Blog Archives

A story of story-telling, Miriam Meyerhoff

The Truth About Language: What it is and where it came from  Michael C Corballis Auckland University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781869408633 Many people have remarked that, more than language itself, how we use language is what sets humans apart from…
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Posted in Language, Non-fiction, Review

One in every home, Hilary Stace

The Raupo Dictionary of Modern Maori  P M Ryan Raupo, $60.00, ISBN 9780143567899 Every household and office in Aotearoa New Zealand will have times when they need an easy-to-use Maori dictionary. As more te reo words and phrases drift into…
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Posted in Language, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

Snorts and foamings, Peter Russell

Q and Eh: Questions and Answers on Language with a Kiwi Twist Laurie Bauer, Dianne Bardsley, Janet Holmes and Paul Warren Random House, $39.99, ISBN 9781869793432   This book by four professional linguists at Victoria University aims to explain aspects…
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Posted in Essays, Language, Non-fiction

They fuck you up, Andrew Fieldsend

The Ship of Dreams: Masculinity in Contemporary Pakeha and Maori Fiction of Aotearoa/New Zealand Alistair Fox Otago University Press, $45.00,  ISBN 9781877372544 In this academic but engaging study of masculinity in contemporary New Zealand fiction, Alistair Fox of the University…
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Posted in Gender, Language, Literature, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Telling responses, Hamish Clayton

Look This Way: New Zealand Writers on New Zealand Artists Sally Blundell (ed) Auckland University Press, $44.99,  ISBN 9781869403713 Art and letters have always had a close working relationship in New Zealand. Our cultural landscape is pock-marked with painter-poets, jacks-of-all-trades…
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Posted in Art, Essays, Language, Non-fiction, Review

Earshot rules, Nelson Wattie

Languages of New Zealand ed Allan Bell, Ray Harlow and Donna Starks Victoria University Press, $49.95, ISBN 0864734905 When I returned to New Zealand in 1989 after a quarter-century in Europe, I was naturally curious about how European languages fared…
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Posted in Language, Non-fiction, Review

A particular dedication, Hilary Stace

Books in Maori: An Annotated Bibliography, 1815-1900/ Nga Tanga Reo Maori: Nga Kohikohinga Me Ona Whakamarama compiled in the Alexander Turnbull Library by Phil Parkinson and Penny Griffith Reed, $120, ISBN 079000951X New Zealand has traditionally lacked “bibliodensity”. This term…
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Posted in History, Language, Literature, Māori, Review

In the beginning was the word, Nelson Wattie

The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary ed Tony Deverson and Graeme Kennedy Oxford University Press, $130, ISBN 0195584511 Lexicographers are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the publication, on 15 April 1755, of Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, the book that made their profession…
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Posted in Language, Non-fiction, Review

Lore meets law, Kate Riddell

Mihipeka: Call of an Elder Karanga a te kuia Mihi Edwards Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 1877228222 The Tribes of Muriwhenua: Their Origins and Stories  Dorothy Urlich Cloher (Maori translation by Merimeri Penfold) Auckland University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1869402693 Rere atu,…
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Posted in Autobiography, Biography, History, Language, Māori, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Winged words, Jane McRae

Nga Pepeha a nga Tipuna: The Sayings of the Ancestors ed Hirini Moko Mead and Neil Grove Victoria University Press, $59.95, ISBN 0864733992 Maori sayings are “ready bits of loftiness and sonority”, to use George Steiner’s apt characterisation of formulaic…
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Posted in History, Language, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
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