Tane Karamaina

Tāne Karamaina is a licensed te reo Māori translator and interpreter with more than a decade of experience across translation, media and language revitalisation. His professional work spans translation and interpreting, Māori-language broadcasting, language quality assurance and the development of terminology and new vocabulary.

Alongside his professional practice, Tāne is a researcher in kupu Māori (Māori lexicography) and te huri haere o te reo (language change). His work explores how new words enter te reo Māori, how they become established through use, and how speakers navigate the choices between loanwords (aka transliterations) and terminology created from within the language. His wider interests include corpus-informed lexicography, te whakarauoranga reo (language revitalisation), te mana i runga i te reo (language authority) and the ways media and technology influence the development and circulation of te reo Māori.

Drawing on experience across both language mahi (practice) and rangahau (research), Tāne is particularly interested in what happens when a revitalising Indigenous language encounters te ao hurihuri (rapidly changing social and technological domains): who creates the language needed to describe a changing world, how communities decide which forms endure, and how te reo Māori can continue to develop while remaining grounded in its own whakapapa ā-reo tuku iho (linguistic and cultural traditions).