A Taranaki reo researcher predicts that individual communities will determine how the language will evolve.
Dr Ruakere Hond is a Maori language advocate who works for Te Reo o Taranaki, a tribal organisation trying to revitalise the local dialect.
He said although it was important to keep speaking the different variations that developed in the past, the language would continue to evolve.
Dr Hond said once communities identified the kind of language they wanted to retain, by continually speaking Te Reo they would form their own characteristics just as their ancestors did.
He said more emphasis must be placed on using the language in the home and in the community rather than making it an academic subject.
