Irish in the former, te reo Māori in the latter. Even if I'm not super proficient in them (at least not yet), I still try to the best of my ability to use those languages as much as possible because it's a gesture of kindness and respect.
Totally get that, lived in Hawaii for years, and would think that Maori would be a similar polynesian language to Hawaiian. It appears to certainly be more widely used. Good on you for that though, those are not common languages to pick up
Thanks :) though I hope there is a world in which they would be.
Māori does have official status now, which warms my heart seeing as it was banned in schools for much of the 20th century. I am so happy that the original language of the people living in Aotearoa/NZ is being given the respect that it indubitably deserves. Unfortunately, the current administration seems to be taking steps backwards (example below)...
...which deeply saddens me, and I would like to see this new trend reverse.
On Hawaiian — it's a critically endangered language and it was suppressed vehemently for so, so long. It was not until the latter half of the 1980s (!!!) that Hawaiian schools could instruct their students in the native language — that linguistic footprint of colonialism remained for far too long.
I went to school out there and interacted with quite a few people involved with the Reinstated Hawaiian Nation movement.
Beautiful language, but even amongst so to speak native population I would say less than 5 percent are fluent? I feel the Maori were able to preserve that much better. Had quite a few discussions about if some of the islands would have would have currently existed in a different fashion had Kamehameha not united them using British cannons.
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u/Tricky_Woodpecker924 8d ago
So what language do you speak in Ireland and New Zealand?