Words a one-way trade

Academic Paul Moon (right) says increased te reo use is positive, yet studies show that such processes are more likely to be destructive to an indigenous language than beneficial. “This is because English – uniquely in the world of languages – is almost genetically programmed to appropriate words from other languages and claim them as its own: a sort of linguistic colonisation.”

He wrote this piece with three te reo words: “Wearing his pyjamas, an old bandanna and his lucky bangle on his wrist, Jack stood on the veranda of his bungalow, eating toast and chutney, and drinking some fruit punch. He looked out at the puriri trees on the edge of the bush, which was as thick as a jungle. ‘I’ve got to clear some of that whenua,’ he said to himself. ‘It’s so thick that thugs could use it to hide their loot’. But he had been saying this for such a long time that it had become like a mantra. It was getting cold, so Jack went back inside, checked on his moko, who was sleeping in the cot and then went to shampoo his hair.”

Moon says he suspects most New Zealanders would be able to identify the te reo words. “Yet, over 10 per cent of the text in the paragraph is in Hindi, which illustrates both how English soaks up words from other languages and claims them as its own, and how this process – which is happening to te reo – does nothing to revive languages. In fact, it probably does the opposite.”

The Hindi words are: pyjamas, bandanna, bangle, veranda, bungalow, chutney, punch, jungle, thugs, loot, mantra, cot and shampoo. Hindi is not advanced one bit if English speakers use those words in everyday speech, Moon concludes. So how is te reo being advanced by us sprinkling a few words in with English?