{"id":6781,"date":"2019-09-13T15:31:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T15:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.utalk.com\/news\/?p=6781"},"modified":"2021-09-17T15:45:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T14:45:58","slug":"kia-ora-how-are-you-the-curious-case-of-new-zealand-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/kia-ora-how-are-you-the-curious-case-of-new-zealand-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Kia ora, how are you?: The Curious Case of New Zealand English"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This week is Te Wiki o Te Reo M\u0101ori, or M\u0101ori Language Week, in New Zealand and around the world. As one of New Zealand\u2019s official languages (alongside English and New Zealand Sign Language), M\u0101ori holds an important position and efforts to revitalise the language are proving successful. But what are the consequences of having two spoken languages in such close contact with one another?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English is notorious for having borrowed words from other languages. Tea, beef, coffee\u2026<\/em> Around 80% of all vocabulary in English is borrowed from other languages<\/a> and while this is mostly from Latin, it turns out M\u0101ori ranks pretty highly (fourteenth!) on the list of languages influencing English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, one of the most obvious loanwords from M\u0101ori is the word \u2018kiwi\u2019\u2014though New Zealanders do not actually use this term to refer to the fruit. In the early 1900s, it was called a \u2018Chinese gooseberry\u2019 in New Zealand; now, they use the word \u2018kiwifruit\u2019 (yes, all one word).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kiwi bird got its name in M\u0101ori because \u2018kiwi\u2019 is the onomatopoeia of the bird\u2019s call. Until the First World War, the kiwi only represented the country, not the people who lived there, but by 1917, New Zealanders were being called \u2018kiwi\u2019 too, and the nickname has gone on to stick. It is perhaps the one M\u0101ori loanword used around the world with speakers having little-to-no idea of its origins, which shows just how widely languages can spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why does English borrow words from M\u0101ori?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Well, most of the time when two languages come into contact, the more dominant language\u2014i.e., the one spoken by a higher number of native speakers\u2014tends to be the one that generally retains its original form. Words are usually borrowed to identify new concepts and finer distinctions of meaning, and with the role that more dominant languages have in technology, government institutions, and public life in general, this means that words are borrowed from the dominant language into the minority one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, because of the way that Europeans, especially European missionaries, first came into contact with the M\u0101ori people, things have evolved a little differently in New Zealand. When P\u0101hek\u0101 (this term refers to New Zealanders of European descent) missionaries first arrived, the M\u0101ori were the dominant population on the island. For the most part, the M\u0101ori people and P\u0101hek\u0101 missionaries worked side-by-side, with the M\u0101ori providing much-needed help with farming and the P\u0101hek\u0101 missionaries developing a way of writing the M\u0101ori language down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1830s, more and more M\u0101ori began to turn to Christianity and, with the development of a language and written standard for M\u0101ori, literacy began to increase. It is believed that, at this time, there were more literate M\u0101ori than non-M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the introduction of new diseases to the island meant that the M\u0101ori population began to decline drastically and by 1858, non-M\u0101ori settlers outnumbered the indigenous M\u0101ori population. These numbers have not recovered\u2014people of M\u0101ori descent make up 15% of New Zealand\u2019s population today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This population decrease\u2014as well as pressures for M\u0101ori people to not speak te reo<\/em> (the language)\u2014also led to a downward turn in the use of the M\u0101ori language and by the 1970s, it was in danger of disappearing completely. However, initiatives such as k\u014dhanga reo (M\u0101ori-language pre-schools), kura (schools), and w\u0101nanga (universities) have been set up to revive the language, which, while still endangered,<\/a><\/strong> has seen an upswing in use in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the M\u0101ori were the dominant population on the island when the P\u0101hek\u0101 first arrived, it meant that many M\u0101ori words for the indigenous plants and animals were borrowed into English, rather than the P\u0101hek\u0101 coming up with new ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means, for example, all varieties of English have the following words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n