pronounce names correctly,” Day said.
Te Tauihu has the potential to be much more than an inclusive gesture. Across the world, indigenous languages are dying out. Half of the world’s roughly 7,000 languages are expected to be extinct by the end of this century. “From a revitalization point of view, it takes one generation to lose a language and three to get it back,” Olsen-Reeder said. So a two-decade timeframe of concerted action might be necessary to drive real, lasting change to bring back this particular language.
That could help other cities, regions, and countries bring their own unique dialects back to life.