The Ecological Touchstones of Our Identity

Te Reo Māori The understanding, practice and strengthening of Te Reo Māori is an important component to the theoretical basis of this thesis, but also is a practice which I personally feel, as the author, is important to the whole of New Zealand as we work towards a more knowledgeable society.

With this as a driver I have endeavoured to try to communicate Māori language and structure using correct ‘pronunciation’ through the correct use of macrons. Macrons indicate an emphasis and elongation of the vowel in question, which completely changes the meaning and pronunciation of many words within Te Reo Māori. In other systems, this emphasis is sometimes indicated by doubling the vowel in question (eg. “Maaori”), but more frequently it is left out completely.

After beginning my foray into learning Te Reo, I was quite surprised how often macrons are left out in everyday literature when the removal of the macron utterly changes the meaning of the word. Yet this discrepancy can still be seen in many places, from books through to magazines and newspaper articles, even road signs, To alleviate any confusion that may have arisen from switching between quoted text which has no macrons with text which does, I have taken the rather presumptuous approach of inserting macrons into Māori words which I know should be macroned, but because of societal inclinations and/or technical hindrances, have not been.

To do this I have used my personal knowledge, my trusty ‘Raupō Dictionary of Modern Māori’ by P.M Ryan, and called upon my esteemed Te Reo tutor Rob every so often.

I apologise if placing macrons where necessary, in quoting other peoples’ work, seems cheeky This is not my intention. I do so only to try and help produce some clarity on correct pronunciation and representation of the written (and thereby spoken) word. This is, I hope, a mini contribution to the Māori culture, and the strengthening of Te Reo as a living language within New Zealand Aotearoa.