{"id":505340,"date":"2026-07-02T00:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/505340\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T00:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:53:10","slug":"new-zealand-finally-gets-a-google-maps-tool-that-correctly-pronounces-maori-placenames-maori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/505340\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand finally gets a Google Maps tool that correctly pronounces M\u0101ori placenames | M\u0101ori"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, M\u0101ori placenames have been distorted into nearly unrecognisable sounds by Google Maps<\/a> in New Zealand. For those with attuned ears, it can be grating or offensive.<\/p>\n

Now the M\u0101ori language commission \u2013 Te Taura Whiri i te Reo M\u0101ori \u2013 has collaborated with Google to fix it, launching a New Zealand-accented voice for its navigation tool that can correctly pronounce M\u0101ori words. It is the culmination of a project that has been years in the making.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t underestimate just how important this is in terms of normalising te reo M\u0101ori<\/a> [M\u0101ori language],\u201d Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr, the commission\u2019s chief executive, told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen everybody who is learning te reo M\u0101ori, or who speaks the language, hears those placenames being used, their language journey is being supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoogleGoogle Maps to pronounce M\u0101ori place names correctly in New Zealand \u2013 video<\/p>\n

While the government is pushing policies to limit the language in the public service<\/a>, te reo M\u0101ori has undergone a major resurgence in the past decade. There are extensive waiting lists for classes, M\u0101ori songs often top the charts and Hollywood studios are releasing versions of movies in M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori is the second most widely spoken language in New Zealand, after English, according to the 2023 census. Between 2018 and 2023, there was a 15% increase in the number of M\u0101ori speakers.<\/p>\n

Apanui-Barr said he \u201cgiggled with glee\u201d when he listened to the placenames being pronounced properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just spoke directly to my heart, to hear my language being pronounced properly on an app \u2026 this is the future of my language, is one of the foundations we need to have in place, because if people hear the language being pronounced properly, they are going to say it properly too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project was an example of how a public organisation can work with a private sector company to do a \u201creally good job\u201d, Apanui-Barr said.<\/p>\n

The Google project has prioritised cities, towns and certain street names for its launch, with the goal of expanding into more roads and regions.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Google and telecommunications company Vodafone (now One NZ) launched a campaign, with support from the language commission, calling on the public to pinpoint which M\u0101ori names were being mispronounced. Google said it would correct the tool by the end of that year.<\/p>\n

More than 60,000 corrections were submitted but technological hurdles led to delays.<\/p>\n

Advancements in AI text-to-speech models have now enabled the project to get off the ground, said Caroline Rainsford from Google New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The model is not bilingual \u2013 it is English \u2013 but draws on the data of sounds and names, guided by the commission and publicly available New Zealand Geographic Board data. A voice actor was hired to record a large script of te reo M\u0101ori sounds, which then feeds the model. The commission retains guardianship of that data, to ensure M\u0101ori academics, researchers and communities can access the lexicon.<\/p>\n

A number of other countries are on the waitlist for voice capture of their Indigenous languages, and projects are under way in Australia and the US.<\/p>\n

Rainsford said technology plays an important role in the use and advancement of te reo M\u0101ori, and she was proud New Zealanders would now hear \u201ca Kiwi voice\u201d during navigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd [they] are going to be able to hear really incredible pronunciation of our very sacred placenames in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, M\u0101ori placenames have been distorted into nearly unrecognisable sounds by Google Maps in New Zealand. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-505340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}