NRL Pronunciation Guide is BACK

By Stephen Gallagher

Kia ora, Kia orana, malo e lelei, talofa lava, bula vinaka, g’day, hello.

My name is Stephen Gallagher – I’m a Māori fulla who grew up in Wellington, New Zealand – currently in working in radio in Sydney and residing in Penrith.

Firstly, I am a footy tragic through and through. Always have been, and always will be. I am a long-suffering Saint George Illawarra Dragons fan who can’t wait to see Clint Gutherson, Damien Cook, Kyle Flanagan and Valentine Holmes win us a premiership in 2025.

I first came up with this idea in 2023, when I was building a Māori pronunciation guide with a colleague in a previous role, whom I also worked closely with when we founded a Māori and Pasifika Network there.

This initially took me about a month of my spare time to do, often working late at night after work and other footy commitments!

I get it. I do. Polynesian, Melanesian, Micronesian and Māori names can be hard to pronounce. Especially if you haven’t grown up around them and the culture like I have.

The one thing I want to stress with this NRL Pronunciation Guide is that this is done off my own back.

So, is this 100% accurate? No, not at all.

This is done to my best knowledge and understanding of the Māori and Pasifika languages.

I would say, however, this is rather accurate and is a great stepping stone if you’re looking to get players’ names right.

If you think there’s an error, or want to query any pronunciations, I am absolutely happy to revise and work through and work with you on these.

We are all learning, and with new players joining the NRL every year, and the increasing numbers of Māori and Pacific Island players making their way into the NRL – it’s hard to keep up.

You can reach me at swtgallagher@gmail.com or @swtgallagher on Twitter or Instagram.

If you’d like to know more or ask any questions – I am more than happy to oblige.

So – thank you for wanting to take a look at this – it means a lot to me.

Let’s all get better at saying players’ names. A genuine attempt is better than not attempting at all. Be genuine with this.

I’d love to get to do an NRLW version too, time and resources pending of course. It’s a time-consuming exercise, but worthwhile.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE NRL PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EBBg5pI668ceIWdVM1uY7YkO_aryrqjb

Follow Stephen Gallagher on Twitter