A New Zealand MP has dismissed English as a borrowed tongue, calling it a “bastardisation of Greek, Old Norse, [and] Latin” during a heated parliamentary debate over the language’s legal status.
Green MP Tamatha Paul, who represents Wellington Central, made the comments as Parliament debated a bill granting English official status alongside te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language. Her speech has since circulated widely online.
English is a “bastardisation of Greek, Old Norse, Latin”, MP says
Paul told the House that the language members were fighting to protect is not even its own. English, she said, is a “bastard” language, a mixture drawn from Greek and other older tongues, and that its “bastardisation” makes the effort to shield it pointless.
She noted that England itself has no official language, arguing that even the British recognise the idea as unnecessary.
The bill passed its third reading Thursday with backing from the governing parties and Labour, according to the New Zealand Herald. The Greens and Te Pāti Māori voted against it. New Zealand First campaigned on the measure before the last election and secured it in its coalition agreement with National.
Paul argued the change achieved nothing, because English already operates as an official language in practice. She said Parliament had wasted its final 100 days before the election on a bill that does not matter, while New Zealanders struggle to survive.
From a taxi ride home to Welsh road signs
To make her point, she described a conversation with a taxi driver on her way home the previous night. The driver asked what lawmakers had been debating.
When she explained, she said he responded with disbelief, telling her people cannot pay their bills, cannot afford food and cannot cover their power costs. Thousands are losing jobs and the inner city sits “derelict,” she said he told her.
Paul also accused opposing lawmakers of being oversensitive, calling them “snowflakes” who raise points of order at the mention of “Aotearoa.” She said they shiver at the sight of te reo Māori.
She pointed to Wales as a better model. A parliamentary delegation recently visited the country, she said, where the indigenous language appears ahead of English on signage. The world did not end, she said, and people still found their way. Visitors instead saw a nation that values its language and identity.
Māori gained legal recognition under the 1987 Language Act
Māori and New Zealand Sign Language have been the country’s only official languages in law, with English holding “de facto” status. Te reo Māori gained recognition through the Māori Language Act 1987.
The 2018 census found about 190,000 people, or 4% of the population, could hold an everyday conversation in Māori. By 2023, roughly 7% of school students were taught fully or partly in the language, while another 24% studied it as an additional subject.
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