Bastardisation

My mum is from a place in Taranaki called Hawera, worse, she is from a town in Hawera called Manaia.
At work I sit next to a reporter who is originally from Taranaki and I was thinking I should ask him how he pronounces the name Hawera.
To make sure I was correct, I Googled 'Hawera pronounciation' and it came up with some very interesting facts.
See, I have listened to mum bastardise the name of her town for years and years by pronouncing it "Ha-ra".
In my job, I believe it is important to correctly pronounce Maori place names so I have always called the place "Ha-wa-da" with R's in Maori often being pronounced as D's.
My colleague also pronounces it correctly.
On Wapedia, Wikipedia for mobile phones, it says:

"The pronunciation of many Māori place names was anglicised for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but since the 1980s, increased consciousness of the Māori language has led to a shift towards using a Māori pronunciation. The anglicisations have persisted most among residents of the towns in question, so it has become something of a shibboleth, with correct Māori pronunciation marking someone as non-local."

"A shibboleth is any distinguishing practice which is indicative of one's social or regional origin. It usually refers to features of language, and particularly to a word whose pronunciation identifies its speaker as being a member or not a member of a particular group."

So while people from Hawera say "Ha-ra", because of anglicisation which, "is a process of conversion of verbal or written elements of any other language into a more comprehensible English form for an English speaker, or to become English in form or character", outsiders who don't know there has been anglicisation, will pronounce the name correctly.

This is the truth because every person I've met from Hawera says "Ha-ra" for whatever reason.

Interesting.

Varelai.