Twitter study points to ‘different use’ of Māori words and phrases

A University of Waikato study has found more “mixing” of Māori and English phrases in social media posts, suggesting a more familiar and integrated use of the two languages.

Andreea Calude, a linguistics lecturer at the university, says there is a difference between the way Māori phrases or loan words are used by newspapers and on Twitter.

“We might be looking at almost a different phenomenon of how Māori is used in Twitter,” she said in a university statement.