NZ adults absorb the sounds and structure of te re Māori words

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-02-03 10:56

New Zealand

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NZers who don’t speak te reo Māori tend to recognise the appearance of written Māori words, and hold onto this knowledge when they move overseas, shows a new study. Researchers tested how confidently people could distinguish fake words with ‘Māori-like’ sounds and structures from ‘non-Māori-like’ fake words. They found that adults were similarly good at this regardless of whether they had lived in NZ all their life, moved to NZ from overseas, or had moved abroad from NZ. They were also all better at this task than NZ teens, although adults who had always lived in NZ were best at another task identifying real Māori words. Overall, the researchers said that childhood exposure isn’t necessary to get familiar with a language, but ongoing exposure reinforces and expands this knowledge.