What’s that little line? He aha te¯na¯ paku ra¯rangi?
Kia ora ta¯tou e whakanui ana i te¯nei wiki o to¯ ta¯tou reo. The decision by Stuff and its stable of newspapers to use the tohuto¯ or macron will delight all those who treasure New Zealand’s first language. As we say in Ma¯ori: ‘‘ahakoa he iti, he pounamu’’ – ‘‘although it seems small, it’s of great value’’.
Tohuto¯ mark long vowels, and help tell which bit of a word to stress. With tohuto¯ anyone can look at a word, even one they have never seen before, and pronounce it. There’s a big difference in sound between a long and short vowel. ‘a’ is the sound in the English word ‘fun’. ‘a¯’ is the sound in ‘far’ (if you’re not from Southland). Common Ma¯ori words that use the tohuto¯ include ha¯ngi, hapu¯, hı¯koi, ka¯inga, ka¯tipo¯, ka¯ka¯po¯, kauma¯tua, ka¯wanatanga, kereru¯, ko¯whai, ku¯mara, ko¯hanga reo, pa¯ , Pa¯keha¯ , tu¯ı¯, wa¯nanga, wha¯nau and we¯ta¯. Many think of tohuto¯ as a novelty but the need to mark long vowels was always seen as important by some. The first publication to use the tohuto¯ was Lady (Mary Ann) Martin’s Ma¯ori language book Recipes for remedies, food and beverages in 1869. However, its use was not formalised until the establishment of the Ma¯ori Language Commission in 1987 and the decision, led by the first Commissioner, Professor (now Sir) Tı¯moti Ka¯retu that tohuto¯ should be used. This ended (largely) the competing use of double vowels which was favoured by some and are still used widely in Waikato.
Technology was at first a significant problem. Many typewriters could not create a macron. Computers often couldn’t either. But now, the macron has triumphed. The Bible has just been published in a new edition, complete with tohuto¯. It’s easy now to set up IT systems to insert them. There’s even an online service to automatically add tohuto¯ to text.
We now have 20 years of people graduating from schools using tohuto¯ in their written work. It is as natural to those Ma¯ori language users as dotting an ‘i’ in English.
The use of a tohuto¯ * raises the status of the Ma¯ori language because people are seen to care about its correct use. This is particularly important for children – their confidence in using te reo Ma¯ori outside home and school settings is increased by seeing their language respected.
* indicates which meaning is intended: ka¯ka¯ – parrot; kaka¯ – glowing hot; kaka – stalk or lineage; and kaka – informal word corresponding to ‘poo’ in New Zealand English.
* shows readers how the word is pronounced and where the stress goes; Ka¯rearea (falcon) has a macron and is spoken as CAR-rehuh-reh- uh. Karearea is not a word. The Reserve Bank last year came to the tohuto¯ party and corrected this word on the $20 bill.
The Ma¯ori language is spoken conversationally by about 130,000 people. 300,000 are learning it at school. There are 10,000 tertiary students. Hundreds of thousands more have learned a little, and use a little. All will appreciate Stuff’s addition of the tohuto¯ to stories.
It’s a significant contribution to revitalisation of te reo Ma¯ori and is as important as the efforts of broadcasters to pronounce words correctly. He rawe! Nga¯ mihi ki a koutou katoa.