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The importance of pronouncing Māori correctly is growing because of the increasing use and standing of Māori in ceremonial occasions in New Zealand. However unlike mainstream languages such as English, there are no existing pronunciation aids publicly available to provide feedback on the pronunciation of Māori. This project is developing a pronunciation aid providing feedback on spoken Māori vowels and words. The project draws its source materials from the MAONZE database, this unique database contains speech has over 60 hours of speech from 62 speakers of Māori (male and female). Māori, like many Indigenous languages, have speakers whose eloquence in the spoken language means that their speech is considered exemplars of the gold standard of that language and these speakers are typically older people. At least 40 of the speakers in the MAONZE database are considered to be gold standard, and we are therefore in the unique position to be able to develop our pronunciation aid, using as a reference point high quality exemplars.
- Dr. Catherine Watson
