Professor Jeanette King, University of Canterbury. Photo: University of Canterbury, New Zealand
A language expert says New Zealanders who cannot speak te reo Māori are more in tune with it than they probably realise.
A new study at the University of Canterbury has found that non-fluent te reo speakers can define around 70 kupu, or words.
“We’re talking about non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders, people who don't think they know very much about the Māori language, but they can accurately define about 70 common Māori words that we might find, like aroha, whare, haka, waka, words like kia ora and so on,” Professor Jeanette King told Morning Report.
“And that may not seem like a lot, but that's really explicit knowledge. That's knowledge that you know you know.”
The study is part of a larger research project that’s also looking at the implicit te reo knowledge of non-Māori speaking New Zealanders.
Sir Ashley Bloomfield brought the word 'motu' to New Zealanders during his daily Covid-19 briefings. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
“By mere exposure as we grow up in New Zealand, even if we're not studying the language, we're being exposed to a lot of Māori words, and our brain is busy working away and building up a huge knowledge about the sound system of Māori, what sounds go where and how they're placed.
“We’ve also found you can actually activate that knowledge when you start to learn te reo.”
King said more and more te reo Māori words are being used in everyday life in Aotearoa.
“Our research really supports the idea of bilingual road signs,” she said.
“The more we’re exposed to the language, the more we're going to pick up and learn. With Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) coming in three weeks, this is a really good time for people to think ‘well, maybe I should learn a bit more of te reo Māori’.”
King said the study also found that non-fluent New Zealanders were able to identify a Māori word from how it looks.
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Non Maori-speaking New Zealanders are very good at identifying what a real Māori word is compared to a made-up word that could be a Māori word, looks like a Māori word, but isn't.
"And they're also very good at being able to say some words look better, even non-Māori words look better as a Māori word than others. So they know which sounds are more likely to be at the beginnings of words, and how Māori words are shaped and formed. And they don't even know that they know this knowledge.”