how do you pronounce Matua as in Matua wine from New Zealand?

Question

In the U.S.A. of course

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maori_language

Answer 2

Hello

The Maori people had no written language prior to the arrival of the European missionaries. So, a written language was developed for them and is largely phonetically based. So, apart from some specific exceptions (such as 'wh' pronounced as 'F'), you can generally pronounce a Maori word as you see it.

Now, despite what the NZ 'language police' would have you believe, there are regional variations in how the Maori language is pronounced (as there are in most countries). But, putting this to one side, the general rule for vowels is that they are either long or short. When a vowel is long it is marked with a 'macron', which is a horizontal line (like a hyphen) above the letter. Otherwise it is short.

Pronunciations are therefore as follows:

Vowel Short or Long

a................... as in about.......or.......far
e....................as in enter........or......bed
i.................... as in eat...........or.....sheep
o................... as in awful........or....pork
u................... as in put...........or... boot

As you can see the distinction is often so subtle as to be almost un-noticeable.

The word 'Matua' has no macrons and so the vowels take the short form; the consonants are as they are in English. No letter or syllable in the word is emphasised more than any other.

I hope that allows you to get the correct pronunciation. However, I assure you that if you ordered a bottle of Matua here in New Zealand, no-one would have difficulty in understanding you if you just said it as it looked to you. You would however be asked to share!!! :-) But, hey, that’s just our way.

By the way the word Matua can variously mean - prime, capital, senior, principal, etc. so, in this context it could be translated to indicate that the winemakers think their wine is a cut above the rest.

Answer 3

Sorry, I don't know how to do flash pronunciation things like in dictionaries.

But it's like this: mar2ar with slightly stronger emphasis on on the 'mar'.

As far as I can remember. 'Ma' in Maori is never pronounced as 'may', so if you see words like this, you can usually pronounce them in a similar way.

Btw, good on you for buying New Zealand wine.

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Answer 4

Mah - Too - Ah.