276
16 The Context of Oral Traditions
imposition of their language on the subjugated peoples by Toi and his men seems
likely.
On the subject of significant language divergence within New Zealand, Herries
Beattie has written an enlightening chapter in his book Our Southernmost
Maoris[23]. Beattie argues that the European confining of the Maori alphabet to
14 letters was a “cramping curtailment” (p. 86) which masked the existence of
numerous dialects. Beattie argues that 22 of the 26 letters of the alphabet (the exceptions being q, x, y and z) were needed to accurately record the language of the
Southern Maori. He tells the illustrative story of an early interview with Kaiporohu,
“an official interpreter on Stewart Island”:
He gave me the name for an island which I wrote down as Fallafalla. That did not seem
correct so I tried it as Falafala and remarked, ‘That looks like Samoan.’ He said: ‘That is
how you pronounce it, but you spell it Wharawhara.’ I remarked there was no ‘l’ in the
Maori language, and he replied: “When I was a boy Stewart Island was called Lakiula.
Later the people began saying Rakiula, and now they are calling it Rakiura, the same as the
Pakeha” (p. 87).
Beattie gives many examples of what he described as “oscillating consonants”:
The early settlers found that Ruapuke was usually pronounced Ruabuke, and Puketapu was
sometimes spelt the way it was pronounced, Booketap. The word korari was pronounced
koladi in some places and koradi, and I never heard it given as korari except by young
Maori trying to emulate the dictionary.
He noted that “ the word whanga can be written wanga, hanga, anga, whaka,
waka, haka or aka without changing its meaning. Take the common word whare
(house). This was usually pronounced “warrie” in Otago, but at Moeraki it became
fale (pronounced like our word “folly”” (p. 88).
Beattie also gives examples of what he describes as “movable vowels”: “At one
place in Otago I was told a wooden utensil was an ipu, at another place it was an
opu, and at still another it was upu” (p. 89). He comments too on striking similarities
between the language as spoken by the Katimamoe tribe of the South Island and the
speech of the Chatham Islands, with “the consonant t , for example, pronounced
as “chee” in both, “a” occasionally broadened into “au” and “w” used for “u” in
beginning words, and “h” or “w” dropped out of certain words” (p. 90). The wellrecognized southern use of “k” where North Islanders use “ng” is also mentioned,
so that, for example, “hanga” becomes “haka” in the south.
The preservation of older forms of language and pronunciation in the more isolated parts of New Zealand and especially in the South Island, which was less
affected by medieval migrations from Eastern Polynesia, reflects the varying migration histories of the North and South Islands and the complex older history of the
indigenous peoples of the South Island. The preservation of the “l” which was
retained in Samoa and Hawaii is interesting, for certainly Samoa and most probably Hawaii were first settled, like New Zealand, before 1000 BC. The “l” became
“r” in Eastern Polynesia.
16 The Context of Oral Traditions
imposition of their language on the subjugated peoples by Toi and his men seems
likely.
On the subject of significant language divergence within New Zealand, Herries
Beattie has written an enlightening chapter in his book Our Southernmost
Maoris[23]. Beattie argues that the European confining of the Maori alphabet to
14 letters was a “cramping curtailment” (p. 86) which masked the existence of
numerous dialects. Beattie argues that 22 of the 26 letters of the alphabet (the exceptions being q, x, y and z) were needed to accurately record the language of the
Southern Maori. He tells the illustrative story of an early interview with Kaiporohu,
“an official interpreter on Stewart Island”:
He gave me the name for an island which I wrote down as Fallafalla. That did not seem
correct so I tried it as Falafala and remarked, ‘That looks like Samoan.’ He said: ‘That is
how you pronounce it, but you spell it Wharawhara.’ I remarked there was no ‘l’ in the
Maori language, and he replied: “When I was a boy Stewart Island was called Lakiula.
Later the people began saying Rakiula, and now they are calling it Rakiura, the same as the
Pakeha” (p. 87).
Beattie gives many examples of what he described as “oscillating consonants”:
The early settlers found that Ruapuke was usually pronounced Ruabuke, and Puketapu was
sometimes spelt the way it was pronounced, Booketap. The word korari was pronounced
koladi in some places and koradi, and I never heard it given as korari except by young
Maori trying to emulate the dictionary.
He noted that “ the word whanga can be written wanga, hanga, anga, whaka,
waka, haka or aka without changing its meaning. Take the common word whare
(house). This was usually pronounced “warrie” in Otago, but at Moeraki it became
fale (pronounced like our word “folly”” (p. 88).
Beattie also gives examples of what he describes as “movable vowels”: “At one
place in Otago I was told a wooden utensil was an ipu, at another place it was an
opu, and at still another it was upu” (p. 89). He comments too on striking similarities
between the language as spoken by the Katimamoe tribe of the South Island and the
speech of the Chatham Islands, with “the consonant t , for example, pronounced
as “chee” in both, “a” occasionally broadened into “au” and “w” used for “u” in
beginning words, and “h” or “w” dropped out of certain words” (p. 90). The wellrecognized southern use of “k” where North Islanders use “ng” is also mentioned,
so that, for example, “hanga” becomes “haka” in the south.
The preservation of older forms of language and pronunciation in the more isolated parts of New Zealand and especially in the South Island, which was less
affected by medieval migrations from Eastern Polynesia, reflects the varying migration histories of the North and South Islands and the complex older history of the
indigenous peoples of the South Island. The preservation of the “l” which was
retained in Samoa and Hawaii is interesting, for certainly Samoa and most probably Hawaii were first settled, like New Zealand, before 1000 BC. The “l” became
“r” in Eastern Polynesia.