Ngā Hapa Reo Common Māori Language Errors
by Hona Black & Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell
He pukapuka pai rawa atu tēnei. This is a very good book. He aha ai? Why? Because it – across six sections – cogently sets out what the title expresses, namely common language errors made by people who speak and write te reo Māori, from novices, through to experienced veterans.
It is also a frustrating book, precisely because it is so cogent and well-organised. Why? Because it pointedly, through several examples per error, displays exactly how te reo Māori should be articulated, and it brought home to me, for example, that I continue to make mistakes, especially with ‘Errors in the postponed particle’ (section four), while I am still not good at incorporating correctly some of the appropriate grammar outlined in section two. This concise resource, then, while a treasure is also – for me at least – rather riling because I realise when reading through it, that I do make several of the errors!
All the more rationale to deleve into Ngā Hapa Reo every day, eh!
Now, there is also something key that the authors stress, and that is the rather pernicious influence that te reo Ingarihi (English language) has had and continues to have on te reo Māori. Something I have consistently stated for a long time, as I am a strong critic of the ongoing linguistic imperialism brought about by agents of the English language on Indigenous tongues globally and have written extensively about this.
Thus, Black and Murphy-Bell in their section three, articulate the following about errors caused by the influence of English on Māori, ‘These errors originate from the English language and its associated Western ways of thinking, where Māori speakers have taken these thoughts and translated them. We could probably say that the thinking is English, the world view is English, the stucture is English, but the language of communication is Māori’ – resulting in an incorrect language structure. A specific example of this tenet?
Put your shoes on
Incorrect: Purua ō hū ki runga
Correct: Kuhuna ō hū
As the authors state about such an inaccuracy, ‘This error is also one that highlights a Pākehā thought or structure being conveyed in Māori’. Because the verb ‘kuhu’ means ‘to put on’ and there is no need for another or additional ‘on’. Te tika!
Finally here, there is also a valuable appendix to this litany of common errors, whereby macrons (ngā tohutō) are carefully ascribed – or not – to over 100 words, whereby some words do not have macrons yet are still mistakenly granted them, while more words are utilised incorrectly because they should have these.
‘Tangohia tēnei pukapuka (Accept this book).’ It is a great and timely companion to my copy of Complete Manual of Māori Grammar and Conversation, revised and enlarged edition by A.T. Ngata, who also succinctly expresses my own actions now with regard to Black and Murphy-Fell’s pedagogic gem, with ‘Kotahi anō tāku ako i ia rā, i ia rā (I take a lesson every day).’
He kahurangi. Tēnā kōrua.
by Hona Black & Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell
He pukapuka pai rawa atu tēnei. This is a very good book. He aha ai? Why? Because it – across six sections – cogently sets out what the title expresses, namely common language errors made by people who speak and write te reo Māori, from novices, through to experienced veterans.
It is also a frustrating book, precisely because it is so cogent and well-organised. Why? Because it pointedly, through several examples per error, displays exactly how te reo Māori should be articulated, and it brought home to me, for example, that I continue to make mistakes, especially with ‘Errors in the postponed particle’ (section four), while I am still not good at incorporating correctly some of the appropriate grammar outlined in section two. This concise resource, then, while a treasure is also – for me at least – rather riling because I realise when reading through it, that I do make several of the errors!
All the more rationale to deleve into Ngā Hapa Reo every day, eh!
Now, there is also something key that the authors stress, and that is the rather pernicious influence that te reo Ingarihi (English language) has had and continues to have on te reo Māori. Something I have consistently stated for a long time, as I am a strong critic of the ongoing linguistic imperialism brought about by agents of the English language on Indigenous tongues globally and have written extensively about this.
Thus, Black and Murphy-Bell in their section three, articulate the following about errors caused by the influence of English on Māori, ‘These errors originate from the English language and its associated Western ways of thinking, where Māori speakers have taken these thoughts and translated them. We could probably say that the thinking is English, the world view is English, the stucture is English, but the language of communication is Māori’ – resulting in an incorrect language structure. A specific example of this tenet?
Put your shoes on
Incorrect: Purua ō hū ki runga
Correct: Kuhuna ō hū
As the authors state about such an inaccuracy, ‘This error is also one that highlights a Pākehā thought or structure being conveyed in Māori’. Because the verb ‘kuhu’ means ‘to put on’ and there is no need for another or additional ‘on’. Te tika!
Finally here, there is also a valuable appendix to this litany of common errors, whereby macrons (ngā tohutō) are carefully ascribed – or not – to over 100 words, whereby some words do not have macrons yet are still mistakenly granted them, while more words are utilised incorrectly because they should have these.
‘Tangohia tēnei pukapuka (Accept this book).’ It is a great and timely companion to my copy of Complete Manual of Māori Grammar and Conversation, revised and enlarged edition by A.T. Ngata, who also succinctly expresses my own actions now with regard to Black and Murphy-Fell’s pedagogic gem, with ‘Kotahi anō tāku ako i ia rā, i ia rā (I take a lesson every day).’
He kahurangi. Tēnā kōrua.
Review by Vaughan Rapatahana
Title: Ngā Hapa Reo Common Māori Language Errors
Author: Hona Black & Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell
Publisher: Oratia Books
ISBN: 978-1-99-004259-1
RRP: $39.99
Available: bookshops, www.oratia.co.nz
Author: Hona Black & Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell
Publisher: Oratia Books
ISBN: 978-1-99-004259-1
RRP: $39.99
Available: bookshops, www.oratia.co.nz
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