The use of Māori words in National Science Challenge online discourse

• Published in: Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 491 - 508
• Main Authors: Calude, Andreea, Stevenson, Louise, Whaanga, Hēmi, Keegan, Te Taka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wellington Taylor & Francis 01-10-2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: corpus linguistics; Foreign words and phrases; identity; Language and languages; Linguistics; Maori language; Māori loanwords; National Science Challenge; New Zealand English; Science; Study and teaching; Websites; Words (language); Written Maori; New Zealand
• ISSN: 0303-6758; 1175-8899; 1175-8899
• DOI: 10.1080/03036758.2019.1662818

New Zealand English is well-known for its heavy borrowing of words from Māori. This lexical component, unique to New Zealand English alone has been studied intensely over the last 50 years, particularly in newspaper media. Current research suggests the use is still increasing today, primarily in Māori-related contexts. Here, we analyse a surprising and unexpected use of Māori loanwords in science digital discourse (neither genre being previously investigated), where we discover a strong presence of Māori borrowings in National Science Challenge website and Twitter content. Using corpus linguistics methods, we argue that the use of Māori loanwords in this genre functions as a national identity building tool, used by various authors to signal that the 'challenges' the country faces are uniquely New Zealand's 'challenges'.