Paul Moon: Spelling debate brings out bigotry and racism

The spelling adopted for the city differs from the river, and historical records show it has been inconsistently applied.

Several years ago, an agitated visitor arrived at my office to inform me that the Maori language was dead.

I had no idea who he was or why he had come to see me, but the gist of his argument was a simple one: "More people speak Latin than Maori, and Latin is a dead language."

As I listened to his his diatribe, it became apparent that his antipathy to te reo disguised a deeper-rooted antagonism against all things Maori.

Pronouncing last rites on the language had become a camouflage for condemning the entire culture and those who are a part of it.

Sadly, the spectre of language and racism has been close to the surface again in recent days, especially since the announcement by the New Zealand Geographical Board that it favours the "wh" spelling for Whanganui.

So much of the response has been an opportunity for some people to give vent to sentiments that have little to do with spelling preferences and a lot more to do with bigotry.

As a historian, the temptation for me to provide dispassionate evidence for the "wh" spelling is an inviting one. But the matter is not one of merely assessing the arithmetic of "w" against "wh" in the frequency of their appearance in historical sources.

The argument ought to be one of standardised orthography. Imagine if we altered the spelling of English words to suit regional pronunciation preferences.

Would we impose "roth" on our American friends, or would they insist on us using "rath"? The solution is the standardised (though illogical) "wrath".

The spelling might not quite make sense, but this is more than compensated for by the advantage of the word being recognisable across countries and cultures.

Dialectical and pronunciation differences in te reo Maori remain, and it is one of these regional peculiarities has been at the heart of the debate in Whanganui lately.

Local hapu pronounce the location without an "h", as do local Pakeha. So far, so good, in that agreement on how the word is spoken is a good starting point.

However, the spelling adopted for the place was always an anomaly, and from what we can deduce from historical records, was inconsistently applied.

Poor spelling stemming from amateur transcription, and without appreciation of the rules that apply to te reo in its written form, led to the name increasingly appearing in text as "Wanganui".

And it seems that the main argument for keeping it that way is that this error has become familiar, even cherished.

The problem with this line of thinking, of course, is that it is based on the premise that repetition of a mistake somehow reduces its severity or consequence.

Not only is the opposite more likely to be true, but establishing a precedent for parochial spellings to creep in does no favour for any language.

English serves as the greatest case for this. It has the most varied pronunciation of any language on earth, but adheres to strict spelling - something that is a strength rather than a hindrance.

Similarly, as the number of fluent te reo speakers continues its steep ascent, consistency in the language's spelling ought to be supported. Enormous advances have been made in this field in recent years, particularly by the Maori Language Commission, and Te Ipukarea (the National Maori Language Institute).

The decision to correct the spelling of Whanganui will be seen as being consistent with their work.

At times, the issue had the appearance of a linguistic arms race. New Zealanders have a good record of reconciliation, and there is no reason why a few charred bridges cannot be repaired in the fullness of time.

There is also some good that can be extracted from what has been a generally acrimonious argument. A group of Year 7 and 8 children from Otaki School's kura kaupapa unit wrote letters in Maori to their mayor, expressing their preference for the spelling of Whanganui.

The bilingual ability and social consciousness of these children ought to be a source of great pride to their whanau and to the nation.

* Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at AUT University; paul.moon@aut.ac.nz