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  • Waitangi Day (6 February)

    From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 6 11:20:57 2024
    This is (sort of) New Zealand's national holiday.
    Also Bob Marley's birthday (6-2-1945).
    It's a lovely day. Over in the park they're celebrating both.
    On TV we can see the annual doings from up at Waitangi (Bay of Islands),
    the national dialogue about the Treaty of Waitangi (6-2-1840), the
    nation's founding document. More fun than it sounds.

    Crystal talks about the state of the Maori language. I would say it's in
    better health than it has been at any time since I arrived here 51 years
    ago. The new government (appeasing the grumpy minority who aren't happy
    about this) is attempting some token push-backs in public usage (names
    of government departments, road signs, etc.), but they won't get far.

    He also notes lexical intercourse between English and Maori, and...but
    what's this??! Among examples of Maori words (300 of them) now in OED,
    he has "the greeting _aloha_"!!! Yes, it's in OED, but no, it's
    Hawaiian. Probably confusion with the cognate word _aroha_ (n), "Chiefly
    in Māori contexts: love, affection; warmth of feeling; an instance of
    this" (OED). If you want a Maori greeting, it would be _kia ora_ (lit. something like "be well"), also in OED.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Athel Cornish-Bowden@21:1/5 to Ross Clark on Tue Feb 6 08:52:43 2024
    On 2024-02-05 22:20:57 +0000, Ross Clark said:

    This is (sort of) New Zealand's national holiday.
    Also Bob Marley's birthday (6-2-1945).
    It's a lovely day. Over in the park they're celebrating both.
    On TV we can see the annual doings from up at Waitangi (Bay of
    Islands), the national dialogue about the Treaty of Waitangi
    (6-2-1840), the nation's founding document. More fun than it sounds.

    Crystal talks about the state of the Maori language. I would say it's
    in better health than it has been at any time since I arrived here 51
    years ago. The new government (appeasing the grumpy minority who aren't
    happy about this) is attempting some token push-backs in public usage
    (names of government departments, road signs, etc.), but they won't get
    far.

    He also notes lexical intercourse between English and Maori, and...but
    what's this??! Among examples of Maori words (300 of them) now in OED,
    he has "the greeting _aloha_"!!! Yes, it's in OED, but no, it's
    Hawaiian. Probably confusion with the cognate word _aroha_ (n),
    "Chiefly in Māori contexts: love, affection; warmth of feeling; an
    instance of this" (OED). If you want a Maori greeting, it would be _kia
    ora_

    When I were a lad (in England) that was a brand of soft drink.

    (lit. something like "be well"), also in OED.


    --
    Athel cb

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to Athel Cornish-Bowden on Tue Feb 6 22:30:24 2024
    On 6/02/2024 8:52 p.m., Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
    On 2024-02-05 22:20:57 +0000, Ross Clark said:

    This is (sort of) New Zealand's national holiday.
    Also Bob Marley's birthday (6-2-1945).
    It's a lovely day. Over in the park they're celebrating both.
    On TV we can see the annual doings from up at Waitangi (Bay of
    Islands), the national dialogue about the Treaty of Waitangi
    (6-2-1840), the nation's founding document. More fun than it sounds.

    Crystal talks about the state of the Maori language. I would say it's
    in better health than it has been at any time since I arrived here 51
    years ago. The new government (appeasing the grumpy minority who
    aren't happy about this) is attempting some token push-backs in public
    usage (names of government departments, road signs, etc.), but they
    won't get far.

    He also notes lexical intercourse between English and Maori, and...but
    what's this??! Among examples of Maori words (300 of them) now in OED,
    he has "the greeting _aloha_"!!! Yes, it's in OED, but no, it's
    Hawaiian. Probably confusion with the cognate word _aroha_ (n),
    "Chiefly in Māori contexts: love, affection; warmth of feeling; an
    instance of this" (OED). If you want a Maori greeting, it would be
    _kia ora_

    When I were a lad (in England) that was a brand of soft drink.

    Yes! I've heard of it, but never seen it here. Apparently still made and
    drunk in Ireland.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia-Ora

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Aidan Kehoe@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 6 19:50:22 2024
    Ar an séiú lá de mí Feabhra, scríobh Ross Clark:

    [...] Māori contexts: love, affection; warmth of feeling; an instance of >> this" (OED). If you want a Maori greeting, it would be _kia ora_

    When I were a lad (in England) that was a brand of soft drink.

    Yes! I've heard of it, but never seen it here. Apparently still made and drunk in Ireland.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia-Ora

    I haven’t seen it in years, but of course I wasn’t looking. Will keep any eye
    out for it and update you all if I see it.

    --
    ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
    How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
    (C. Moore)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Wed Feb 5 22:30:01 2025
    It's New Zealand's national holiday. Commemorates the Treaty of
    Waitangi, proclaimed and signed by Maori chiefs and representatives of
    Queen Victoria at Waitangi ("noisy water") in the Bay of Islands on
    6/2/1840. It's not exactly NZ's constitution, but of equally fundamental importance, and its interpretation has been controversial from the
    first, but especially in the last 50 years.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi

    A big gathering takes place at Waitangi, attended by Maori from all over
    the country and political leaders. Confrontations and protests are not infrequent. This year is no exception. Apparently this video clip was
    seen by many elsewhere in the world:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2024/nov/14/mp-rips-up-bill-leads-haka-as-nz-parliament-erupts-over-waitangi-treaty-bill-video

    NB: She was tearing up, not the Treaty, but the "Treaty Principles
    Bill", a project of David Seymour, leader of our rightmost parliamentary
    party. (You may remember him being referred to as an "obnoxious twerp"
    [?or words to that effect] by Jacinda Ardern when she was PM.) The bill
    would toss out the understanding and application of the Treaty resulting
    from the deliberations of many learned and serious people over the
    years, and put it to the general public in a referendum.
    Anyhow, it has no chance of passing into law; just being allowed to
    introduce it was one of Seymour's rewards for joining the governing
    coalition.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)