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Abba_Fiskbullar t1_iu7sbj1 wrote

Can any Kiwis confirm if we're now to call New Zealand "Aotearoa"? And does pronunciation follow the same rules as Hawaiian and Samoan, where you just pronounce each letter individually?

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NewZealandTemp t1_iu7wklr wrote

>Can any Kiwis confirm if we're now to call New Zealand "Aotearoa"?

I like the name Aotearoa, but New Zealand is still our better known and probably official name. There is talk about changing it to Aotearoa. Call us it if you want :)

Māori has slightly different vowels and language to other Pacific languages. They are reasonably close to Hawaiian and Samoan, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yac8HTQ9YLQ

This video has a fine pronunciation. In practise, the vowel blend of A and o blend into one, and ea and oa are said separately.

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MeatballDom t1_iu82kfj wrote

Anecdotally, but: Aotearoa is used more commonly than "New Zealand" when talking to people in the country that live here, generally. It's fairly common in NZ English to use te Reo Maori words in place of English ones, and it's growing more and more popular to use Aotearoa in this sense.

No one will get at you for using "New Zealand" though. I think even the people who are pro "Aotearoa" mainly would like the country to be called "Aotearoa - New Zealand"

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hilarymilne t1_iu8620h wrote

In larger cities, and amongst certain groups, absolutely, using 'Aotearoa' instead of 'New Zealand is becoming common place, however (anecdotally) most people will still use "New Zealand" over "Aotearoa"

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