Five things every Kiwi should know about te reo

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Te reo Māori is one of our three national languages, but that doesn't mean we know anything about it.

Can we all count to five and say 'hello'? Of course, but most of us can do that in French too.

Here are five things you should definitely know about the language that's used to name much of our country.

How many people speak it?

In the 2013 census, 145,356 Kiwis said they could hold a conversation in te reo Māori - that's just 3.25 percent. Of those, 125,352 were ethnically Māori - just over a fifth of the total Māori population.

There were 8,436 people who said they spoke only Māori. Older Māori were considerably more likely to speak te reo, and the rate of fluency had dropped somewhat in the last decade.

How do the macrons work?

Māori vowels can be long and short, but instead of just doubling up on them like they would in english (think 'ten' and 'teen'), macrons are used to designate longer vowels. Thus, 'Māori' instead of 'Maaori'. This page has a handy guide to setting up macron usage on your computer.

Where did Māori come from?

In both its structure and vocabulary, Māori is directly related to several Pacific languages, particularly those from eastern Polynesia. The vocabulary link - words, not grammar - is the most clear, with obvious similarities between Hawaiian and Cook Island Māori. Te reo sits under the 'Tahitic' branch of Polynesian languages, which themselves sit in the broader 'Austronesian' family.

But even with ancient roots, no living language is fixed, frozen, or immortal. European settlement in New Zealand prompted vast changes in te reo, and almost eradicated it altogether.

Waikato, Hongi Hika, and Thomas Kendall, who together created one of the first Māori dictionaries, c. 1820. Credit: Barry, James, Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: G-618_

Early European settlers arrived to an unwritten but vibrant language of at least three dialects.

'It was absolutely thriving without the written word,' says Māori academic Karena Kelly. The dialects were numerous, with several existing within the same tribe, but mutually intelligible.

At first, Europeans learned the language, and made scattershot attempts to establish a written version for other colonists to learn from.

QUIZ: Do you know your te reo numbers?

Chiefs Honga Hika and Waikato travelled with Thomas Kendall to Cambridge University in England, where they completed A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand in 1820. This foundational text was tested by settlers and missionaries, and by 1852 modern written te reo had been established.

Māori took to the written world with great aplomb.

'At one point in time there were 39 Māori language newspapers running, that were highly topical, that talked about literally anything and everything,' says Māori academic and member of the Waitangi Tribunal Rawinia Higgins.

'Today we have none.'

An early version of the Māori alphabet from 'A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand'. The 'wh' sound was added later. Credit: Hocken Collections, University of Otago_

This corpus of text was particularly useful as a source when the language neared extinction in the years to come.

'We've got this trove of recordings of the Māori language as it was used by people who considered it their first language, their primary language, who were far less likely to be influenced by the forms and functions of the English language,' says Kelly, who has extensively researched the ways in which English has influenced te reo.

'A lot of people are accepting of language change as necessary. Vocabulary, you know - we need to words to talk about things that weren't around in the early 1800s,' Kelly says.

'But there's very little discussion about how these new words might be used in Māori sentences, how they might make sense.'

New Zealand Governor Sir George Gray. Credit: Alexander Turnbull Library._

Why did it almost die?

After initially learning the language, missionaries and settlers slowly moved to eradicate it. Missionary schools, which aimed to 'civilise', devalued Māori constantly. Sir George Gray's Education Ordinance of 1847 made sure that all schooling took place in English, and a raft of later legislation formalised English the primary language of the state.

Māori were not wholly opposed to the rise of English in New Zealand. In Parliament, Sir Āpirana Ngata famously called for 'English, English, English' to be taught to children, as it was seen to be the language of the future, of modernisation and prosperity.

'At the time he never thought the language would die in the homes,' Higgins says.

'You would always have this balance of biculturalism and bilingualism. But of course, when you make English the dominant language for education and instruction it has the effect of 'our children won't succeed at school, therefore we should adopt it at home'.

Sir Āpirana Ngata c. 1905. Credit: Alexander Turnbull Library_

Around the turn of the twentieth century the 'direct method' began to be employed in schools, where teachers would actively avoid learning the native language of a pupil, occasionally even punishing them for speaking it.

'We were in danger of losing the language altogether,' Kelly says.

Pakeha began to outnumber Māori. Urban migration and 'pepper-potting' isolated Māori from their culture and language. Many assumed the language was on the cusp of dying out, with some Europeans assuming it would be no great loss.

But Māori students had other ideas. After growing up speaking only English, many sought out te reo in their university years. Māori language societies were established at universities in the 1970s, and the renaissance began. A petition of 30,000 signatures called for te reo to be offered in schools, Māori Language Week was initiated in 1975, and there were calls for a Māori broadcaster.

A Treaty of Waitangi claim that Māori be treated as a 'taonga' or treasure was followed by the Māori Language Act of 1987, making Māori an official language.

The 1972 petition is presented to Parliament. Photo: Auckland Star._

Why is it so important to save?

This week is Māori Language Week, but next week is not. For 51 weeks of the year it is easy to avoid hearing a single Māori phrase that isn't a place name or 'kia ora'. Why should we work to bring this language - which is only spoken by a minority of New Zealanders - to the fore?

'It's strange I think, that New Zealand is one of those few remaining corners of the globe where monolingualism is an accepted norm,' Kelly says.

'Learning your own language - whether that's one you're related to through Whakapapa or one you just feel connected to through your connection to New Zealand - it makes you walk a little bit prouder, stand a little bit taller, and I think that's a beautiful thing.

'It's what makes us distinctive,' says Higgins.

'It defines the landscape and therefore defines us a people. Te reo should be embraced in that manner, as part of identity as New Zealanders, not just Māori, all New Zealanders.'

Maori is taught to schoolchildren at the Waiwhetu School bilingual unit in 1991.

Credit: Mark Coote/The Dominion Post Collection. Alexander Turnbull Library. Ref: EP/1991/2155/3-F_