Originally Posted by
Tia Maria
I don't get it?
Are you saying that any right wing Maoris, or left wing lower and upper class Maoris don't like to use original pronounciations?
Cheers
Tia
I think James is referring to the PC element to the whole Maori pronunciation issue. There's loads of different ways to pronounce the same word, and I'm sure different Maori at various points in time have used different words and pronunciations to describe the same place. Then Europeans arrived and introduced new names, or pronounced the Maori names in a different way. For goodness sake, the word "Maori" itself wasn't used until after Europeans arrived. Language and placenames evolve, so there is no "right" way to pronounce words like "Taupo".
Choosing an arbitrary pronunciation as being more authentic than others is simply done to make a political point about recognising Maori culture more than anything else. While I actually agree with the political point, trying to advance it in this way is just plain silly.