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LRT: the "possessive S" is also known as the Saxon genitive and wholesale murdering it to resolve phonological incongruity in an Austronesian language like Te Reo Māori is, in my mind, an inversion of linguistic colonialism and I'm here for it. (A thread. 
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Okay, so here's what I mean by an inversion of linguistic colonialism. For now, let's accept that English is a lingua franca. We could argue about whether it should be, but for now, let's just work off the fact that it presently IS.
Modern English (ModE) uses the Saxon genitive (apostrophe-S) to form "possessive" (read: the last vestiges of the genitive) case. The reason for this basically dates back to Old (OE) and Middle (ME) declensions, back when the language still had a relatively full case system.
But basically, OE and ME genitives tended to end in -es; e.g. wīf, wīfes -- wife, wife's. Phonologically, we retained this even as we lost most of our case system, hence the possession-marking Saxon genitive.
However, not all languages have the same phonemic (sound) inventory. The International Phonemic Alphabet has 107 sounds; of these, English uses 44. ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi has one of the smallest phonemic inventories of the world, at 13-ish. (Depends on how you inventory the vowels.)
Te Reo Māori, the language the OP of the LRT is talking about, is a relative to ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi & has a phonemic inventory of about 15-ish sounds. (Austronesian languages tend to possess relatively small inventories. Also, dialects can have more or fewer sounds than the standard.)
So, we've established that there are approximately 107 sounds documented in all of human language, and that different languages employ different combinations of these sounds. No language uses all 107, English uses about 44, and Te Reo Māori uses around 15.
(Additionally, it should be made clear that a larger or smaller inventory doesn't speak to the complexity of a language at all -- no modern language is "primitive" or "underdeveloped" & a basic principle of linguistic study is that no language is objectively inferior/superior.)
Now, as the OP of the LRT notes, "S" -- the unvoiced alveolar fricative -- isn't in the phonemic inventory of Te Reo Māori. (It also isn't in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.) Moreover, many Austronesian languages (many languages in general), including Te Reo Māori, do not permit codas.
A coda is, basically, consonants at the end of a syllable. In the basic model, syllables are divided into onsets, nuclei, and codas based on sound resonance. Nuclei are usually vowels, sometimes nasals or liquids, and may have an onset or a coda -- constants before or after.
The nucleus of a syllable is the most "important" part; all syllables of all languages have nuclei. Onsets are the second-most "important" part; codas are the least "important" part. Many languages don't have codas at all, or permit only a small number of sounds in the coda.
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and Te Reo Māori both have a (C)V(V) structure -- basically, they CAN have an onset, and/or a diphthong nuclei, but never a coda.
I've gone into the woods with phonology; what's my point? What does this have to do with inverting linguistic colonialism?
I've gone into the woods with phonology; what's my point? What does this have to do with inverting linguistic colonialism?
Well, basically, for languages like Te Reo Māori, the Saxon genitive is highly "unnatural" -- not only is the sound not part of the phonemic inventory, but its placement as a coda defies the natural syllable structure of the language.
However, the Saxon genitive is the ModE standard, and English's position as not only a lingua franca, but a lingua franca in a colonial position (compared to pidgins and creoles, which also arise as lingua franca but don't enjoy the privileges of English)...
..."allow" it to basically say, fuck you, fuck your phonology, we're doing it MY way and you can suck a damn egg. You're going to take your alveolar fricative coda, and I best not hear any bitching about it.
But the thing is, it doesn't HAVE to be that way.
But the thing is, it doesn't HAVE to be that way.
Even taking English as a dominant lingua franca, even accepting it in that role, the Saxon genitive is not an obligate construction. English has a prepositional genitive -- "of."
"The dog's bone," and "the bone of the dog," have equivalent semantic function.
"The dog's bone," and "the bone of the dog," have equivalent semantic function.
"But Tate!" I hear you cry. "A prepositional genitive sounds awkward in colloquial English!"
Yeah, okay, maybe. But you know what else is linguistically awkward? Appending a alveolar fricative coda to a language that doesn't feature alveolar fricatives or codas.
Yeah, okay, maybe. But you know what else is linguistically awkward? Appending a alveolar fricative coda to a language that doesn't feature alveolar fricatives or codas.
English, as a hegemony, takes for granted that any word or name that dares venture into its domain ought to conform to its sensibilities exactly. If one language must be made "awkward" in a multilingual setting, well, heaven forbid it be ENGLISH.
Which is why I see this as an inversion of English-language colonialism. By saying, no, we shan't use the Saxon genitive, we shall use the prepositional genitive because that's what the sensibilities of Te Reo Māori deign...
... it's basically refusing, in its small way, to acquiesce to English hegemony. English may be the lingua franca, but each prepositional genitive in a moment where Te Reo Māori has asserted its right to exist, under its own damned phonology.
Anyway, genuine thanks to @WHereaka for stumbling across my TL and giving me the chance to ooze linguistic bullshit at my moots & borderline whitesplain some shit. I enjoyed thinking about this example of linguistic capital.
