Intentional use of te reo Māori in New Zealand newspapers in 2007

Abstract

The study aimed to measure the intentional use of words in te reo Māori in a representative sample of newspaper news items about Māori issues.While te reo Māori was made an official language in 1987, it remains endangered and New Zealand remains one of the most monolingual countries in the world. The news items analysed were about Māori issues, and thus more likely to include Māori words. Only words with an alternative in English were counted, and the origin of articles was analysed. Forty-five percent of items included no Māori words. Only words with an alternative in English were counted, and the origin of articles was analysed. forty-five percent of items included no Māori words with an alternative in English, and the average across the sample was 2.4. More than half the Māori words counted described social culture. Use of te reo varied widely among newspapers. No regular Māori language promotion items appeared in the sample, and it provides little evidence of support for New Zealand's endangered indigenous official language.