Māori and English in New Zealand toponyms

Abstract

This paper takes up one of the conference themes, «Reflection of language contacts in proper names». It deals with the situation in New Zealand where there are some 12,000 gazetted (or official) and an estimated 35,000 nongazetted (or recorded) place names. These names are almost all in Māori and English. The country was settled by the Māori people in the fourteenth century and today about 650,000 people, out of a total population of about 4.3 million, claim Māori descent. Māori named almost all of the country, the names being closely linked to iwi (tribal) histories. Foreigners, almost all English speaking, started visiting the country and giving their names to various places, and from the early nineteenth century two place name systems – Māori and nonMāori – have existed. This paper details the contact between the Māori language, the English language and New Zealand’s place names. It deals with seven matters: (1) Māori settlement and naming; (2) Early nonMāori settlement and naming; (3) the Treaty of Waitangi; (4) post Treaty of Waitangi names; (5) spelling of Māori place names; (6) prounciation of Māori names; and (7) dual and alternative Māori-English place names. Reasons are advanced to explain matters associated with the interlingual problems in the spelling and pronunciation of the place names and the emergence of dual place names.