TE REO MAORI in linguistic landscape of New Zeland: Rotorua, a case study

Abstract

Māori has become a vital part of the New Zealander’s lifestyle. Originally it was the language of the indigenous natives of the islands. For a time, it was the official and commercial language of New Zealand, until it was replaced by the English from British colonizers. It was at the edge of extinction in the mid of 20th century; therefore, its native representatives and the government of New Zealand decided to encourage learning and teaching the language with the intention of preserving it. Today Māori is the second official language of New Zealand. Recently with the country tourist increase, its presence is more notorious in the modern English of New Zealand. One of the aspects where the Te Reo Māori can be most noticeable in New Zealand is within its linguistic landscape: in the names of the streets and in the tourist signs of the country. The aim of this work is the analysis of the linguistic landscape of a New Zealand city to determine the use and position of this language within the New Zealand culture, if it is a decorative language for English or if it is a language with a linguistic identity that has an impact beyond the commercial realm. The main objective of this work is to study the linguistic landscape of New Zealand with a corpus collected in the field and to analyse the presence of Māori in signs of the city of Rotorua. The works of John Macalister in both English-Māori relationship and New Zealand Linguistic Landscape are the main point of comparison for the study of my corpus