Today's rhetorical question

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#2867993 14-Feb-2022 09:59

Geektastic

Why doesn't whanau begin with an f given that it was put into writing by the British?

Maybe the pronunciation changed, or varied by region/iwi. As English has/does.

Mike

frankv

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#2867998 14-Feb-2022 10:08

Geektastic:

Why doesn't whanau begin with an f given that it was put into writing by the British?

There's an actual answer to that... the written Maori language was created in the Whanganui area, where the local dialect pronounces wh in whanau (and other wh words) as a wh sound (like "what" or "where" in English). Official Maori pronunciation is based on the Waikato dialect (presumably because they are/were more numerous and/or the Maori king lives there) who pronounce wh as 'f'. So I guess it would be correct to say "Fanganui" if you were not in Whanganui, but locally you should say "Whanganui". However Whakatane should always be pronounced "Fakatane".

Imagine if the English dictionary was based on the Cockney dialect... the word 'orse' would refer to an equine animal, but beyond the sound of Bow Bells, and on the BBC and Queen's Xmas message it would be pronounced as 'horse'. Kind of the opposite of the silent h in honour, etc.

MikeAqua

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#2868078 14-Feb-2022 10:52

frankv:

Geektastic:

Why doesn't whanau begin with an f given that it was put into writing by the British?

There's an actual answer to that... the written Maori language was created in the Whanganui area, where the local dialect pronounces wh in whanau (and other wh words) as a wh sound (like "what" or "where" in English). Official Maori pronunciation is based on the Waikato dialect (presumably because they are/were more numerous and/or the Maori king lives there) who pronounce wh as 'f'. So I guess it would be correct to say "Fanganui" if you were not in Whanganui, but locally you should say "Whanganui". However Whakatane should always be pronounced "Fakatane".

Imagine if the English dictionary was based on the Cockney dialect... the word 'orse' would refer to an equine animal, but beyond the sound of Bow Bells, and on the BBC and Queen's Xmas message it would be pronounced as 'horse'. Kind of the opposite of the silent h in honour, etc.

Makes sense and the pronunciation of where in NZ English has changed too.

I've also read something written by a Ngati Porou author (in English) that asserts the same thing.

And also found this Te reo Māori pronunciation guide | Māori at the University | Victoria University of Wellington (wgtn.ac.nz)

Imagine if the English dictionary was written in Scouse. I've seen John Bishop (on G Norton Show I think) recount asking an American women "can I come in your house" ...

One of my Grandfathers was Glaswegian - now there's a dialect!

Mike

Handsomedan

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#2868080 14-Feb-2022 10:59

MikeAqua:

Imagine if the English dictionary was written in Scouse. I've seen John Bishop (on G Norton Show I think) recount asking an American women "can I come in your house" ...

One of my Grandfathers was Glaswegian - now there's a dialect!

A Geordie, a Scouser and a Glaswegian walk into a bar...

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

*Gladly accepting donations...

Tinkerisk

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#2869316 16-Feb-2022 06:07

Is Covid over now?

- NET: FTTH, OPNsense, 10G backbone, GWN APs, ipPBX
- SRV: 12 RU HA server cluster, 0.1 PB storage on premise
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neb

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#2869957 16-Feb-2022 22:08

Tinkerisk:
Is Covid over now?

No, but I'm over Covid.

Rikkitic

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#2871940 21-Feb-2022 12:32

Why do people on social media always know so much more than people making the actual decisions?

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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