Maori academic warns te reo could die out by 2050

The Maori language could die out by 2050 and Maori broadcasting could be partly to blame, a Maori academic warns.

It was a misconception that te reo Maori was experiencing a resurgence, Dr Rangi Mataamua was reported saying in the latest edition of Massey University's Defining NZ magazine.

Dr Mataamua, who completed his doctoral thesis on language, used to work as a researcher for Massey's school of Maori Studies and now supervises Maori doctoral students.

He said he took a "hard line" on the declining quality of te reo.

"I have heard things on Maori Television and radio that are not entirely correct. They've thought of something in English and translated it into Maori, but it doesn't work like that," he said.

Adapting te reo was not a "positive" step.

"You're taking one language, with all its history and culture, and using the crude methodology of another language to describe or explain it...the beauty of te reo is lost in that adaptation," Dr Mataamua said.

The problem was people learned the adapted te reo and then perpetuated it, he said.

Fluent speakers were dying and not being replaced: "We're on a tight time frame -- I predict that if we don't get this right, we may have no Maori language by 2050."

Dr Mataamua, of Tuhoe, said people needed to treat te reo as a common second language and use it on a daily basis.

The chief executive of Te Mangai Paho, the crown's Maori broadcasting funding agency, said he believed te reo would definitely still be in use in 2050.

"I have faith in our people to be able to maintain it...It's been going for 1000 years," said John Bishara.

However "lots and lots of work" was needed to keep te reo going.

International evidence suggested an indigenous language died out every two weeks, he said.

Maori Television spokeswoman Jaewynn McKay said its programming reflected its aim to "revitalise and normalise" the Maori language.

Statistics from the 2006 census showed 23 per cent of the Maori population could speak Maori "about a lot of every day things", she said.

- NZPA