A few times you have referred to “PAN”. I presume this is not what you’re referring to?
Guy
The PAN I’m referring to is the Proto-Austronesian language.
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That should be PAL! 
Guy
People still do this kind of thing a lot.
I think it has a very pretty meaning. Like Land of the White Clouds or something.
Long, long white clouds.
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Well, scholars with much more linguistic clout came up with the abbreviation decades ago…
“Proto-Austronesian language - Wikipedia” Proto-Austronesian language - Wikipedia
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I like to think of the first settlers from some island in the Pacific, maybe driven by a storm, and then waking up and seeing the whole coast of New Zealand stretching out in front of them.
And the first hunting trip, when the women and children, hungry after the long trip, eagerly question the returning hunter.
“Sorry, just one bird” he says to disappointed faces- then the rest of the hunting party comes into sight, carrying a moa.
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Then his wife having a whinge, “you expect me to pluck that fucker do you?”
I think they just sent those ones back out on the raft.
So, again…it seems like we are agreeing. The human impacts on new zealand are terrible, no? Seems we may be going in circles haha.
I like to think that the long white clouds referred to the snow capped mointains. Since these Austronesians haven’t seen snow since their ancesters leaving Taiwan at least 2,000 years ago, chances are they wouldn’t recognize snow when they first layed eyes on Aotearoa. They might have interpreted what they see as a very long cloud covering Te Ika a Maui, instead of snowing covering entire mountain ranges.
Just cause they arent as technologically advanced as us doesnt mean they were so dumb as to not recognize what clouds are. What is this conversation even about?
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Have you seen how silly Taiwanese people get when they see snow, even though they clearly know what it is, and it’s actually not that rare for it to snow in Taiwan on the mountains?
Why should a group of people living exclusively on tropical islands for over 2,000 years know what snow is just by sailing past an newly discovered island?
It’s not like Europeans knew and even believed things like the penguin, pandas, or platypus could exist before being repeatedly exposed to the concept.
They wouldn’t know it was snow, but I imagine they’d see it as some kind of feature of the mountains and not clouds. No doubt they would be quite amazed by it though, so who knows, especially from a distance.
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Sure, excitment. Confusion even. But taiwanese dont think a white coating of a mountain equals clouds. Come on…
Lets not treat those people like they are truly idiots. If anything, it is likely a language thing. Sort of like some deep jungle cultures have the same word for green and blue. Doesnt mean they confuse a tree for the sky. Or some black african people have no word for sunburn but they dont mistake a white person in the sun for a shrimp.
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Sooo… what about those New Zealand sheep, huh…?
cough
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None of that is really relevant. Aotearoa wasn’t the original Maori name for New Zealand. It referred to the north island. The reference to clouds is because while navigating on the open seas certain cloud masses are signs of land to be explored.
Hands off our ewes.
Taiwanese people can see snow every year, if they bothered to walk outside and look up towards the mountains when it’s really cold.
The first Maori settlers didn’t even have a word for snow when they were still in Polynesia. Today the Maori word for snow is various forms derived from the word huka, which meant froth or foam from the waves. It still means that in Te Reo, but back in Polynesia the word just describes froth churned up by waves.
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