Google crowdsources Māori place name pronunciations

6:44 am on 9 September 2017

If you come across a mispronounced Māori place name while using Google maps you are now able to correct it.

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Photo: Google Maps

Vodafone, Google and the Māori Language Commission have teamed up to help people correct mispronounced Māori place names.

The initiative has been launched for Māori language week and gives Google maps users the chance to pin incorrectly pronounced Māori place and street names on a new website.

Kirstin Te Wao from Vodafone said the website got nearly 5000 pins dropped on Friday, the first day of being live.

"I think it's a long overdue and long awaited initiative and we are really pleased to be supporting it and getting people across the country involved in saying it tika."

If you come across a mispronounced you can go on to the www.sayittika.co.nz website and place a pin on the location that you think is being mispronounced.

At the end of the month for the next three months the data from the website will be collected and the first month of changes are expected to be live by November.

Ms Te Wao hopes they be able to take all the feedback and complete all changes by February next year.