How to say some of New Zealand's most commonly mispronounced place names

OPINION: Or-Taki? Don't you mean Owe-tacky? Or are you one of those politically correct jokers?

Maybe it's because I'm a middle-aged white man that other middle-aged white men seem automatically to assume that I'll mispronounce Māori names.

Of course, often I do. But at least I try not to. And it always annoys me that other people – mostly white men of about my age – don't even make the effort, because to make the effort would be to admit they've been getting it wrong all these years.

If simple ignorance were behind it, I'd find it easier to understand and to accept. But it's not – it's wilful ignorance, and they're wearing it as a badge of honour, to show they don't belong to that "politically correct" crowd.

Well, neither do I. But I don't see it in terms of being "politically" correct; it's simply a matter of being correct.

When I first came to New Zealand some 30 years ago, te reo was totally unfamiliar to me, and that was all the more reason to find out how to pronounce it, particularly all those mysterious place names.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Stuff news director Patrick Piercy has been grappling with Māori place names for 30 years.

I would try to sound them out, slowly and phonetically, but would often be met with blank looks.

I can remember asking at work soon after I arrived, "So where's Tay Koe-fa-ta?" Nobody answered for a while until at last the penny dropped. "Oh, you mean Tee Ka-wotta," a colleague said. Well, no: he might have meant Tee Ka-wotta, but I didn't.

In those days, it wasn't common to hear much te reo, except on niche programmes on the radio or TV. But in 2001, when I came back to New Zealand after about a decade away, I went to live near Ōtaki, where I'd frequently hear people in the shops and in the street speaking Māori. And it was common to hear the town called Ōtaki, not Owe-tacky, so I did too.

ADAM POULOPOULOS/STUFF Do you live in Or-taki or Owe-tacky?

And now I live in Paraparaumu, I try to pronounce that properly too, rather than calling it Paraparam or, worse, just Pram.

If all this makes me sound horribly smug, I should admit being hopelessly inconsistent, as I suspect many others are. I still struggle to call it Toe-por, even though I know I should, or Roe-mati. And as for Ohau, I've never heard it called anything other than Owe-how.

I've made a vow to try harder, though, because it's actually not that difficult. It's just a question of ditching a few bad habits. Some might argue – particularly old white guys – that it's too late to change the habits of a lifetime now.

KYLIE KLEIN NIXON Hanging out on Paraparaumu Beach? As long as you don't say you're in "Pram".

But what have they got to lose? The worst that could happen is that some of their dumber mates might laugh at them for saying Or-taki – and that can't be so bad, can it?

Originally from the UK, Patrick Piercy lives in Paraparaumu and works for Stuff. As part of Te Wiki o te reo Māori, Māori Language Week, we're taking a look at why so many of us mispronounce Kiwi place names.

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