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Worthington Road residents have enjoyed the humour of a new sign that has appeared on the roadside.
Insect or anus-cleaner?
Reader Ana Carroll loves that she is seeing more macrons on Maori words in Mahurangi Matters but recently spotted some that we had inadvertently left out. The error highlighted how macons make a huge difference. Here’s what Ana said: “The word weta was recently highlighted within the reo Māori learning community as a common mistake where it is pronounced weta and mispelt without its macrons. Wētā, said with a longer vowel sound on the ‘e’ and ‘a’ is our beloved ancient creepy wētā. However, weta (no macrons) are sprigs of grass that were traditionally used to clean the anus of a tūpāpaku- dead person!” Hopefully, context made it clear which one we were referring to!
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