way for decades, then has to change.
Now we have spelling changes. For a few years Wanganui has been an issue, local Maori want it changed to Whanganui (wh is spoken as F)...but actually both spellings are correct, so has been made optional.
And now in a local election pamphlet delivered yesterday I see the word Maori spelled as Maaori. I have heard nothing about this, but it appears it's now considered correct. They did use the little dash above the a, but I guess that's hard for people to do ( I can't do it on my computer easily). So now I'll have to get used to a word I've seen and spelled a certain way all my life, turn into another word that looks different but sounds the same.
