Dialects of Aotearoa
July 28, 2009 16:27
By Georgie Fenwicke
Seeing as we are a relatively small country – our surface area of 268 680 km² hardly compares to Russia's 17 075 400 km² – it may come as something of a surprise to learn that Te Reo Maori, Aotearoa's indigenous language, actually has several dialects. The result of centuries of regional isolation and its origins in various Pacific Islands, Te Reo Maori is a language marked by diversity and adaptation. Over the past one thousand years, the Maori language has undergone many social and cultural changes. From different tribal groups to the introduction of Europeans, Maori has gone from being the dominant tongue of Aotearoa to an increasingly threatened language – and now heading back again. With Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori upon us, Critic talked to various Maori language authorities around campus about the language’s various dialects and what Te Reo will look like in the years to come.
It's a cultural thing
In any culture, language is the medium through which history, customs, dreams, and knowledge are communicated. This is as true of Te Reo Maori as it is for English, Cantonese, Russian, and even Zulu. With language come the stories and ideas that in turn account for a population's identity and sense of belonging. It is said that the Maori language is sacred, given to their ancestors by the gods long ago. It is through the discourse of language that Maori are able to know the will, mind, and power of the gods.
Ancient Maori ancestors believed that two sacred reo existed: reo rauriki, the language of Ranginui (the Sky Father) and the gods, and reo reiuru, the language of Papatuanuku (Mother Earth). Rauriki is said to instill prayers with divine essence, so that the speaker could establish within himself or herself the power of the word that carried the message of the gods who gave instructions from realms beyond. On the other hand, the language of reiuru gave mankind the power to communicate with various creatures of the earth (birds, fish and trees), all the offspring of Papatuanuku. In whaikorero, or formal speech-making, both of these sacred reo are addressed, in the “acknowledgement of those who have passed on” and the “acknowledgement of Mother Earth.” Reiuru is also the sacred reo of women, which enables them to communicate with the spirit world when they perform a karanga on the marae. Furthermore, it is important to note that the use of this language is a mark of a person's power and authority within Maori culture and should not be abused. While Maori is said to be a gift from the gods and is used in many formal situations, its use is not confined to formal occasions. As Tumuaki (President) of Te Roopu Maori (TRM – the Maori Students' Association) at the University of Otago, Fallyn Flavell actively promotes the use of Maori in all situations. In her flat, Flavell and her flatmates have made it a rule that every Wednesday they must speak Maori to each other. “Maori is a very easy language to lose if you stop speaking it on a regular basis, so we delegate a day to using it,” she explains.
The languages of Aotearoa
Te Reo Maori is a member of the Eastern branch of the Polynesian language family. Maori may be understood to varying degrees by speakers of Hawaiian, Rarotongan, and Tahitian. It is even said that when Captain Cook voyaged to Aotearoa in 1769, he was able to communicate with the native inhabitants via a Tahitian interpreter known as Tupaea. Within Aotearoa, linguists identify three distinct dialectical divisions; those of the Western North Island, Eastern North Island, and the South Island. Within each of these divisions are further tribal and regional variations.
The three dialects differ mostly at the lexical, phonetic, and idiomatic levels – that is, they mainly vary in terms of the pronunciation of words. In the North Island, some speakers in the Wanganui and Taranaki regions use a glottacised pronunciation of “wh,” hence the controversy surrounding the spelling and pronunciation of “Wanganui” versus “Whanganui.” In the South Island, the “ng” sound is increasingly replaced with a “k” sound. For instance, the South Island tribe Ngai Tahu is recorded in many government documents as Kai Tahu, and Aotearoa's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, is also known in the South Island as the Treaty of Waitaki. According to Dr. Poia Rewi, a senior lecturer/Pukenga Matua of Maori at the University of Otago, the North Island dialect originating in the Mataatua, Te Arawa, and Tai Rawhiti regional areas is considered the standard by modern speakers of Maori, with various government and social institutions using it in favour of the South Island dialect. Recently, however, the Southern lexicon has gained acceptance with the change in name of Aotearoa's tallest mountain, Aorangi/Mount Cook, to the more appropriate title of Aoraki/Mount Cook.
Then and now
Despite these phonetic and lexical variations, fluent Maori speakers have little trouble understanding a conversation in any part of the country. However, dialect differences do cause problems for semi-speakers. In the 1970s, it was recognised that the survival of the Maori language was under threat because of its declining use within families. As recently as 2001, the Survey of the Health of the Maori Language, carried out by the Maori Language Commission, reported that there were only 29 000 Maori adults (nine percent of the population) who were very fluent speakers of Te Reo Maori. Since then, the same survey was carried out again in 2006 with more positive results. As the report suggests, there have been significant gains in proficiency levels across all language skills. Moreover, the number of people actively using their language-speaking skills in the home and community domains has increased.
With the introduction of Maori as one of the three official national languages of Aotearoa in 1987 and the various recovery programmes of the 1980s, many of which were targeted at young people and the education system, Te Reo Maori language has experienced a period of renaissance and recovery. It was standardised in 1980s, meaning regional variations would no long hinder the learning process of those who were not completely confident speakers. Since standardisation and such initiatives as the Kohunga Reo movement, the number of fluent Maori speakers has increased significantly. In the national census undertaken in 2006, 157 000 people recorded themselves as speakers of Maori, of which approximately 50 000 are understood to be fluent and the other 100 000 able to understand the language but not hold a conversation.
As well as continuing to encourage further education of the standard version of Te Reo Maori, it is also becoming increasingly important for dialectic differences to be acknowledged. As Dr. Rewi points out, “Over the last six or seven years, the tribal variations of the Maori language have become more important.” He goes on to describe that tribal working groups have been working on collecting the vocabulary and pronunciation of their individual tribal dialects. “In two to three generations,” he predicts, “tribal variations in the Maori language will be used more frequently.”
What a difference a century makes
With the advent of Maori television, radio, and interactive computer games, awareness of Te Reo Maori has grown significantly. As Rewi points out, “The more exposure you have to the language, the better.” Nowadays, Maori may be used in the classroom or the living room; however, that has not always been the case. An 1867 decree forbade schools from using Maori in favour of teaching solely in English, to the extent that children were punished for using Maori at school and their parents were discouraged from speaking Maori at home. Despite this, up until World War Two, Maori was still a dynamic language; however with the urbanisation of the Maori population, English was soon regarded as the more valuable language. Before the war, about 75 percent of Maori lived in rural areas; two decades later, around 60 percent lived in the urban centres. With English, one could gain possessions, respect, an education, and better living conditions. Increasingly, Maori was seen as a language of the past and many people began to abandon it.
Nowadays, however, all that is a changing. In 2003, the M?ori Television Service Act was passed in Parliament and by March of 2004, the channel was already broadcasting. Carol Hirschfeld of Campbell Live fame is set to take over the position as the head of programming at Maori Television in August. Alongside the television channel, there are also 21 Maori radio stations nationwide, funded by the Maori Broadcasting Agency, Te Mangai Paho. TRM Tumuaki Fallyn Flavell believes that this use of media is incredibly beneficial. She explains that “In the past, there has been a struggle to get the Maori language into the media.” With the help of Maori Television and radio, people who want to learn or maintain their knowledge of Te Reo can more easily do so. She also highlights such positive initiatives as the Te Reo Maori menu option on Bank of New Zealand ATMs, and the Google feature that allows one to translate English and Maori.
Originating in Eastern Polynesia many millennia ago, the Maori language is today best known in its standardised form, which is based on the Northern dialect of the Mataatua, Te Arawa, and Tai Rawhiti regional areas. While this dialect is the most commonly used, there are also other tribal and regional variations that exist throughout the country. There is a notable difference between the North and South Island dialects. Now that the language has almost recovered from the near collapse it faced in the 1970s, the promotion of Maori and its individual variants is the next step in furthering the knowledge surrounding Maori culture. More and more Maori and Pakeha are picking up the language, and technology is doing its part in aiding them. With the introduction of Maori television and radio, more people are able to access Maori language resources on an everyday basis. Gifted from the gods long ago, language is central to the Maori culture. The ties between Maori culture and the Maori language are impossible to distinguish. Through it, Maori are able to communicate with past generations, the objects and animals that occupy Papatuanuku's realm, and even the spirit world.
