While I'm not watching from Aotearoa, I originally come from a place called Karaka in the Auckland region. Karaka, by the way, is Māori for orange, so I guess it's quite appropriate I watch from the Netherlands.
Te Tai o Aorere is the original name of Tasman Bay. Te Tai is the tide or sea, o is of, and Aorere is ao, cloud or mist, and rere is flying or swift moving.
Fun fact about place names in New Zealand: The music group, OMC, originally started off as Otara Millionaires Club, in reference to the Auckland suburb of Otara. This is actually a tongue-in-cheek joke about the fact that Otara is one of Auckland's poorest suburbs. (Also, sorry if I said "Otara" too many times.)
A note on pronunciation, in New Zealand, you don't pronounce the land in Northland or Southland as 'land' but more like 'lind'. One of the eccentricities of the New Zealand accent, I guess.
Fun fact when the settlers came into the Dunedin harbor they asked the local iwi (tribe) what is this area called and they replied with this area is called Otaku which translates to East side of the harbor so the entire Otago region is named after the East side of the Dunedin harbor
Fun fact: The regions in Aotearoa are setup around drainage basins. E.g. Water in the Manawatū-Whanganui region drains into either the Wanganui river or Manawatū river (or some smaller river between them). This caused some trouble for a small settlement called Whangamōmona where the water drains to Whangnui but where the residents identify with the Stratford district of Taranaki, so the declared independence as a bit of joke.
There is a weird exception to this rule in Top of the South, the Buller river runs from Tasman to The West Coast and I don't know why the region boundary is like this. Top of South is just generally confusing to me... Like why is the city of Nelson its own region? Nelson and Tasman regional councils collaborate a lot anyway Tasman has a tiny population, why have they never been formally joined together?
A few district councils break this rule - ie the boundary between Waimakiriri and Christchurch is the Waimakiriri River. But you are right - most boundaries in New Zealand are along watershed lines, all based around drainage basins. The town of Waiuku always entertains me as it sits atop a hill, with a little slither of the south end of the town being in the Waikato region, just because that's where the puddles drain to when it rains 😅
Kind of. They tried to tweak the regional councils boundaries, so they all more like water catchment areas. They even split Waitaki District Council so bits are in Otago and some is in Canterbury.
I'd always wondered if this was the case, and suspected it might be why Manawatū-Whanganui wasn't split into seperate regions despite its comparatively larger size to all the others. I'm glad it's the case, though, because there's nothing more tiresome than petty quarrels between mid-level government over disagreements regarding their mutual waterways.
Thanks for putting this together - FYI, some dialects of te reo Māori, "WH" makes the sound of "F", and "AU" always makes the sound "O" as is "toe". Bonus pronunciation trick for you: if you see a macron over a vowel, elongate that vowel - you'll find it makes finding the right syllable to accentuate way easy. Thanks again for this - it was really interesting. I love learning about the indigenous names of the things around me - they are far more authentic.
The area called 'The Far North' in Northland, (creative, I know), has the name 'Te Hiku o Te Ika,' meaning 'The Tail of The Fish.' This fish, of course being Te Ika a Maui, the North Island.
Quick point, The greater wellington region is called Te Upoko o te Ika in Māori translating to the head of the fish, opposed to the actual city of wellington's official māori name which is Te Whanganui-a-tara. Although it doesn't actually mean anything i've always been a fan of the other māori name of wellington Pōneke which is a transliteration of Port Nicholson making it meaningless but it seems to be the preferred translation by the city council, probably because it's shorter and encompasses areas outside of the harbour. Edit: it could also possibly be a shortened version of Po nekeneke reffering to when Te Ati Awa left what is now Pipitea in central Wellington or "Moving during the night" [According to the national library]
Just a heads up in the name pronunciation the wh makes an f sound and the vowels with a line above it make a long sound kind of like the difference between look and lock in english
Although many pronounce it as an f sound nowadays, it wasn't originally, otherwise the Europeans who created the Maori alphabet would've used an f to represent that sound. It's supposed to be a voiceless bilabial fricative, which used to be used in English words like "what" and "where" but no longer exists in most dialects of English including New Zealand. As this sound no longer exists in New Zealand, the voiceless labiodental fricative (f) is often used, especially by younger Maori.
@@TomRNZ I'm no linguist, but from the explanations I've heard, it's more of a partway between that old fashioned "wh" sound you mention and the typical f sound. I've always thought of it as starting off with the wh and as you blow out you give it a bit more to bring through the f sound at the end. Could be wrong but I think there's a reason the younger Māori prefer people to just go with the f pronunciation because it's close enough
@@rorybessell8280 I'm not saying that pronouncing it as an "f" is necessarily wrong, anymore than I would say that pronouncing "wh" as a "w" is wrong in present day English. Pronunciation evolves over time. Not many people (including me) pronounce the "wh" in words like "what" anymore, but both pronunciations are correct. But linguistically, it doesn't make a lot of sense to assume that the pronunciation initially was an f sound. The Maori were a preliterate people, and so the alphabet had to be invented for them so that their language could be written. The Latin alphabet with English pronunciation was used, and as far as I'm aware (and I'm happy to be corrected), there is no dialect of English that pronounces the "wh" digraph as a voiceless labiodental fricative. The closest I can think of is Scots, where I think some dialects can pronounce this digraph as a voiceless labiodental fricative, but Scots is considered (although this is debated) to be a separate language to English. Every other letter (or digraph) in the Maori alphabet corresponds to the same sound in English except for "wh". So the question is, if it sounded like an "f", why wasn't it written as one? Or at least use the digraph "ph" which has also come to represent the voiceless labiodental fricative in English. The "wh" in Maori probably didn't sound exactly like the "wh" in "what" or "where" in English either, but it would've been closer to it than it is to an "f".
@@TomRNZ I think you're arguing something I wasn't meaning. I think you're pretty much spot on. My only point is that when I've heard a how to pronounce thing it has been a mix between the f and the wh as opposed to a pure wh sound. Idk anything about the linguistic descriptions tbh but what I've heard is you sort start off like a posh person saying "where" but instead of completing the sound in the same manner, you try and emphasise the end of the sound and it sounds like an almost halfway point between the wh you've described and the f sound. Which means they're both technically wrong but both wrong only subtly and each is a reasonable approximate
@@rorybessell8280 Sorry, Rory, I wasn't really arguing. Just expanding on my point. It was, as you say, unlikely either sound exactly, and it was probably a sound that doesn't exist in English. It's always difficult to explain a sound that doesn't exist in a language. You inevitable end up saying something like, "The ñ in Spanish sounds like the ny in 'canyon'", even though it doesn't, but we don't have exactly the same sound in English.
Manawa = Breath Tū = halted Manawatū = Halted Breath. Hau’s breath came to a halt when he reached this river because it was and still is a chilly river.
As others have mentioned, it was a good effort with your Māori pronunciation and much appreciated. Interestingly, your attempt at the ⟨wh⟩ sound, which was traditionally a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ] but is now typically a labiodental [f] among younger or urban speakers, ends up producing a voiceless labial-velar fricative [ʍ] like the RP pronunciation of ⟨wh⟩ in English or in Scottish, which is how the early British missionaries heard the [ɸ] sound and thus wrote it as ⟨wh⟩.
Yet another fun fact: The Hawke's Bay region is called "Hawke's Bay", but the bay itself (as in the bit of ocean off the coast of Hawke's Bay) is called "Hawke Bay" without the s.
I am from the West Coast mate. But I spent most of my time in Christchurch. You did really well trying to pronounce the Maori words. Awesome effort! I reckon a few locals could learn a thing or two haha
It does make me appreciate the fact that so many Canadian place names already have names that came from the local native languages. Even Canada is from a native langauge.
Another funny thing is that here in the Christchurch area (the big city in Canterbury) was originally settled by the french and has quite a few street names that are Canadian names too. The biggest one off the top of my head is Montreal street
A lot of our places are mainly or only known by their reo Māori names, and a lot of us refer to the country as Aotearoa not New Zealand. They just weren’t covered in this video as it didn’t so much go into the names of our towns. It’s also getting more common to refer to the cities by their te reo Māori names, for instance when I say where I live I generally say Pōneke or Te Whanganui a Tara rather than Wellington. Same for Otautahi (Christchurch), Ōtepoti (Dunedin), or Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).
Tiny nit-pick, Māori 'te' is not pronounced as 'tea' or 'ti', it is more like an 'eh' with a hint of 't' before it. Think of it as being spelled 'teh' in order to pronounce correctly. All the other pronounciations are excellent, well done and thank you!
No Tāmaki-makau-rau ahau! (Aucklander here). As others have said your effort to pronounce Māori is good, I'm not a native Māori speaker and try my best with it too. It's also really interesting you've covered New Zealand, tino pai (very good)!
@@marpheus1 Although many pronounce it as an f sound nowadays, it wasn't originally, otherwise the Europeans who created the Maori alphabet would've used an f to represent that sound. It's supposed to be a voiceless bilabial fricative, which used to be used in English words like "what" and "where" but no longer exists in most dialects of English including New Zealand. As this sound no longer exists in New Zealand, the voiceless labiodental fricative (f) is often used, especially by younger Maori.
@@marpheus1 There are different dialects of te reo Māori, and in the local iwi (Taranaki) dialect the wh 'f' sound doesn't exist, so words are just pronounced like the w sound in a word like waka. Another example is the dialect of Kāi Tahu iwi (you may have heard of them as Ngāi Tahu) down in the South Island - 'ng' doesn't exist in their reo, so they use a k instead.
There are a few place names linking South Africa with New Zealand. There is a town also named Wellington after the same Duke and the town is famous for its condiments. In the city of Johannesburg, there is a suburb named Auckland Park named after the city in New Zealand by a landowner who was born there and this suburb is the location of the main campus of the University of Johannesburg.
I’m from New Zealand and hence learned (a little) Maori at school. I’m currently learning Japanese and already knowing Maori pronunciation helped a lot. The only sounds I didn’t know how to pronounce straight away were the r/l sound and ‘tsu’. I’ve tried learning other languages but learning the pronunciation is so much harder than when I learnt Japanese so I always give up lol.
Enjoyed your take on it, I'm an Aucklander of 5 decades and I didn't know the story behind the region let alone the rest of them so I learnt something today, thanks for posting this vid!
It’s important to know that a wh in Maori is pronounced a lot like an F in English if you ever want some one to help with Maori Pronunciation I’m sure there are plenty of us here in this comment section that would be happy to help
Te Tai Tokerau and Te Tai Tonga also relates back to the original Polynesians. Tokerau/Tokelau is also the name of a country to the north of Samoa. Similarly, Tonga is a country to the south of Samoa. Rarotonga in the Cook Islands can mean further south. Samoa can also mean the sacred centre (sa=sacred, moa=centre). Geegraphically it makes sense. As Polynesians settled other islands, they took those same names/directions with them, including to Aotearoa.
Dude why would you use that racist painting of the arrival of the Maori? It's been well established that it wasn't one random ship of half staved people stumbling on it but a coordinated effort by Polynesian people who had been exploring and navigating the Pacific for millennia.
How is that painting racist its just documentation of what many Polynesians would have struggled with hunger and exhaustion to get to New Zealand. You can imagine that the Maori navigating the Pacific would have not been glamorous with lack of food and crowded squalid conditions this making arriving in New Zealand a accomplishment with such a lack of technology
@@factnfiction2547 It's not documentation at all, pasefika peoples were expert navigators using the stars as a compass, and would have brought enough food along with them (we also know they stopped in at other island nations on their way to Aotearoa to replenish their resources). There were multiple waka that different iwi arrived in Aotearoa on, not just one boat of people stumbling upon Aotearoa by chance, so they knew exactly how long the trip was and thus how much food to bring.
Great video! I'm from the Wairarapa, which is part of the wider Wellington region. I find it a shame we just get refered to as Wellington because the beautiful landscape of the Wairarapa is so different to the city
The Bay of Plenty made me think of an idea for a future episode; the cornucopia, or as my folks called it as a kid, a horn of plenty. I always wondered how that became a symbol of Thanksgiving, and I don't have an entomology UA-cam channel, soooooo...
Ooh fun second point! "Manawatū-Whanganui is hyphenated because the two words have no relation to eachother so the name does not relate the habour of Whanganui to the word Manawatū. Rather these are just two different regions lumped together for some reason. Once upon a time in the long ago times of 1989 we had counties which were much more numeorus that administered regions and then boroughs and cities below that to administer towns and... well.. cities. Its bloody difficult to find a map not from the 30s but before the region was established it was littered with not only Whanganui (back then misspelled as Wanganui) county and Manawatu county but others like Rangitikei, Horowhenua, Patea and Kiwitea to name a few with the two major cities, Palmerston North and Whanganui being cities on top of that. For whatever reason when the counties were abolished and bigger regions were made these two distinctly different regions were joined. The council is so sick of the hyphenated name that its starting to use the name "Horizons" instead which is silly and really the region should be split to reflect the two regions better.
The naming of towns and regions (originally provinces) after after such personalities as Wellington, Picton, Marlborough and Nelson were highly significant to the British settlers of the period. All of these men had contributed significantly to the success of Britain, and to British power and culture over the preceding century.
@@factnfiction2547 I wouldn't be too proud of Picton, he made his fortune trading in slaves and was a cruel man, even for his time. He was not well liked, even while he was alive.
Btw Mt Taranaki and mt Fuji are sometimes referred to as 'twin mountains' because the only difference between the two is that mt taranakis top was blown off in a eruption
I assume you meant for Taranaki to be in the red font as it's a Māori name. Hopefully we see that video about the similarities between Māori and Japanese eventually. My Malaysian friend has also noticed similarities between his language and Māori.
I am from Hawkes Bay( Te Ika A Maui) , Ngati kahungunu ki Wairoa, Ngati kahungunu te Whanagnui a Roto, and Ngati kahungunu ki Heretaunga , Wairoa, Napier and Hastings I am one of many mokopuna to Pania the Reef nice to meet you.
Here are some quick tips for Te Reo Māori pronunciation: The vowels are pronounced - a = ah e = eh. I = ee. o = awe/or u = ew/oo There are no exceptions. In Maori you roll all the r’s. If you find hard to roll your rs, think of it as a soft D sound, if that makes sense. It’s kind of like a d sound, but also leaning towards a “th” sound. Macrons on top of vowels make the vowel longer. Otherwise it would be a short sharp sound usually. If you have two vowels together(e.g ao, ai, oi, etc), it will make a different sound that sounds like a whole new vowel. Try saying each vowel separately, and slowly get faster until the two vowels kind of blend into one sound. ai = eye, ao = owe, au = oh, etc. If you want to get into even more detail, some of the letters would be pronounced “Softer”. E.g, T would be prounounced more like a d. But just to make it even more confusing, it would only be pronounced softer when it comes before an a, e, or o. But in truth, you don’t really need to worry about this until you’ve got the basic idea of how to pronounce words under your belt. I’m just gonna leave it at that, there is a whole lot more I could talk about but these are the basics. I hope this all made sense! I live in nz btw, so Maori pronunciation comes naturally to me. So don’t worry, I know what I’m talking about.
I would find it interesting if you went into the background of a person's name in the case of a place being named after a person. Would you consider doing that in a future video?
I'm watching from Wellington but from the Wairarapa (Pronounced Why - luh - Luppa ROUGHLY haha) It's named for the massive Lake Wairarapa. Which is next to but definitely distinct from Wellington. One other thing I feel the need to bring up is that the Mori-Ori people inhabited the Chatham Islands, roughly east of Christchurch. They were all but assimilated into Maori culture at one point but the ancestors of their people live on today and I am fascinated by all the linguistic differences between Mori-Ori and Maori. Cheers for covering our neck of the woods though mate and Maori words can be tricky.
Really surprised you didn't mention that New Zealand in its earliest years of colonisation was actually split into i think 3 provinces all named after the provinces of Ireland. The Northern half of the North Island was named New Ulster, the rest of it and the entire South Island was named New Munster and Stewart Island was called New Leinster. I really don't think many people know about this.
The Maori name for the North Island is Te Ika a Maui (The Fish of Maui), THe South Island is Te Wai Pounamu (The Place of Greenstone) Greenstone is nephrite jade, an extremely hard semi-precious stone.
You know what's interesting, the "WH" sound, such as in Te Tai RaWHiti or WHanganui is somewhat contraversial, with a good portion of folks insisting it's pronounced with a hard F, like Pharoh.
Notes on pronunciation. - WH in Te Reo Māori is pronounced as an F sound, so Te Tai Rawhiti would be pronounced "Teh tie raafeetee" and Whakatū is "fuck-a-too" - macron also means double the vowel length. It's sometimes just written as two of the vowel together in some regions. - try to roll the Rs rather than just doing an L sound - the vowels are pronounced as Ah as in cAr, Eh as in "Every", I is an EE sound (as in Fifi), O as in Orange or like 'oar', and U as an OO sound, as in plUto. - when vowels are combined, it's basically just doing one of these vowel sounds after the other. So AU is pronounced like the oe in Toe, and OE comes out more like a "weh" because it's 'oh-eh'.
Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough used to be a single region named Nelson-Marlborough. The regional council was dissolved in 1992 and transferred to the three territorial authorities, becoming unitary authorites. You still find all three joined together - for example, Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board (who runs the public health system in the three regions).
Really interesting video :) Only one significant slip: you told the history of human settlement (notwithstanding having missed out the pre-Maori settlers on what we now call the Chatham Islands but other commentators have addressed that) but then promptly refer to 'native' names being overtaken by European ones. Humans are not native to the islands of New Zealand (nor to Aotearoa if you want to emphasise both names - although there's a debate as to when even that name came into use), so names in te reo Maori are no more native than British (nor Dutch, nor French) names.
I'm watching from the Waimakariri district in Canterbury. Regarding Taranaki, it is dormant rather than extinct, ( from Wikipedia Mount Taranaki Stratovolcano in New Zealand Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island).
Off topic: If your stats haven't jumped, they will in the near future. My mom finally shared your video on Maxwell, NM with her siblings and their spouses, and surely they'll share it to most of my cousins, and probably several friends of theirs. Let's estimate 250 or so new views from that alone, and hopefully some of them will take an interest in your channel. My grandma would be proud of you as well as me, and if she's still interested from Heaven (however you call that state of existence) she's probably glowing!
At least one of my uncles and his wife has visited New Zealand (I'm proud that I beat them to it) so this video might catch their attention too. How exciting!
The South Island of NZ is referred to as 'The Mainland'. It is where Mainland cheese comes from. NZers are very parochial - and the South Island even moreso! Aucklanders are referred to as 'Dorklanders' If you live in the North Island and visit the South Island it's best to wear a blazer and grey pants plus a Canterbury tie. And if you really want to fit in wear a round neck pullover with the tie knot poking out a bit. If the pullover is knitted by your mum, even better. Bless them!
a reccomendation for pronounciation of the single roll "R's" in maori: because it is like a spanish roll but only with a single percussion, it can be pronounced almost like a short, sharp "D"
From Otautahi, Christchurch here, in Waitaha, Canterbury.. You did good as a non-NZer to pronounce Maori place names, Ka Pai, well done! (not exact translation but essentially the same).. Only things i would have suggested is. 1) you forgot about poor Stewart Island. 2) "Wh" in Maori is pronouced as an "F". 3) It would have been super cool if you also did the names of the 3 Islands, "Te Wai Pounamu" is the name of the South Island, which means "The place of Pounamu", Pounamu being the special & sacred Greenstone coveted by Maori NZ wide, that comes from the West Coast of the South Island. Not too sure if that was the case always though, or if it was a custom that developed over time, like Aborigines across different Aboriginal Nations eventually adopting the Udaki (Digeridoo) through trade, while the Udaki itself originated close to the Tores Strait i believe. As for the Maori name for the North Island, i have to say that without googling i don't actually know it, only that the North Island is the fish that Maui caught, the South Island is the canoe, & Stewart Island is the anchor.. As for "Taranaki" sounding similar to Japanese, you are correct in saying that. That is because all Polynesians share lineage with Japanese. You would know that many Hawaii names are Japanese names. Well as you know the Maori came down through Polynesia. In their mythology they came from the legendary land of Hawaiki, which seems pretty obvious is Hawaii. The pronunciation, and language structure, is pretty much the same as Japanese, & there are other similarities as well. Interestingly, and i don't know where this comes from or if it's just a coincidence, but Maori vowels & grammatical structure is very similar to Latin American. I dated a Brazilian girl for a short time when i lived in Melbourne & she said that she could understand Maori NZers (There's alot of Kiwis in Aus & quite alot of Maori) better than she could Australians, because of the similarity of the vowels. But all in all you did a great job & i learnt things about Aotearoa regions that even in didn't know haha!
Māori Language is pronounced in the AEIOU vowels the ‘wh’ is pronounced like ‘F’. The ‘ng’ is pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘singer’ the macron in Māori is used to elongate the vowel sound in Māori words and the ‘R’ in Māori is rolled like Spanish, Italian & Portugeuse but more subtle in comparison.
Given the reaction against taking the Union Jack off the flag (which was attempted about 6 years ago, by the government at the time) I'd say the chances of changing the name of the country any time soon are non-existent.
Could've also mentioned the name of the Islands, Te Ika a Maui and Te Wai Pounamu. Also when pronouncing Maori 'wh' is sounds like 'f', 'au' sounds like 'oe'
It gets even harder if you go into the towns in those regions because most of them are in maori and a lot of people refer to where they're from as the main tribe of that land. For instance, if someone said they were from Ngapuhi it would mean they are from Northland because that is the main tribe in Northland. I studied classical studies and also found a lot of similarities with Japanese and Maori culture too, archetypes in mythology and even the vowels. I'm glad you made an effort to pronounce the place names as best you could, you did pretty well but in case you ever do a video on Aotearoa again just a tip that we roll the r's if you'd like to have a bit more accurate pronunciation but you don't have to !
a couple of pointers for pronunciation "WH" is pronounced as "F" and if you want to pronunciation to sound more accurate roll the R's a little bit the Vowles are ahh for A, eh for E, ee for I, oh for O and oo for U this may help for all-round pronunciation. Also, I'm from Tairawhiti.
Regarding Taranaki sounding Japanese. I've read that the ancestors of the Polynesians (which includes the Maori) migrated over centuries from the area of Taiwan, which is conspicuously close to Japan. Might just be a coincidence of course.
Interesting you should mention that. The languages aren’t related but phonetically they’re very similar in terms of vowel sound etc. In fact Japanese people who learn Māori find pronunciations easier and have better accents than other people
I think it’s just a coincidence. At the time they immigrated from the Taiwanese area Japan likely wasn’t a language yet. I don’t believe the original Taiwanese languages were similar to Japanese.
There's a river in Rotorua which was our local swimming hole called the willows named by the local Maori kids pretty much the wet n wild back in the days
0:53 I respectfully ask that you don’t use this image in reference to Maori’s discovery of New Zealand. This image paints a false impression of what happened, it’s not even based on real facts, it’s just a parody of “Raft of Medusa” - Géricault. We did not land here as malnourished lost souls. The discovery of Aotearoa (New Zealand) was made intentionally by well organised settlers.
Otago is not an anglisisation of Otakou. Southern Maori pronounced it exactly as it is written "Otago" because the single 'g' sound exists in Southern Maori (they also have L there....like Waihola) Otakou is a more northern way of saying Otago and an attempt to standardise Maori throughout NZ. That's now rejected by the University of Otago who uses the original 'Otago' in its official Maori Name
Te Tai o Aorere The tides (coast) of the Aorere waka. Aorere was one of the voyaging vessels that brought Polynesian settlers to New Zealand....There were around 50 of them altogether. PS Wh is pronounced like a 'f' (not quite but close enough)
Yeah you forgot a lot of things, as in their are a lot more regions than you suggested. Not to go into them all but the island at the bottom is Stewart Island or Rakiura (Glowing Skies) and the other islands you completely left off the map called Chatham Islands or Rekohu (Misty Sun) or Wharekauri (Black Tree House)
Stewart Island is part of the Southland Region. The Chatham Islands are not considered a region. It has a special status as a unitary authority, but are served by Environment Canterbury.
The regions in New Zealand do not have capital city as they are not semi- states as in USA or Australia with a federal government over the top. New Zealand is basically just one country with no states but various administrative regions and a few territories that are either part of the whole like the Chatham islands, or semi independent island that are under NZ's wing. Regions with multiple cities has a regional council and City councils. Gisborne/Tarawhiti, where I am, has one city so is a unitary authority - which means the council is called Gisborne District Council as it looks are the whole district and not just the city of Gisborne. The parliamentary system is based on the Westminster system fro England.
![Дон ДОН, Алаудинов и СБЕЖАВШИЕ из под Курска ахматовцы 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dEfCf5IK26Q/mqdefault.jpg)
Calling all Kiwis. Let me know what region of New Zealand you are watching from. I'd love to hear from at least one person from each region!
@Melanie , Fun fact: Mississippi was the original name of Little River Band.
Christchurch, Canterbury here!
I’m from Hawkes Bay, but watching from London, England!
Taranaki
While I'm not watching from Aotearoa, I originally come from a place called Karaka in the Auckland region. Karaka, by the way, is Māori for orange, so I guess it's quite appropriate I watch from the Netherlands.
Te Tai o Aorere is the original name of Tasman Bay. Te Tai is the tide or sea, o is of, and Aorere is ao, cloud or mist, and rere is flying or swift moving.
Fun fact about place names in New Zealand: The music group, OMC, originally started off as Otara Millionaires Club, in reference to the Auckland suburb of Otara. This is actually a tongue-in-cheek joke about the fact that Otara is one of Auckland's poorest suburbs.
(Also, sorry if I said "Otara" too many times.)
They also had a song called "Land of Plenty".
How Bizarre
@@abhisheksatam.
(Insert acoustic guitar strumming.)
If you’re the Soviet onion, then what happens when you cut open a Soviet onion?
@@Periwinkleaccount We cry
A note on pronunciation, in New Zealand, you don't pronounce the land in Northland or Southland as 'land' but more like 'lind'. One of the eccentricities of the New Zealand accent, I guess.
same as Gisborne , as we pronounce it like griz bin
So true. Like Nu Zilind.
Literally just thinking this
Tbf I'm pretty sure they usually do that in the UK too. Just think about how you've ever heard England, Scotland and Ireland being said
you can probably go a step further to delete the 'd' so something like Northlin.
As a NZer, I say thanks for exploring our little part of the world and especially thanks for the effort in pronounciation!
Fun fact when the settlers came into the Dunedin harbor they asked the local iwi (tribe) what is this area called and they replied with this area is called Otaku which translates to East side of the harbor so the entire Otago region is named after the East side of the Dunedin harbor
Fun fact: The regions in Aotearoa are setup around drainage basins. E.g. Water in the Manawatū-Whanganui region drains into either the Wanganui river or Manawatū river (or some smaller river between them). This caused some trouble for a small settlement called Whangamōmona where the water drains to Whangnui but where the residents identify with the Stratford district of Taranaki, so the declared independence as a bit of joke.
There is a weird exception to this rule in Top of the South, the Buller river runs from Tasman to The West Coast and I don't know why the region boundary is like this. Top of South is just generally confusing to me... Like why is the city of Nelson its own region? Nelson and Tasman regional councils collaborate a lot anyway Tasman has a tiny population, why have they never been formally joined together?
A few district councils break this rule - ie the boundary between Waimakiriri and Christchurch is the Waimakiriri River. But you are right - most boundaries in New Zealand are along watershed lines, all based around drainage basins. The town of Waiuku always entertains me as it sits atop a hill, with a little slither of the south end of the town being in the Waikato region, just because that's where the puddles drain to when it rains 😅
@@MegaMattMorris district boundaries don't generally follow this rule, it's more for regional boundaries.
Kind of. They tried to tweak the regional councils boundaries, so they all more like water catchment areas. They even split Waitaki District Council so bits are in Otago and some is in Canterbury.
I'd always wondered if this was the case, and suspected it might be why Manawatū-Whanganui wasn't split into seperate regions despite its comparatively larger size to all the others. I'm glad it's the case, though, because there's nothing more tiresome than petty quarrels between mid-level government over disagreements regarding their mutual waterways.
Thanks for putting this together - FYI, some dialects of te reo Māori, "WH" makes the sound of "F", and "AU" always makes the sound "O" as is "toe". Bonus pronunciation trick for you: if you see a macron over a vowel, elongate that vowel - you'll find it makes finding the right syllable to accentuate way easy. Thanks again for this - it was really interesting. I love learning about the indigenous names of the things around me - they are far more authentic.
Ka Pai
The area called 'The Far North' in Northland, (creative, I know), has the name 'Te Hiku o Te Ika,' meaning 'The Tail of The Fish.' This fish, of course being Te Ika a Maui, the North Island.
Why is your bread so sad?
@@beatrix1120 Do you know how to say bread in French?
Similarly, one of the other names of Wellington is Te Upoko o Te Ika, with upoko meaning head.
Quick point, The greater wellington region is called Te Upoko o te Ika in Māori translating to the head of the fish, opposed to the actual city of wellington's official māori name which is Te Whanganui-a-tara.
Although it doesn't actually mean anything i've always been a fan of the other māori name of wellington Pōneke which is a transliteration of Port Nicholson making it meaningless but it seems to be the preferred translation by the city council, probably because it's shorter and encompasses areas outside of the harbour.
Edit: it could also possibly be a shortened version of Po nekeneke reffering to when Te Ati Awa left what is now Pipitea in central Wellington or "Moving during the night" [According to the national library]
Just a heads up in the name pronunciation the wh makes an f sound and the vowels with a line above it make a long sound kind of like the difference between look and lock in english
Although many pronounce it as an f sound nowadays, it wasn't originally, otherwise the Europeans who created the Maori alphabet would've used an f to represent that sound. It's supposed to be a voiceless bilabial fricative, which used to be used in English words like "what" and "where" but no longer exists in most dialects of English including New Zealand. As this sound no longer exists in New Zealand, the voiceless labiodental fricative (f) is often used, especially by younger Maori.
@@TomRNZ I'm no linguist, but from the explanations I've heard, it's more of a partway between that old fashioned "wh" sound you mention and the typical f sound. I've always thought of it as starting off with the wh and as you blow out you give it a bit more to bring through the f sound at the end. Could be wrong but I think there's a reason the younger Māori prefer people to just go with the f pronunciation because it's close enough
@@rorybessell8280 I'm not saying that pronouncing it as an "f" is necessarily wrong, anymore than I would say that pronouncing "wh" as a "w" is wrong in present day English. Pronunciation evolves over time. Not many people (including me) pronounce the "wh" in words like "what" anymore, but both pronunciations are correct. But linguistically, it doesn't make a lot of sense to assume that the pronunciation initially was an f sound.
The Maori were a preliterate people, and so the alphabet had to be invented for them so that their language could be written. The Latin alphabet with English pronunciation was used, and as far as I'm aware (and I'm happy to be corrected), there is no dialect of English that pronounces the "wh" digraph as a voiceless labiodental fricative. The closest I can think of is Scots, where I think some dialects can pronounce this digraph as a voiceless labiodental fricative, but Scots is considered (although this is debated) to be a separate language to English.
Every other letter (or digraph) in the Maori alphabet corresponds to the same sound in English except for "wh". So the question is, if it sounded like an "f", why wasn't it written as one? Or at least use the digraph "ph" which has also come to represent the voiceless labiodental fricative in English.
The "wh" in Maori probably didn't sound exactly like the "wh" in "what" or "where" in English either, but it would've been closer to it than it is to an "f".
@@TomRNZ I think you're arguing something I wasn't meaning. I think you're pretty much spot on. My only point is that when I've heard a how to pronounce thing it has been a mix between the f and the wh as opposed to a pure wh sound. Idk anything about the linguistic descriptions tbh but what I've heard is you sort start off like a posh person saying "where" but instead of completing the sound in the same manner, you try and emphasise the end of the sound and it sounds like an almost halfway point between the wh you've described and the f sound. Which means they're both technically wrong but both wrong only subtly and each is a reasonable approximate
@@rorybessell8280 Sorry, Rory, I wasn't really arguing. Just expanding on my point. It was, as you say, unlikely either sound exactly, and it was probably a sound that doesn't exist in English. It's always difficult to explain a sound that doesn't exist in a language. You inevitable end up saying something like, "The ñ in Spanish sounds like the ny in 'canyon'", even though it doesn't, but we don't have exactly the same sound in English.
Manawa = Breath
Tū = halted
Manawatū = Halted Breath.
Hau’s breath came to a halt when he reached this river because it was and still is a chilly river.
As others have mentioned, it was a good effort with your Māori pronunciation and much appreciated. Interestingly, your attempt at the ⟨wh⟩ sound, which was traditionally a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ] but is now typically a labiodental [f] among younger or urban speakers, ends up producing a voiceless labial-velar fricative [ʍ] like the RP pronunciation of ⟨wh⟩ in English or in Scottish, which is how the early British missionaries heard the [ɸ] sound and thus wrote it as ⟨wh⟩.
Yet another fun fact: The Hawke's Bay region is called "Hawke's Bay", but the bay itself (as in the bit of ocean off the coast of Hawke's Bay) is called "Hawke Bay" without the s.
I am from the West Coast mate. But I spent most of my time in Christchurch.
You did really well trying to pronounce the Maori words. Awesome effort!
I reckon a few locals could learn a thing or two haha
Amen bro 😅
It does make me appreciate the fact that so many Canadian place names already have names that came from the local native languages. Even Canada is from a native langauge.
Another funny thing is that here in the Christchurch area (the big city in Canterbury) was originally settled by the french and has quite a few street names that are Canadian names too. The biggest one off the top of my head is Montreal street
A lot of our places are mainly or only known by their reo Māori names, and a lot of us refer to the country as Aotearoa not New Zealand. They just weren’t covered in this video as it didn’t so much go into the names of our towns. It’s also getting more common to refer to the cities by their te reo Māori names, for instance when I say where I live I generally say Pōneke or Te Whanganui a Tara rather than Wellington. Same for Otautahi (Christchurch), Ōtepoti (Dunedin), or Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).
Tiny nit-pick, Māori 'te' is not pronounced as 'tea' or 'ti', it is more like an 'eh' with a hint of 't' before it. Think of it as being spelled 'teh' in order to pronounce correctly. All the other pronounciations are excellent, well done and thank you!
Manawatu, Rangitikei, and Whanganui should be three separate regions. Source: I grew up there.
It's especially weird seeing how tiny Nelson is versus how huge that is too
Saaaaame
Saaaaaammme they are very different
No Tāmaki-makau-rau ahau! (Aucklander here). As others have said your effort to pronounce Māori is good, I'm not a native Māori speaker and try my best with it too. It's also really interesting you've covered New Zealand, tino pai (very good)!
Ah lol the debate about how to pronounce whanganui will commence 🤣
Doesn't WH in māori sound like F? I might be wrong, but i remember looking that up a few months ago
@@marpheus1 It normally does, but with Whanganui it's just like "w" because that's just how the local tribe spelled their version of the language.
At least he didn't have to pronounce Whakatane 🤣
@@marpheus1 Although many pronounce it as an f sound nowadays, it wasn't originally, otherwise the Europeans who created the Maori alphabet would've used an f to represent that sound. It's supposed to be a voiceless bilabial fricative, which used to be used in English words like "what" and "where" but no longer exists in most dialects of English including New Zealand. As this sound no longer exists in New Zealand, the voiceless labiodental fricative (f) is often used, especially by younger Maori.
@@marpheus1 There are different dialects of te reo Māori, and in the local iwi (Taranaki) dialect the wh 'f' sound doesn't exist, so words are just pronounced like the w sound in a word like waka.
Another example is the dialect of Kāi Tahu iwi (you may have heard of them as Ngāi Tahu) down in the South Island - 'ng' doesn't exist in their reo, so they use a k instead.
There are a few place names linking South Africa with New Zealand. There is a town also named Wellington after the same Duke and the town is famous for its condiments. In the city of Johannesburg, there is a suburb named Auckland Park named after the city in New Zealand by a landowner who was born there and this suburb is the location of the main campus of the University of Johannesburg.
I’m from New Zealand and hence learned (a little) Maori at school. I’m currently learning Japanese and already knowing Maori pronunciation helped a lot. The only sounds I didn’t know how to pronounce straight away were the r/l sound and ‘tsu’. I’ve tried learning other languages but learning the pronunciation is so much harder than when I learnt Japanese so I always give up lol.
Enjoyed your take on it, I'm an Aucklander of 5 decades and I didn't know the story behind the region let alone the rest of them so I learnt something today, thanks for posting this vid!
It’s important to know that a wh in Maori is pronounced a lot like an F in English if you ever want some one to help with Maori Pronunciation I’m sure there are plenty of us here in this comment section that would be happy to help
Te Tai Tokerau and Te Tai Tonga also relates back to the original Polynesians. Tokerau/Tokelau is also the name of a country to the north of Samoa. Similarly, Tonga is a country to the south of Samoa. Rarotonga in the Cook Islands can mean further south. Samoa can also mean the sacred centre (sa=sacred, moa=centre). Geegraphically it makes sense. As Polynesians settled other islands, they took those same names/directions with them, including to Aotearoa.
Dude why would you use that racist painting of the arrival of the Maori? It's been well established that it wasn't one random ship of half staved people stumbling on it but a coordinated effort by Polynesian people who had been exploring and navigating the Pacific for millennia.
The whole "the history of the islands" thing, rather than just saying European colonisation or empire is a bit sanitizing.
Hard, I'm no SJW but I thought that photo was cringe as fuck as well. Bad call.
Yep, I cringed pretty hard at that picture.
How is that painting racist its just documentation of what many Polynesians would have struggled with hunger and exhaustion to get to New Zealand. You can imagine that the Maori navigating the Pacific would have not been glamorous with lack of food and crowded squalid conditions this making arriving in New Zealand a accomplishment with such a lack of technology
@@factnfiction2547 It's not documentation at all, pasefika peoples were expert navigators using the stars as a compass, and would have brought enough food along with them (we also know they stopped in at other island nations on their way to Aotearoa to replenish their resources). There were multiple waka that different iwi arrived in Aotearoa on, not just one boat of people stumbling upon Aotearoa by chance, so they knew exactly how long the trip was and thus how much food to bring.
There are no rumblings about dropping the name New Zealand.
There's always been 1 or 2 people floating such things, but that's far from rumblings.
The Bay of Plenty is named in contrast to Poverty Bay around the corner in gizzy
Bay of Plenty is beautiful and amazing I have never been to Poverty Bay but have not heard great things
@@factnfiction2547 it's also amazing.
I highly recommend a road trip around state highway 35. I suggest it's the best drive in the country.
I’m a Maori and I appreciate your effort pronouncing our place names. Mean bro
Great video! I'm from the Wairarapa, which is part of the wider Wellington region. I find it a shame we just get refered to as Wellington because the beautiful landscape of the Wairarapa is so different to the city
In Maori "Wh-" is the same as when we use "Ph-" in English to say Phone. So "Whiti" is pronounced "Fiti".
Hi, I'm from Dunedin in Otago. Dunedin was a Scotish settlement, settled in 1848.
The Bay of Plenty made me think of an idea for a future episode; the cornucopia, or as my folks called it as a kid, a horn of plenty. I always wondered how that became a symbol of Thanksgiving, and I don't have an entomology UA-cam channel, soooooo...
I have never heard of this intresting!
I really want to hear you say all of the Māori electorates names
I thought you are going to say about Realm of New Zealand which comprises NZ itself, Niue and the Cook Islands hahaha
And the Chatham Islands too
@@epicstar94 Chathams is fully a part of NZ
Very interesting video.
Tāmaki-Makau-Rau = Tāmaki of a Hundred Lovers.
Tāmaki was a person.
Ooh fun second point! "Manawatū-Whanganui is hyphenated because the two words have no relation to eachother so the name does not relate the habour of Whanganui to the word Manawatū. Rather these are just two different regions lumped together for some reason. Once upon a time in the long ago times of 1989 we had counties which were much more numeorus that administered regions and then boroughs and cities below that to administer towns and... well.. cities. Its bloody difficult to find a map not from the 30s but before the region was established it was littered with not only Whanganui (back then misspelled as Wanganui) county and Manawatu county but others like Rangitikei, Horowhenua, Patea and Kiwitea to name a few with the two major cities, Palmerston North and Whanganui being cities on top of that. For whatever reason when the counties were abolished and bigger regions were made these two distinctly different regions were joined. The council is so sick of the hyphenated name that its starting to use the name "Horizons" instead which is silly and really the region should be split to reflect the two regions better.
The naming of towns and regions (originally provinces) after after such personalities as Wellington, Picton, Marlborough and Nelson were highly significant to the British settlers of the period. All of these men had contributed significantly to the success of Britain, and to British power and culture over the preceding century.
Yes, we should be proud of these great men!
@@factnfiction2547 I wouldn't be too proud of Picton, he made his fortune trading in slaves and was a cruel man, even for his time. He was not well liked, even while he was alive.
Btw Mt Taranaki and mt Fuji are sometimes referred to as 'twin mountains' because the only difference between the two is that mt taranakis top was blown off in a eruption
I assume you meant for Taranaki to be in the red font as it's a Māori name. Hopefully we see that video about the similarities between Māori and Japanese eventually. My Malaysian friend has also noticed similarities between his language and Māori.
Yes Bahasa Melayu and Maori have some similarities and I believe are both Austronesian languages
I am from Hawkes Bay( Te Ika A Maui) , Ngati kahungunu ki Wairoa, Ngati kahungunu te Whanagnui a Roto, and Ngati kahungunu ki Heretaunga , Wairoa, Napier and Hastings I am one of many mokopuna to Pania the Reef nice to meet you.
Here are some quick tips for Te Reo Māori pronunciation:
The vowels are pronounced - a = ah e = eh. I = ee. o = awe/or u = ew/oo There are no exceptions.
In Maori you roll all the r’s. If you find hard to roll your rs, think of it as a soft D sound, if that makes sense. It’s kind of like a d sound, but also leaning towards a “th” sound.
Macrons on top of vowels make the vowel longer. Otherwise it would be a short sharp sound usually.
If you have two vowels together(e.g ao, ai, oi, etc), it will make a different sound that sounds like a whole new vowel. Try saying each vowel separately, and slowly get faster until the two vowels kind of blend into one sound. ai = eye, ao = owe, au = oh, etc.
If you want to get into even more detail, some of the letters would be pronounced “Softer”. E.g, T would be prounounced more like a d. But just to make it even more confusing, it would only be pronounced softer when it comes before an a, e, or o. But in truth, you don’t really need to worry about this until you’ve got the basic idea of how to pronounce words under your belt. I’m just gonna leave it at that, there is a whole lot more I could talk about but these are the basics. I hope this all made sense! I live in nz btw, so Maori pronunciation comes naturally to me. So don’t worry, I know what I’m talking about.
Well done! Pretty Good effort with your pronunciation!
Watching from Southland!
Same here, hello fellow Southlander
Fun fact: That petition is stupid. You can call it New Zealand or Aotearoa, it doesn't really matter. (I'm a kiwi by the way)
I would find it interesting if you went into the background of a person's name in the case of a place being named after a person. Would you consider doing that in a future video?
That could be a whole series of videos! I love it.
I'm watching from Wellington but from the Wairarapa (Pronounced Why - luh - Luppa ROUGHLY haha) It's named for the massive Lake Wairarapa. Which is next to but definitely distinct from Wellington. One other thing I feel the need to bring up is that the Mori-Ori people inhabited the Chatham Islands, roughly east of Christchurch. They were all but assimilated into Maori culture at one point but the ancestors of their people live on today and I am fascinated by all the linguistic differences between Mori-Ori and Maori. Cheers for covering our neck of the woods though mate and Maori words can be tricky.
Really surprised you didn't mention that New Zealand in its earliest years of colonisation was actually split into i think 3 provinces all named after the provinces of Ireland. The Northern half of the North Island was named New Ulster, the rest of it and the entire South Island was named New Munster and Stewart Island was called New Leinster.
I really don't think many people know about this.
so where is your source you got this info from - i have never heard this and i am nz born and bred
The Maori name for the North Island is Te Ika a Maui (The Fish of Maui), THe South Island is Te Wai Pounamu (The Place of Greenstone) Greenstone is nephrite jade, an extremely hard semi-precious stone.
You know what's interesting, the "WH" sound, such as in Te Tai RaWHiti or WHanganui is somewhat contraversial, with a good portion of folks insisting it's pronounced with a hard F, like Pharoh.
Notes on pronunciation.
- WH in Te Reo Māori is pronounced as an F sound, so Te Tai Rawhiti would be pronounced "Teh tie raafeetee" and Whakatū is "fuck-a-too"
- macron also means double the vowel length. It's sometimes just written as two of the vowel together in some regions.
- try to roll the Rs rather than just doing an L sound
- the vowels are pronounced as Ah as in cAr, Eh as in "Every", I is an EE sound (as in Fifi), O as in Orange or like 'oar', and U as an OO sound, as in plUto.
- when vowels are combined, it's basically just doing one of these vowel sounds after the other. So AU is pronounced like the oe in Toe, and OE comes out more like a "weh" because it's 'oh-eh'.
Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough used to be a single region named Nelson-Marlborough. The regional council was dissolved in 1992 and transferred to the three territorial authorities, becoming unitary authorites. You still find all three joined together - for example, Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board (who runs the public health system in the three regions).
Really interesting video :) Only one significant slip: you told the history of human settlement (notwithstanding having missed out the pre-Maori settlers on what we now call the Chatham Islands but other commentators have addressed that) but then promptly refer to 'native' names being overtaken by European ones. Humans are not native to the islands of New Zealand (nor to Aotearoa if you want to emphasise both names - although there's a debate as to when even that name came into use), so names in te reo Maori are no more native than British (nor Dutch, nor French) names.
I'm watching from the Waimakariri district in Canterbury. Regarding Taranaki, it is dormant rather than extinct, ( from Wikipedia Mount Taranaki Stratovolcano in New Zealand Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island).
Kia ora e hoa. Ka pai koe mõ tõ Reo Māori!
I'm from northland 😁 love it up here
The word origins book sounds very interesting.
Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh Bay of Plenty.
My mum is from the region Canterbury and there is a Sumner within Canterbury. She grew up in Kaiapoi. So Kia Ora to all X.
Off topic: If your stats haven't jumped, they will in the near future. My mom finally shared your video on Maxwell, NM with her siblings and their spouses, and surely they'll share it to most of my cousins, and probably several friends of theirs. Let's estimate 250 or so new views from that alone, and hopefully some of them will take an interest in your channel. My grandma would be proud of you as well as me, and if she's still interested from Heaven (however you call that state of existence) she's probably glowing!
At least one of my uncles and his wife has visited New Zealand (I'm proud that I beat them to it) so this video might catch their attention too. How exciting!
Canterbury brother!
Watching from blenheim, Marlborough. Top of the south island
Love this vid
Video idea: Why do many names of English towns/boroughs/areas end with the suffix 'ham' e.i Wrexham, Chatham, Newham, Oldham, Stretham.
I'm from Chatham, New Brunswick. There was a place not far from here once known as Hexham.
@@meyou9655 The -ham comes from Old English (= Anglo-Saxon), either "hām" = 'home', or "hamm" = 'enclosed pasture' or similar.
Because English people like ham
what about the Moriori's and other Austronesian travellers ?
Don't forget the main 2 islands are called the North Island and the South Island.
Yes, we like to keep things simple!!!
You lot are simpletons, you mean. 😒
The South Island of NZ is referred to as 'The Mainland'. It is where Mainland cheese comes from. NZers are very parochial - and the South Island even moreso! Aucklanders are referred to as 'Dorklanders' If you live in the North Island and visit the South Island it's best to wear a blazer and grey pants plus a Canterbury tie. And if you really want to fit in wear a round neck pullover with the tie knot poking out a bit. If the pullover is knitted by your mum, even better. Bless them!
a reccomendation for pronounciation of the single roll "R's" in maori: because it is like a spanish roll but only with a single percussion, it can be pronounced almost like a short, sharp "D"
8:34 "Te Whanaganui-A-Tara" scrunch!
Good effort on the Māori pronunciation bud. Keep it up
From Otautahi, Christchurch here, in Waitaha, Canterbury.. You did good as a non-NZer to pronounce Maori place names, Ka Pai, well done! (not exact translation but essentially the same).. Only things i would have suggested is. 1) you forgot about poor Stewart Island. 2) "Wh" in Maori is pronouced as an "F". 3) It would have been super cool if you also did the names of the 3 Islands, "Te Wai Pounamu" is the name of the South Island, which means "The place of Pounamu", Pounamu being the special & sacred Greenstone coveted by Maori NZ wide, that comes from the West Coast of the South Island. Not too sure if that was the case always though, or if it was a custom that developed over time, like Aborigines across different Aboriginal Nations eventually adopting the Udaki (Digeridoo) through trade, while the Udaki itself originated close to the Tores Strait i believe. As for the Maori name for the North Island, i have to say that without googling i don't actually know it, only that the North Island is the fish that Maui caught, the South Island is the canoe, & Stewart Island is the anchor..
As for "Taranaki" sounding similar to Japanese, you are correct in saying that. That is because all Polynesians share lineage with Japanese. You would know that many Hawaii names are Japanese names. Well as you know the Maori came down through Polynesia. In their mythology they came from the legendary land of Hawaiki, which seems pretty obvious is Hawaii. The pronunciation, and language structure, is pretty much the same as Japanese, & there are other similarities as well. Interestingly, and i don't know where this comes from or if it's just a coincidence, but Maori vowels & grammatical structure is very similar to Latin American. I dated a Brazilian girl for a short time when i lived in Melbourne & she said that she could understand Maori NZers (There's alot of Kiwis in Aus & quite alot of Maori) better than she could Australians, because of the similarity of the vowels.
But all in all you did a great job & i learnt things about Aotearoa regions that even in didn't know haha!
Māori Language is pronounced in the AEIOU vowels the ‘wh’ is pronounced like ‘F’. The ‘ng’ is pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘singer’ the macron in Māori is used to elongate the vowel sound in Māori words and the ‘R’ in Māori is rolled like Spanish, Italian & Portugeuse but more subtle in comparison.
9:05, I think it means the coast of freedom. Aorere has a lot of meanings but from context, I think it may be freedom.
Given the reaction against taking the Union Jack off the flag (which was attempted about 6 years ago, by the government at the time) I'd say the chances of changing the name of the country any time soon are non-existent.
Na I think it had to do more with Key John Um giving us a bunch of shitty choices to change the flag to.
@@timmyb7734 laser kiwi was snubbed
Great content thanks, you know your topic. I'm currently stuck over on the West Island. Hope to return one day.
The West Island is otherwise known as Australia
Cant believe my bro missed Oban
Watching from Tamaki Makaurau
Could've also mentioned the name of the Islands, Te Ika a Maui and Te Wai Pounamu.
Also when pronouncing Maori 'wh' is sounds like 'f', 'au' sounds like 'oe'
Did so much research and then just never looked up the pronunciation
use Te Aka Maori dictionary instead of the one you're using now
Otago and I live in the town called Kaitangita and that has a very interesting meaning.
It gets even harder if you go into the towns in those regions because most of them are in maori and a lot of people refer to where they're from as the main tribe of that land. For instance, if someone said they were from Ngapuhi it would mean they are from Northland because that is the main tribe in Northland. I studied classical studies and also found a lot of similarities with Japanese and Maori culture too, archetypes in mythology and even the vowels. I'm glad you made an effort to pronounce the place names as best you could, you did pretty well but in case you ever do a video on Aotearoa again just a tip that we roll the r's if you'd like to have a bit more accurate pronunciation but you don't have to !
a couple of pointers for pronunciation "WH" is pronounced as "F" and if you want to pronunciation to sound more accurate roll the R's a little bit the Vowles are ahh for A, eh for E, ee for I, oh for O and oo for U this may help for all-round pronunciation.
Also, I'm from Tairawhiti.
It seems wierd how Australia was settled much earlier.
His Maori pronunciation is better then a lot of new zealands that I've heard
Regarding Taranaki sounding Japanese. I've read that the ancestors of the Polynesians (which includes the Maori) migrated over centuries from the area of Taiwan, which is conspicuously close to Japan. Might just be a coincidence of course.
Interesting you should mention that. The languages aren’t related but phonetically they’re very similar in terms of vowel sound etc. In fact Japanese people who learn Māori find pronunciations easier and have better accents than other people
I think it’s just a coincidence. At the time they immigrated from the Taiwanese area Japan likely wasn’t a language yet. I don’t believe the original Taiwanese languages were similar to Japanese.
Fun fact: in the movie “The Last Samurai”, you'll never guess what mountain played Fuji-san…
Watchung this from Turanganui a Kiwa Aka Gisborne (Te Tairawhiti region)
There's a river in Rotorua which was our local swimming hole called the willows named by the local Maori kids pretty much the wet n wild back in the days
Willam and Luke were born in Otago.
0:53 I respectfully ask that you don’t use this image in reference to Maori’s discovery of New Zealand. This image paints a false impression of what happened, it’s not even based on real facts, it’s just a parody of “Raft of Medusa” - Géricault.
We did not land here as malnourished lost souls. The discovery of Aotearoa (New Zealand) was made intentionally by well organised settlers.
I am New Zealand born Chinese here!!! Your pronunciation of Maori names are quite good for a non New Zealander.
Otago is not an anglisisation of Otakou. Southern Maori pronounced it exactly as it is written "Otago" because the single 'g' sound exists in Southern Maori (they also have L there....like Waihola) Otakou is a more northern way of saying Otago and an attempt to standardise Maori throughout NZ. That's now rejected by the University of Otago who uses the original 'Otago' in its official Maori Name
Some people don't even know Kiwi exist and here is a video talking about different regions, Ironically.
Te Tai o Aorere The tides (coast) of the Aorere waka. Aorere was one of the voyaging vessels that brought Polynesian settlers to New Zealand....There were around 50 of them altogether. PS Wh is pronounced like a 'f' (not quite but close enough)
Yeah you forgot a lot of things, as in their are a lot more regions than you suggested. Not to go into them all but the island at the bottom is Stewart Island or Rakiura (Glowing Skies) and the other islands you completely left off the map called Chatham Islands or Rekohu (Misty Sun) or Wharekauri (Black Tree House)
Stewart Island is part of the Southland Region. The Chatham Islands are not considered a region. It has a special status as a unitary authority, but are served by Environment Canterbury.
Tamaki Makaurau checking in
South-land and North-Land, the land part of that is said "lend" for some reason. It most likely our kiwi accent that can't pronounce land right.
Can you also cover the capital cities of these regions?
The regions in New Zealand do not have capital city as they are not semi- states as in USA or Australia with a federal government over the top. New Zealand is basically just one country with no states but various administrative regions and a few territories that are either part of the whole like the Chatham islands, or semi independent island that are under NZ's wing. Regions with multiple cities has a regional council and City councils. Gisborne/Tarawhiti, where I am, has one city so is a unitary authority - which means the council is called Gisborne District Council as it looks are the whole district and not just the city of Gisborne. The parliamentary system is based on the Westminster system fro England.
Where does the term “boomshakalaka” originate exactly?