POSTSCRIPT TO " SOUND SPELLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 69

POSTSCRIPT TO " SOUND SPELLING.

By Bodach.

I had already ported my aiticle on "Sound Spelling' 1 before I observed "Patei's' leference to me as an authority on the subject of Maori orthography. As our mail despatch h only once a week, I may i be too late to have this added, in which case this can be printed separately. The names given by "Pater' in his very ' dreadful wai article in the Otago Witness of 19th March would seem to be correct, ' but it i& not easy to give with certainty the equivalent in either Maori or English of proper names. |

"Piripf (or, contracted. Piri) stands for ; Philip or Phillips, and "Piri" may al&o be Billy. The word "Piri'' in Maori means steadfast or adhering. The prefix "ko" is used to point out 01 individualise, and might be rendered by "there is," or "lo I do not sej how "Tamiri" 1 can ;»tand fur Wnghtv, unless T;um:ri was a nickname. "Kaniura" is the Maori v»ord for a car-

penter, or a wright. Often pakehas were t given names from their occupation. 1 i have known a settler whose name was Randall always called Mete ("Matey"), because he had been mate of a ship. Alsc a settler named John Mackay who wae always styled Haki Pititi, because his first half-caste child had a face resembling the bloom on a ripe peach (pititi). Mr Rollo, who was bow-legged, was called Ko-ngae-ngae. There were two settlers in Lower Waikato, Mansell (a missionary) and Marshall. The Maori name of the former, Manihera, was a very fair rendering, but to call the second Marihera would have been confusing, so he was called Maiho. There was a surveyor, Todd, who did not' wish to be called Totty, for he was a big man, so the Maoris gave Mm the name of Maunkau. He was much disgusted when gazetted as a licensed surveyor, "Richard Todd, Rihari tora or Toti." Poor Todd, he was murdered by Maoris, in' 1870 while surveying confiscated land. Then the Maori Aporo, who smashed up Mr J. E. Gorst's printing press in April, 1863, might have been either Apollos or Apple. The name James is rendered variously— Hemi, Timi, or Tiemi. I once heard Bishop Or. A. Selwyn say to a newly-ap-pointed resident magistrate, "Do the Maoris make your name into a verb, as they do Captain Beckham's, of Auckland — Te PcI kamu?" I presume the good bishop meant; that the use of the prefix "Te" constituted the name into a verb, but I have never been, able to see why all these 37 years. And now for another bishop, the present one of Waiapu, who is one of our best Maori linguists. One day, in Gisborne, a Maori chief came to him with the authorised Maori translation of an act of Parliament, and asted the bishop to put it into real Maori. The bishop looked at the act, but could make neither head nor tail pf it,*; He told the Maori to come with him t(> the Government officers. Here they found Judge Heale, also a proficient Maori linguist. Mr Heale condemned the transla-' tions generally as understandable by, neither Maori nor pakelia, but he gave the bishop the act in plain English, from which; lie was able to supply his Maori friend' with an edition in good understandable Maori. Judge Heale told an instance of his having to correct the official interpreter, at a sitting of his Native Land Court. AJ Maori witness was giving an account o£ an old chief who died at a time when his own son was lying near him, also about to die. The old man said to his son, "E haere ana ahau i te tai-ata: haere koef i te tai-po." This the court interpreter translated, "I am sitting on the fence (taiepa) : you may go to tlie devil." The judge rebuked the interpreter, saying that no man would curse his son with nis dying breath. He gave the true translation: "I am going by the morning tide : you will follow by the night tide." This was indeed a very poetical expression.

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