with te reo Māori
Weta Workshop meant to name itself after a spiky native insect. Missing macrons meant the special effects and prop company ended up with something quite different.
According to Hēmi Kelly, a lecturer in Te Ara Poutama, the faculty of Maori Studies at AUT, the correct way to spell weta, as in the insect, is with a macron on the ē and the ā to elongate the vowel sounds. Like weh-taa.
Without the macrons, it means something quite different – “It’s excrement. S...,” Kelly said.
Link to article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/te-reo-maori/122712913/where-weta-workshop-went-really-wrong-with-te-reo-mori
