Crawford. — On the Maori Language. 57 



Zealand we have the relative height of elevations well defined 

 in maunga, mountain ; puke, hill. Suppose we convert Mount 

 Cook into Maungakuku, this would be much more euphonious 

 than Mount Cook, and serve as well the purpose of commemo- 

 rating the name of the great discoverer. 



Mount, as a rule, is applied to a hillock; when exceptionally 

 used to denote the highest mountains in the world the effect is 

 feeble. 



To return to a few more illustrations. The German name 

 for ice is the same as our own, but they spell the word eis. Any 

 one can see that the German spelling is phonetic, but what 

 shall we say to the English ice. The /' is made into the diph- 

 thong ei, the c into s, and the e is mute and useless. In the 

 same category we have nice, twice, rice, spice, mice, &c. The 

 mute e, at the end of words, ought to be abolished. 



What must a foreigner think when he hears an educated 

 Englishman talk of Demostheniez and Pericliez. This pronuncia- 

 tion has a thoroughly illiterate effect, something similar to the 

 crier in Court calling out, "Oyiez, Oyiez" or of a lawyer talking 

 about laechiez, or of Naisai Prams. The pronunciation is not 

 even according to English custom, for we do not say Agniez, 

 btmniez, Totniez, prickliez, wrinkliez. When an Englishman is 

 asked why he does not pronounce names correctly, he says that 

 it would look like affectation to do so, whereas the affectation 

 is all the other way. 



A few illustrations will show in what a curious way the letter 

 o is treated in English. We find its different and varying 

 sounds in tome, torn, our, route, cooper, coffee. There may pos- 

 sibly be more variations. I have picked out the above at 

 random. 



Now all these various defects in English orthography have a 

 strong bearing upon the future of the Maori language. That 

 language has been brought into a phonetic orthography, and 

 many of the European settlers understand this : but every day 

 fresh arrivals come from England who know nothing of the 

 subject, and who proceed to damage the Maori tongue. The 

 culprits are to be found iu the Post Office Department ; as com- 

 positors in newspaper offices; as officials in the Land Office, and 

 in the public generally. Thus we find the native names mis-spelt 

 and made ridiculous. I have already mentioned the cases of 

 Petone, for Pito-one, Tenui for Tinui. I may add Kaiwarra for 

 Kaiwharawhara, Mangahao for Mang&hoa. When I traversed 

 the Forty-mile Bush, some twenty-four years ago, I put this 

 name down as Mang&wha, which is practically the same as 

 Mang&hoa. Mangahao does not give the sound at all. 



Pauatahanui is converted into Pahautanui. Ohiro is not 

 mis-spelt, hut is pronounced Ohairo, and so on. One could 

 find many similar examples. But what can be expected when 



