Posts by HORansome
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to linger,
You’re conflating responses by both Tom and myself (Tom was the one who disagreed with your claim that diacritical marks are dropping out of use in English) and you’re conflating two senses of authority. I’m talking about an argument based upon reference to the authority of the maintainers and preservers of te reo; they have said we should use the macron. I’m not making any argument about what users of New Zealand English think is the case (the appeal to popular wisdom) because what New Zealand English speakers think about the spelling of te reo words is not relevant in this instance.
So I’m not dismissing published work, unless you want to point me to published work that says we shouldn’t use macrons in te reo and/or work that says this word “Maori” is now an English word that has replaced its te reo equivalent.
My second point is this; we’re talking here about the proper noun of the indigenous people of this place; we should spell it correctly.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I think you'll find I agree with you on that, Craig; that's why my initial comment to Russell was about how I felt the first line of this post painted a picture of te ao Māori that was generalised and unwarranted. The failure to use macrons was of secondary importance.
I should also like to add, in my role as a teacher of critical thinking, that pointing at other places and people who don't use macrons or are inconsistent in their marking of the long vowels of te reo Māori isn't an argument, nor justification, for not marking said vowels. Unless, of course, that person can give a good reason as to why, say, they can ignore the findings and guidance of the relevant authorities (such as the Māori Language Commission, for example).
Rant over.
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I should point out that my hardline on the macron comes from associating with linguists and teachers of Te Reo.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Russell Brown,
It's not a case of two words being spelt identically but pronounced differently; the macron is a character and thus the words are pronounced differently because they are spelt differently.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to alobar,
Well, the tāngata whenua of this place are the Māori. No idea what these "Maori" people keep writing about, though. It's a common word and I've come to think that it means the writer doesn't know how to spell key words in one of the country's official languages.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Tom Beard,
+1 to Mr. Beard about the macron.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Russell Brown,
But your own argument shows that saying
the rush of misguided Maori sentiment
puts your comment entirely on the wrong foot. You start by claiming there is a rush of Māori sentiment (compared to what, Pākehā sentiment?) and that also suggests there is also a lot of it (thus a rush).
No one is disputing that Dr. Walker's comments aren't notable; we're disputing the need to bring the notion that this says something about Māori.
Also, a small, but important point; you keep misspelling "Māori." The macron is not optional.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Ewan Morris,
I'll echo that; it would be more accurate to say "a rush of misguided sentiment" than to label it as being any more Māori than Pākehā in nature.
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I shall try to tear myself away from finishing my thesis to attend "Media 7" this week; this is all getting far too exciting to pretend to ignore.
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What is this "digital" you speak of?