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A comment on Japanese Words and Names Sound African. Why?. Parent comment

Re:Japanese Words and Names Sound African. Why? by mdp2021 on Sunday June 16, 2024 @03:29PM (#40699448)
> Pokatokaino

According to Google Translate, that would be "shortcuts" in Maori. (Reverse, "Pokatata".) Nice!

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Re:Japanese Words and Names Sound African. Why? by Nition on Sunday June 16, 2024 @03:37PM (#40699494)
Maori is also another language that has the same vowel sounds as Japanese.

Google is being generous in interpreting a nonsense word there though, Pokatata (as you saw when reversing the translation) is the correct spelling.

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Re:Japanese Words and Names Sound African. Why? by mdp2021 on Sunday June 16, 2024 @03:43PM (#40699530)
> Google is being generous in interpreting a nonsense word

My prudential 'would' (not to mention the safety reverse check) saved me again... ;)

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Re:Japanese Words and Names Sound African. Why? by latentsea on Sunday June 16, 2024 @06:47PM (#40700738)
If you know Japanese go to Google maps and scroll around New Zealand and see how many Maori place names actually make sense in Japanese.

There's quite a few fun ones that do. Paraparaumu, matamata, tearai etc. Plenty more.

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Re:Japanese Words and Names Sound African. Why? by e12e on Sunday June 16, 2024 @04:52PM (#40700003)
I believe Hawaiian and Maori are somewhat related (Eastern Polynesian family)?
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