The
Wanganui District Council have issued
a research report by Diana Beaglehole on the question of whether the "h" came first or not, with regard to their city's name.
Have a read (.pdf) -- looks like the battle over the "h" may not be as cut-and-dried as it first seemed.
That was an interesting article. Wierd thing is the Wanganui District Council have Whanganui River. All this debate over the spellings is quite honestly crazy is it a matter of Political Correctness coming into play or has the research done concerning the spelling correct and it is indeed Wanganui. I prefer Wanganui myself so why change it? I guess it's like the pronunciation of Whau as in Wow or the other way some people have chosen foe excuse the phonoteics there Ice. Nah leave it as Wanganui..sounds better
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with it being Wanganui, but only because I've always known it as such. I met up with the Wanganui/Whanganui thing when I was compiling info for The Zoo War -- dealing with the Whanganui Regional Museum, and the library and archives at the Wanganui District Council, being carefully not to drop or insert the "h" in the wrong place!
ReplyDeleteOne thing -- all sorts of history stuff is being dredged up now supporting both views. Sad that there has to be a disagreement, but it is an education, at least.