Te Reo M?ori in the linguistic landscape of New Zealand

Abstract

M?ori or Te Reo M?ori has become a vital part of the New Zealander’s lifestyle. One of the aspects where the Te Reo M?ori can be most conspicuous in New Zealand is within its linguistic landscape: in the names of streets and in the country’s tourist signs. The aim of this work is the analysis of the linguistic landscape of Rotorua to determine the role M?ori language plays in New Zealand culture and its linguistic and functional role in the territory of the country; and whether Kiwi culture currently uses M?ori as a decorative language for English or is it truly a language with a growing identity beyond mere commercial aims. The result of this work was the analysis of the linguistic landscape of New Zealand through a corpus collected in the city of Rotorua where the M?ori presence on the city signs is quite considerable. John Macalister’s work on the English-M?ori relationship and the linguistic landscape of New Zealand was the main point of comparison for the study of this corpus.