Getting the spelling right
The Dom Post reports:
Two Wellington streets, named after wealthy Brits who never set foot in New Zealand, are likely to keep their misspelled names.
It comes as two other Wellington locations take a step closer to getting dual Maori and European names, and an unnamed ridge gets a proposed Maori name.
Wellington man George Holmes believes the names of Majoribanks and Nairn streets should be changed to reflect the names of those they were named after – early 1840s New Zealand Company directors Stewart Marjoribanks and Alexander Nairne.
Both men never came to New Zealand but helped fund European settlement.
“It’s extremely poor taste to mangle their names,” Mr Holmes said.
Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said council staff would not recommend the proposed changes.
If we’re going to correct Maori names, by putting an h into Whanganui, we should do the same with British names and stick an e on Nairne and an r into Marjoribanks.
The names changes don’t have to cost anything. Over time people will use the correct version – but the incorrect versions would I am sure still be accepted for postal purposes etc.
However sounds like the incorrect names will continue. Sadly. As a student of history, I think it is important to get names right.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:08 am
“As a student of history, I think it is important to get names right.”
On the other hand, mistakes can have a history all of their own. Otago for example…
August 5th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Racist! Racist!
hmmm wait a minute. What is it called when whites waste money on non-white concerns, suppressing the similar concerns of their own kind? Affirmative action? Surely that’s not still in current use. Wouldn’t it just be easier if we all hugged and got along? I’ll buy some mung beans and my sister can bring her guitar… kumbaya, oh lord… kumbaya…
August 5th, 2010 at 11:16 am
New Zealanders apparently want to be ruled by separatists and so it shall be.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Welcome to New Zeeland (see http://is.gd/e35xM)
August 5th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Additionally if we are concerned about the spelling of Majoribanks we should be equally concerned about its pronunciation.- which should be Marshbanks
August 5th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Mana for me but not for thee.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:58 am
If you had asked me how to spell the name of the street by the Embassy Theatre, I would have written Marjoribanks St. I guess it’s a case of seeing what you expect to see. It never occurred to me that the the thing was spelled any other way. Unbelievable that a simple spelling error gets enshrined in geography and can’t be put right because some bureaucrats object.
August 5th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
I would rather see an effort to promote the correct pronunciation of Marshbanks Street. I’ve been doing my bit to educate people on this for years, but to little avail.
[Just to be consistent with others in the area e.g. Pirie St and Knigges Ave which are correctly pronounced by most locals, although many who read these names for the first time don't know where to start!]
August 5th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
But agree with DPF it would cost so little and mean so much to have these names spelled correctly. Street signs in these areas are frequently replaced anyway due to vandalism by students and other lowlifes.
August 5th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Also something must be done about incorrect spelling perpetrated by Americans.
August 5th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Anonymouse, surely the correct pronunciation is fanshaw ?
August 5th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
So the council is prepared to waste money giving two locations a second name in maori (if you speak maori you already know the names, and if you don’t like most people you probably don’t care) but won’t waste money to rename two incorrectly named streets named after white people?
yep, that sounds like the pointless PC, money wasting assholes at wellington city council.
all or nothing in my opinion, and i would prefer nothing. the council wastes enough of the money they take from me by force subsidising other useless crap without more useless crap.
August 5th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
“However sounds like the incorrect names will continue. Sadly. As a student of history, I think it is important to get names right.”
But hang on, in September you said regarding the Whanganui spelling change:
“But the simple fact of the matter is, 77% of Wanganui voters, voted in a referendum that they did not want the name to change. I really think it is silly to force a change against such opposition.”
I’m sure you aren’t for correcting pakeha spelling and against correcting Maori spelling ?
August 5th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Just a note for Grendel (164). It’d be great if you read the story properly. The addition of Maori names to the various sites around Wellington is not being driven by Wellington City Council. Also it is laughable that you can play the ‘PC’ card re the Council’s reluctance to rename Nairn and Majoribanks streets. The main reason we don’t want to do it because lots of people who live in the streets are happy with the names as they are.
cheers
Richard MacLean – WCC Communications
August 5th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Isn’t the mistaken spelling now part of history as well?
I would rather money was put into the correct use of apostrophes on public signage.
August 5th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
don’t mention H’s as I’m in a shitty mood already
August 5th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I want Fielding, or is it Feilding changed .. not sure what to BUT I want it changed. I am from good British/Scottish stock and I feel wronged
August 5th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Instead of having dual Maori names for the streets couldn’t we have half a dozen hui and compromise by putting in an ‘H’ into the existing names and maybe adding a macron or two.
August 5th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I’m of two minds about these sorts of things, in that I agree with Scrubone, that spelling mistakes can have their own history. However, the real history tends to be far more interesting.
I always think of Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, which I’d only heard pronounced in Aussie-speak as Mount Cossie-Os-Koe. The first time I saw it written down I realised it was actually a Polish name of a Polish war hero who also went over to the US to help them in their revolution against the Brits. How that name ended up in Australia as the name of a mountain was very interesting to me. And now I see in Wikipedia that the name was corrected in 1997, having been Anglicised previously.
I don’t think the name correction will prevent the mangling of the name by the Australians, though.
August 5th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
There is a placed near here called (by many) Whackawhite. Not kidding.
Should the spelling or the pronunciation be changed? What about Papatwotoes?