Charismatic

I didn't know Asbestos came in paint form but apparently that's going to keep the post office building shut until Christmas. Probably a good time to consider stripping the old asbestos paint off and redecorating?!!

bourbon-biscuit

The other way to interpret this is that news presenters take time to ensure their pronunciation is fairly accurate. Locals aren't wrong so much as less right, iyswim. Calling correct pronunciation pretentious is a subtle way of dismissing the .... oh, I won't go down the rabbit hole here

For example, you will hear loads of people say Taupo and Tauranga as if the first sound is like the tow in town, whereas it is more correct (note, I say 'more', not 'the') to make them sound more like toe as in the toe on your foot, so toe-paw and toe-wronga rather than the commonly hear versions of tow-poe and tow-wronga.

Similarly, there is no "cat" in the Waikato; it is more correct to say why-car-tor (but the r on the end is not really heard).

When we first moved to Central Hawkes Bay our attempts to pronounce the names we had read were met with howls of laughter from locals, for example we pronounced Patangata as pat-n'-gata (pa-tong-gata) and Waimarama as wham-a-rama (why-marr-ama).

I ended up having to make up ways to say things correctly, so Waikaremoana I would remember by asking myself, "why WOULD you carry Moana?" (why-kerri-mowana).

Youtube has some great pronunciation videos - lots of fun - but listening to the weather twice a day helps you get your ear in.

BEVS

All fine with any of that but for one thing.

It keeps on changing year on year. Month on month and in this case because it is Kaikoura in a week.

Donkeys years of saying it one way which everyone pronounced the same way and then no. It changes.

Does my head in TBH. It is artificial.

SSky

I had to do a little course on the pronunciation of stuff when I worked at the airport. I could sell greenstone like a pro by the end of it (loads better than my native kiwis) and got all my vowels and stuff correct. It actually was really useful and educational ... I've always been keen to soak up local knowledge like a sponge but I still am learning :-)

MrsFychan

is there a freebie on the tinternet to do this do you know? My boss is always picking me up on my pronunciation as I am really crap at it. He tried teaching me the vowel sounds and he kept changing the sound of them - well it sounded that way to my ears - so really was a waste of 5 mins. Luckily I don't have to speak to clients very much and if I do I always ask them to clarify the spelling of the address rather than ask them to say it.
I know a is a hard sound, which is why the beginning of my daughters name was said as cart rather than cat, even though there is no r in it.

right back on topic.

Odd how we haven't felt the Cook Straight or Wairoa quakes but did the SI island ones.

Bo-Jangles

There'll be tons of vids on youtube, for an example this lady makes it all quite easy:

Charismatic

Ladies and Gentlement in the lower and central North Island we're going to have to recommend stowing your tea trays in the upright position at this time as we are encountering some slight turbulence. If you've not yet implemented adhesives to fragile possessions we recommend you do so now. For those of you who's final destination is Bedfordshire our crew will be around to administer a very large nightcap shortly.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Rete

You people are so unshakable, not literally that is, to go through this seemingly day after day. Think I might well have been packed on the next plane out the day after the first one.

Stay safe everyone and thinking of you.

Kotare

Two dead in 12 months, that's Chicago in 12 hours. People live on the sides of active volcanoes, go surfing in shark infested waters or sightseeing in Iraq - where's the risk in NZ :-)

BEVS

Thanks Rete.
Good of you to think of us all.

Correct me if I am wrong Kotere but you weren't anywhere near here for either the Christchurch nor the Kaikoura quakes, nor these aftershocks so it's all very well for you to be pragmatic about something you are not experiencing.

Kotare

Correct (but that doesn't make me wrong). I had a farm for three years fairly close to the Murchison fault and don't remember lying awake worrying. Same in my youth, lots of quakes which were just part of living in NZ. If I were you I would worry more about NZ drivers :-)

BEVS

Golden Bay as I recall and no sizeable quakes during that time so no neither you nor I on the other side of the marble mountain would have been concerning ourselves overly back then.

The difference now though is that in the last few years there have been sizeable quakes . Not just a shake or a jolt but ones that have impacted on many lives. That alters the thinking. Not for you of course. However for myself I prefer to be better safe than sorry.

Here is a small thing. I shall today be spending a few hours helping an elderly lady empty out her garage down in a retirement village.
She is in her mid 80's and her home , in particular her garage, was damaged during the Kaikoura quakes. Big hefty cracks in her relatively new build home.

Now I realise you may not lose any sleep but this lady is now troubled. She is a strong and stalwart woman who has led the most amazing life but that night she was of course unable to drop, hold , cover. She just about got herself to her front door from what she said. No-one came to check on her.
It will take some time now for her to feel as you do about quakes

scrubbedexpat094

but then some of us are more empathic than others. I haven't experienced any really bad quakes but I know friends who have and the long-term affects they experience. I have every sympathy for them and can understand the sleepless nights.

Rete

Excuse me but I was offering my best wishes to those who have been affected by the quakes. I don't know why you feel the need to come at me this way. Perhaps in the future you might want ignore my presence.

Kotare

Dear me what sensitive souls I am surrounded by - but I suspect most native Kiwis have my attitude. Every sympathy for the old lady Bevs but any accident might have had the same effect. Consider yourself ignored Rete :-)