Encyclopedia > Waikikamukau

  Article Content

Waikikamukau

Waikikamukau, (pronounced as if saying "Why kick a moo cow?"), is a mythical place in New Zealand. New Zealanders believe it to be so remote and unpopulated it makes Eketahuna[?], a small remote rural town in the Wairarapa, look positively suburban.

Waikikamukau is an example of how a pretend Maori word can be created out of an English phrase. But it gives some insight into how Maori is written and recorded phonetically. Interestingly, a backwards translation of this word from Maori to English, even though it is not a Maori word, renders:

wai = water, liquid
ki = against, at, into, to, toward
ka does not translate, but ika = fish troop victim
mu does not translate, but mou = for you
and kamo = eyeball, eyepiece
kau = cow

Or roughly translated as Your victimised cow is in the watercourse or to answer the question posed by the word - so it falls in creek! or perhaps to watch it fall in the stream!

(If one were to do such a thing on a New Zealand dairy farm today, not only would one be subject to an animal welfare investigation but there would probably be a pollution abatement notice issued by the local council and the dairy company might suspend the farm's milk supply contract.)

See also: List of interesting or unusual place names

More Information



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
List of intelligence agencies

... Security Agency[?] (ASA) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Security Agency ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 46 ms