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Thread: Pronunciation guide

  1. #1
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    Dec 2013
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    Default Pronunciation guide

    Does anybody know where I can get a guide to help me pronounce the towns correctly ?

  2. #2
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    Listen to Radio NZ news and weather. Good on you for wanting to get it right

  3. #3
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    Ps - ask for any specifically and we can give you a phonetic breakdown.

  4. #4
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Kanga View Post
    Listen to Radio NZ news and weather. Good on you for wanting to get it right
    That's a great idea . I will try to find that on the internet since I'm still in the USA .

  5. #5
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    This isn't quite you're looking for but it may be of interest: http://www.korero.maori.nz/resources/map.html

  6. #6
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    Don't ask an old Kiwi (like me) because we learned to pronounce the Maori words with a Pakeha slant. Ask the kids - they're learning the correct pronunciation in school.

  7. #7
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    For a speaker of languages other than English, I don't find it too difficult. It's quite a phonetic (like Italian, German, other Polynesian languages) language, I find, so most is pronounced as it is written Except for the odd thing like 'wh' sounding something like 'f', and sometimes the 'au' sounding more like 'ou'.

    I think it also should be considered that not all speakers of Maori pronounce all things the same way, just like you would get regional differences in other languages.

  8. #8
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    The most significant difference is the extent to which it is a syllable-timed language - that often foxes me!

  9. #9
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    A Maori elder once told me that for English-speaking people, think of Maori words as though they were French makes pronunciation easier! Also, there are no dipthongs - i.e. all vowels are pronounced separately - but then sort of merged as you say them. I made some real clangers when I first arrived. My best was probably a road in Tauranga ("Tau" to rhyme with a sound half way between "now" and "toe" and then "ong", "a"). The road was "Poike Road". I pronounced it "poyk" when it should be "po ee kay". It caused a laugh - BUT because I was trying to get it right, everyone was really helpful.

  10. #10
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    There really isn't a right way and a wrong way to pronounce a word in a language foreign to the one you are speaking. If you are speaking English it is quite alright to use English pronunciation or Maori pronunciation, whichever you are happiest with.

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