Back in the early 1960s the Aussies used to dismissively refer to them as sheds but soon abandoned that as the market grew and as here, described them as warehouses or factories, depending on their use.
That’s now gone in line with commercial real estate agents appetite for grandiose language. Now the warehouses have become the absurd “logistics centres”.
This language rot has spread to The Sydney Morning Herald which no longer refers to itself as a newspaper but instead, as a “Masthead”. It’s a pretty good newspaper but plainly in need of some serious ear-boxing with its personnel responsible for this embarrassment.
But when it comes to language abuse our Tasman neighbours are mere babes in arms compared to New Zealand.
I refer of course to the use of maori to describe everything, including endless entities for which there was no maori equivalent, such as say the Reserve Bank and the like. The worst maori abuse however is demanding name changes for long established European built cities.
When about 20 or so years back those bullshit artists demanded Wanganui, Wakatane and Wangarei become Whanganui, Whakatane, Whangarei and pronounced Fonganui etc. THEY SIMPLY MADE THIS UP.
I say that as there were three Maori/English dictionaries written in the 19th Century. All made the observation that there was no “F” sound in maori, or indeed any Polynesian language other than Samoan where it’s unique to them. But everyone went cowardly along with this crap.
The latest attempt to change a place-name is Petone. A bullshit maori lobbyist group is demanding it now become “Pit-One”.
This is nonsense which they simply made up, Petone was of course the site of Wakefield’s first organised colony in New Zealand.
The settlers pronounced it as the relatively few maoris in the Valley back in 1840 did, namely PETONE. They had no interest in doing otherwise. But I expect the soppy City Council led by a bearded former non-descript government clerk, will fall into line and do as bid.
This patronising rubbish must stop. Cease using maori names for not just the Reserve Bank but the Health Department, Foreign Affairs and indeed all government departments, not one of which had a pre-European equivalent entity.
And finally, let’s get back to correct grammar and instead of “Health New Zealand”, revert to “The Health Department”.
It’s an extraordinary and possibly unique to New Zealand curiosity, that every change of government in the post-war year has seen an expensive and unnecessary re-naming of many government departments, without rhyme or reasons justifying this. This practise is a classic case of spending other people’s money.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
This language rot has spread to The Sydney Morning Herald which no longer refers to itself as a newspaper but instead, as a “Masthead”. It’s a pretty good newspaper but plainly in need of some serious ear-boxing with its personnel responsible for this embarrassment.
But when it comes to language abuse our Tasman neighbours are mere babes in arms compared to New Zealand.
I refer of course to the use of maori to describe everything, including endless entities for which there was no maori equivalent, such as say the Reserve Bank and the like. The worst maori abuse however is demanding name changes for long established European built cities.
When about 20 or so years back those bullshit artists demanded Wanganui, Wakatane and Wangarei become Whanganui, Whakatane, Whangarei and pronounced Fonganui etc. THEY SIMPLY MADE THIS UP.
I say that as there were three Maori/English dictionaries written in the 19th Century. All made the observation that there was no “F” sound in maori, or indeed any Polynesian language other than Samoan where it’s unique to them. But everyone went cowardly along with this crap.
The latest attempt to change a place-name is Petone. A bullshit maori lobbyist group is demanding it now become “Pit-One”.
This is nonsense which they simply made up, Petone was of course the site of Wakefield’s first organised colony in New Zealand.
The settlers pronounced it as the relatively few maoris in the Valley back in 1840 did, namely PETONE. They had no interest in doing otherwise. But I expect the soppy City Council led by a bearded former non-descript government clerk, will fall into line and do as bid.
This patronising rubbish must stop. Cease using maori names for not just the Reserve Bank but the Health Department, Foreign Affairs and indeed all government departments, not one of which had a pre-European equivalent entity.
And finally, let’s get back to correct grammar and instead of “Health New Zealand”, revert to “The Health Department”.
It’s an extraordinary and possibly unique to New Zealand curiosity, that every change of government in the post-war year has seen an expensive and unnecessary re-naming of many government departments, without rhyme or reasons justifying this. This practise is a classic case of spending other people’s money.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
16 comments:
The ultimate irony is that pre-1840 the Maori had no written language to allow them to quibble about whether places like Wanganui ought to be spelled Whanganui - and that's ignoring the fact that the H is silent anyway and pronounced the same whichever way it's spelled.
I may not still be around either to observe, but it concerns me that when Bob inevitably "passes" (use of the term a sop to te ao) no one will continue his campaign of straight speech common sense observation. There was a time quite recent when the role of govt departments and organisations could be reasonably identified from titles in the front of the phone book. Now it requires a dogged detailed website search. And the maori name has to be noted somewhere for quick reference as not all te reo spouting show offs do so in situations where they can be immediately stopped for question.
A supreme irony is that the local Wnaganui dialect is not F!. I was always intrigued by the recent Wanganui based RNZ trace maori announcer who diligently pronounced Wanganui with a W.
Seems to have gone; I doubt if current pro maori RNZ would tolerate.
Interesting that the streets in the Hutt Valley and the hill to Featherston have been renamed from Rimutaka to Remutaka, but the prison is still Rimutaka
Bob, all names are "made up."
We have lost Hastings . Been demoted .The Council caved to the leftists and changed the name .
It is not often discussed that “wh” was used in the written Maori language in the same way that “wh” was used and pronounced in the English language, at the time, in words like “whistle”, “where”, etc, in which case a slight aspiration provides a distinction with other words like “winch” and “wear”. This is the way these words were often spoken even in my youth (1960s) and, I believe, was the pronunciation in which NZBC radio announcers were trained: RP, as it was called. If the people who devised the written Maori language had truly been hearing an “f”, they would have used an “f”, or maybe “ph”, since they were both perfectly reasonable and available options. The very fact that they did not is the strongest piece of evidence against the “wh”=“f” lobby.
The depth of ridiculousness has to be St John, which adopted manufactured, artificial and patronising Maori to suit a political & woke agenda.
Now I see the govt has announced a big funding boost to St John (you'll not catch me using the pretend words), and methinks it should have been tagged with "get rid of that absurd 'other' name".
IWI have lobbied for National Park to be renamed Waimarino. The Minister hasn’t announced his decision. I remember when Mt Egmont was renamed Mt Taranaki. Māori will make you believe New Zealand should be renamed Aotearoa. A recent poll showed 8% support for a name change.
When the Speaker of the House wrote to Darlene Tana dismissing her from the House he referred to “Aotearoa New Zealand”. Clearly he didn’t fact check before adding his signature.
Re St John: I've written them and called them out on their wokeness and pandering to part-Maori activists. As a front-line health agency dealing with NZ's multicultural demographic, they should NOT be using raced based criteria nor should they be pushing the "Maori sovereignty" bull-shit line. As expected, I got back a form letter "thanking me for my comments", but not answering one of the several questions I asked them. If there was an alternative ambulance service, I'd happily pull the plug on this woke bunch of idiots; sadly, there isn't one that I know of.
St John receives a lot from legacies. The old age group, many with unfortunate maori experiences, are especially hostile to maorification. I wonder how legacies have trended since the absurd rename. Hone is just a maori corruption for John anyway. Less close to the colonist pronunciation than Petone is to the original maori as heard. Beats me how St John ever made such a blunder.
Totally agree, Bob. Breath of fresh air, but shouldn't it be "This practice is a classic case .. . .", rather than "This practise is a classic . . . ." Just saying.
Just on this “Aotearoa” so popular as of late: in the National Archives there’s a letter written in 1831 by the Māori scribe Eruera Pare Hongi, addressed to King William 1V. In his last sentence he refers to “Niu Tireni” - the writing is quite clear. It suggests the other name was something of a ‘newcomer’ and possibly holds little validity. To many, of course, that wouldn’t matter.
I agree with you with respect to the correct pronunciation of 'wh'. It was IMHO, originally pronounced in English, in particular at the time of the derivation of written Maori by Samuel Marsden et al, with notable aspiration. New Zealanders, among others and through mainly laziness, have reduced the likes of where to 'wear', when to wen, why to wie and so on.
I am fully on the same page as Sir Bob and other commenters on the Maori language issue. The Petone issue has not yet been decided – or maybe it has been decided on but not yet announced. I made a submission to the Geographic Board opposing the name change. If anyone is interested the submission is copied here. Sorry about the long read but I had to hammer home my debating points.
https://eamonsloan.blogspot.com/2024/09/petone-update-following-is-submission-i.html
Those able to read and write back in the day wrote what they heard from the maori speakers - in retrospect we may have all been better off if they had not bothered. Bear in mind there was no standard maori pronunciation either. Clear examples are waikato dialect using glottal stop instead of H sound and those south of the Waitaki River in the South Island using K instead of NG ( and other words altogether).
And of course language and pronunciation changes over time with different influences and sound changes. Endless examples of that.
The secret is to make sure that whatever we are speaking/ writing is clear and intelligble and relevant to the recipients otherwise it loses its value and indeed validity - exactly as this article points out.
Thank you Bob for saying out loud what the vast majority think.
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