From Wikitravel

I'd love to see this integrated somewhat into the Phrasebook Expedition. -- Evan 17:58, 4 Sep 2003 (PDT)

Also, I moved this article to correct the spelling and so that the capitalization conforms to the article naming conventions. -- Evan 18:01, 4 Sep 2003 (PDT)

[edit] Wikipedia link

I took out the external link to Wikipedia; there's already a twin-page link. See Wikitravel:links to Wikipedia for details. --Evan 08:13, 28 Feb 2004 (EST)

The Maori Wikipedia is a stub. Should it be linked to? -phma 14:09, 29 Feb 2004 (EST)

[edit] Pronunciation Guide

While I've not spent an awful lot of time with the Maori or in New Zealand, I was under the impression that:

Whangarei is said "Fain ga ray"

Whereas:

"wh" as wh in "whale"

should be:

"wh" as f in "fang"

But maybe I'm wrong...

It can make "Whakatane" (Fha ka taa nee) childishly amusing in English... I've even heard NZ college kids making light of it on the radio last week.

Ilkirk 09:28, 2 Aug 2005 (EDT)

Maori is certainly tricky for English speakers to pronounce. As a general rule the words break up into syllables of consonant-vowel pairs. So Whangarei becomes Wh-a ng-a r-e i, though it does tend to sound like Fong AH ray when spoken in English speakers. To make matters worse there is also a variation in dialects between regions. The really tricky sounds are:

• wh - Which sounds like f or even like ph as in photograph.
• ng - sounds like the ng in ping or sing, but with the g part of the sound swallowed or almost unsounded. It is not a natural sound for English speaker as it also gets used at the start and middle of word, not just the end. Some dialect speakers even pronounce the ng almost like k as in kick.

As for Whakatane, it can sound like focker tar knee.... -- Huttite 08:02, 17 Nov 2005 (EST)

[edit] Whangarei

I have lived in NZ for six months. Short time, but long enough to learn that the WHA in Whangarei is truly pronounced more like "Faa" than "Wha" as for example in Whale. Also the example with Whakatane is correct. it is also a clear F sound.

---

Further to this, please review the following... I've lived in NZ my entire life & have found the previous annotations to be somewhat incorrect. Please accept the following as being accurate:

• Whangarei sounds more like Fong ar ray.

• Whakatane sounds more like Fock ar tar neigh.

• Haere mai (Welcome) sounds like High reh My. The 'r' in Haere is rolled.

We notice that people with Scottish accents pick up Maori with ease as many of the sounds (such as Wh) have that harser note to them & they also roll their R's.

Unfortunately I cannot accurately explain in written english how to pronounce the ng as in nga.

Another thing to note is that Maori is spoken relatively quickly as is English in New Zealand.

Hope this helps, Jeremy.

[edit] Stress?

Where does the stress lie in words? Is there a rule? Yes, there is a rule. But I dont remember the website that tells you. Just go look up in... GOOOOGGGGLLLLEEEE!

I read somewhere that NGA in Maori words is said as the NGER in words like singer and banger - where you dont pronounce the ng harshly. So its NOT like finGer... anyway I ended up sitting there saying singer over and over again until I could pronounce nga properly!! When you pick that up, its way easier to say things like Whangarei and Tauranga (although Ngunguru still gets me all tongue twisted!!)