Category: language

I love the Māori language, but I get a little miffed when I am told I am not allowed to pluralise words in English if they have a Māori origin.

An example is: Māori belong to Hapu which belong to iwi when in fact what is meant is that Māoris belong to Hapus which belong to iwis.  [Māoris belong to sub-tribes which belong to tribes]
The argument is that the Māori language has no ‘s’ in it and therefore the word Māoris cannot be used.

My argument is that the Māori language has the very sensible arrangement of two definite articles, one singular and one plural [te and nga giving te wahine – a woman and nga wahine – women]. The English language however does not have this and so it usually needs its ‘s’ to pluralise. When a word is being used in English it becomes an English word and has no choice but to conform to English language conventions.

It seems rather insulting to both languages to say that Māori is so weak it cannot lend its words to other languages and that English is such a muddle that it can throw away its pluralisation rules.

Just saying.

 

 

There are too many gots in the world
If you go through a piece of written or spoken language and remove the gots you will find that the clarity is seldom damaged and often enhanced. In fact it is almost everyone’s habit to add a got to every have regardless of whether it even makes sense.
Eg ‘Have you got any cake?’ The questioner almost certainly wants to know if you HAVE any cake. You have probably got cake on hundreds of occasions but that is no use if the cupboard is now bare. The question they really wanted to ask was ‘Have you any cake.’ Shorter simpler and more accurate.
What about ‘I have got to go.’ How does that differ from ‘I have to go.’ Minus a got and more accurate and precise.
Try taking the gots out of something you read, listen to, or say. You will be surprised how many can go and actually improve the quality of the language.