(08-06-2023, 08:41 PM)Roscoe Wrote: I have been in Auckland since 1964, nearly 60 years and in all that time the name of the gulf has always been pronounced as it is written - The howraki gulf, but TVNZ, in particular, call it The Hoerukee Golf.
Firstly I was taught at school that the maoris had no written language so the colonists wrote it down for them and they wrote it as they heard it so if they heard "hoerukee" why did they write "Hauraki"? But is there really a correct way to pronounce maori? That may not be the case as I also learnt at school that there were different dialects all over the country. So who decides which dialect is the "correct" dialect?
Secondly, TVNZ and other radio and tv announcers don't seem to know the difference between gulf and golf and usually pronounce gulf as golf.
And when talking pronunciation, it's surprising how many people say "pronounciation." The word is pronounced as it is written.
There are also another two words that people don't know the difference between and they are woman and women. It is surprising how many people pronounce the two words the same - woman and woman, whereas women is pronounced wimmen.
Unfortunately, people seem to be taking on the American pronunciation of many words as well as the American spelling. Let's face it, the Americans have their own brand of English as we do but we seem to be losing our unique Kiwi brand of English and many are pronouncing and spelling the American way. Our ancestors came mainly from the UK and brought their particular dialect with them, but these days the American way seems to be influencing the way many people speak which is a pity really. Personally I am a Kiwi and I have no desire to become an American.
I saw this the other day but forgot to come back.
I have had a number of "lessons" in Maori pronunciation from school and on through my working life. We were taught the consonants and vowels and how the sounds of the dipthongs merge to create their own sound. Then it all fell to bits when today's Maori speakers seem to break all the basics and have come up with stilted sounds that simply sound wrong. If you listen carefully to someone actually speaking Maori there is quite a bit of variation and you will hear the sounds we were taught. I think change stems from Maori "leaders" trying to assert dominance and newsreaders trying to be PC which then gets picked up by others. So H a u raki becomes Hoe raki and T a u ra nga becomes Toe wrong a.
Same with the "wh" sound. If the missionaries who translated the language into a written form had heard an "f" they would have put that into the alphabet. They didn't. They heard a "wh" sound which in fact is varied according to dialect and approaches "f" in the East Cape area or "h" in Northland, but is never really "f" or "h" but always a "wh".