Māori Te Reo Māori
Spoken in:	New Zealand
Region:	Polynesia
Total speakers:	157,110 [1]
Language family:	Austronesian  Malayo-Polynesian(MP)   Central-Eastern MP    Eastern MP     Oceanic      Central-Eastern Oceanic       Remote Oceanic        Central Pacific         East Fijian-Polynesian          Polynesian           Nuclear Polynesian            Eastern Polynesian             Central E. Polynesian              Tahitic               Māori
Official status
Official language in:	New Zealand
Regulated by:	Māori Language Commission
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	mi
ISO 639-2:	mao (B)	mri (T)
ISO 639-3:	mri
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a Subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers The family of Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages. The family of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (EMP languages is a subgroup of the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages The over 200 Central-Eastern Oceanic languages form a branch of the Oceanic Language family within the Austronesian languages. The family of Remote Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. The family of Central Pacific or Fijian-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. The family of East Fijian-Polynesian languages is a subgroup of the Central Pacific languages. The Polynesian languages are a Language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. Nuclear Polynesian refers to those languages comprising the Samoic and the Eastern Polynesian branches of the Polynesian group of Austronesian Eastern Polynesian is a language subgroup of the Polynesian languages consisting of 13 languages all spoken on islands in the Pacific Ocean. Central Eastern Polynesian is a subgroup of the Eastern Polynesian languages consisting of 12 languages all spoken on islands in the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii The Tahitic languages are a group of Eastern Polynesian languages in the Central Eastern branch New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language New Zealand 's Māori Language Commission ( Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori) is a State organisation set up under the Māori Language Act 1987 with the following ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Māori or Te Reo Māori,^[2] also commonly shortened to Te Reo (literally the language) functions as one of the official languages of New Zealand. An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island An Eastern Polynesian language, it relates closely to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of Western Polynesia, including Samoan, Tokelauan, Niuean and Tongan. Eastern Polynesian is a language subgroup of the Polynesian languages consisting of 13 languages all spoken on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Cook Islands Maori language also called Māori Kūki 'Āirani or Rarotongan, is the Official language of the Cook Islands. The Tuamotuan language (or paumotu / pa’umotu is a Tahitic language spoken by about 6700 people in the Tuamotu Islands and an additional 2000 in Tahiti Tahitian, a Tahitic language, is one of the two official languages of French Polynesia (along with French) The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i) is an Austronesian language that takes its name from Hawai'i, the largest island in the tropical Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects of the Marquesic group spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia The Sāmoan or Samoan language is the traditional language of Samoa and American Samoa and is an official language &mdash alongside English Tokelauan is an Austronesian language. Speakers It is spoken by about 1700 people on the atolls of Tokelau, and by the few inhabitants of The Niuean language or Niue language (Niuean ko e vagahau Niuē) is a Polynesian language belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup Tongan ( lea fakatonga) is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga.

Contents 1 Official status 2 History 3 Linguistic classification 4 Geographic distribution 5 Orthography 5.1 Long vowels 6 Phonology 6.1 Vowels 6.2 Consonants 6.3 Syllables 7 Dialects 7.1 North Island dialects 7.2 South Island dialects 8 Grammar 8.1 Bases 8.2 Particles 8.3 Personal pronouns 9 Calendar 10 See also 11 References & Notes 12 External links

Official status

New Zealand has three official languages — Māori, English and New Zealand Sign Language. Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular Language or set of languages English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. Te Reo gained this status with the passing of the Māori Language Act in 1987. The Māori Language Act 1987 was a piece of Legislation passed by the New Zealand Parliament. Most government departments and agencies now have bilingual names, for example, the Department of Internal Affairs also uses the name Te Tari Taiwhenua, and some places such as local-government offices and public libraries display bilingual signs and use bilingual stationery. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (in Māori Te Tari Taiwhenua) is a state sector organisation whose roles include the issue of New Zealand Post recognises Māori place-names in postal addresses. New Zealand Post Limited is the dominant Postal operator in New Zealand. In June 2006 New Zealand introduced a new Postcode system which unlike the previous system will apply to all items of mail whether sent from within the country or from Citizens may conduct their dealings with government agencies in Māori, but in practice this will almost always require interpreters, restricting its everyday use to the limited geographical areas of high Māori fluency, and to more formal occasions, such as during public consultation. Public consultation, or simply consultation, is a regulatory process by which the public's input on matters affecting them is sought

A 1994 ruling by the Privy Council^[3] held the New Zealand Government responsible under the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) for the preservation of the language. A privy council is a body that advises the Head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically but not always in the context of a The Treaty of Waitangi ( Māori: Tiriti o Waitangi) is a Treaty first signed on February 6, 1840, by representatives of the British Accordingly, since March 2004, the State has funded Māori Television, a service broadcast partly in Māori. Māori Television is a New Zealand TV station broadcasting programmes that make a significant contribution to the revitalisation of Te reo and In 2007, Māori Television announced it would set up a second channel on the Freeview service. Freeview is a Non-profit organization providing Free-to-air Digital television and Digital radio to New Zealand.

History

Māori came to New Zealand as Eastern Polynesians voyaging, most likely, from the area of the Cook Islands or from the Society Islands, in seagoing canoes — possibly double-hulled and probably sail-rigged. Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a Subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over The Cook Islands ( Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) are a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand. The Society Islands ( French: Îles de la Société or officially Archipel de la Société) are a group of Islands in the south Pacific In the Māori language and New Zealand English, waka (IPAwɔka are Māori watercraft usually Canoes ranging in size from small unornamented These Polynesian settlers arrived probably between AD 800 and AD 1300. Their language and its dialects then developed in relative isolation until the 19th century.

Since about 1800 the Māori language has had a tumultuous history. It started this period in the position of the predominant language of New Zealand. In the 1860s it became a minority language in the shadow of the English spoken by settlers, missionaries, gold-seekers and traders from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. A minority language is a Language spoken by a Minority of the Population of a country English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States In the late 19th century the colonial government introduced an English-style school system for all New Zealanders, and from the 1880s the authorities forbade the use of Māori in schools (possibly at the request of Māori leaders, who appreciated the value to their young people of fluent English — see Native Schools). The word leadership can refer to Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading In New Zealand, Native Schools were established to provide Education for the Māori. Increasing numbers of Māori people learned English. This article discusses the Māori people of New Zealand For their language see Māori language, and for other meanings see Māori (disambiguation.

Until World War II (1939-1945) most Māori people still spoke Māori as a native language. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Worship took place in Māori; it functioned as the language of Māori homes; Māori politicians conducted political meetings in Māori; and some literature and many newspapers appeared in Māori.

As late as the 1930s, some Māori parliamentarians suffered disadvantage because the Parliament's proceedings took place in English. The Parliament of New Zealand consists of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives and until 1951 the New Zealand Legislative Council From this period, the number of speakers of Māori began to decline rapidly, until by the 1980s, fewer than 20% of Māori spoke the language well enough to class as native speakers. Even many of those people no longer spoke Māori in the home. As a result, many Māori children failed to learn their ancestral language, and a new generation of non-Māori-speaking Māori emerged.

By the 1980s, Māori leaders began to recognize the dangers of the loss of their language, and initiated Māori-language recovery-programs such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, which immersed infants in Māori from infancy to school age. The word leadership can refer to Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading By the 1980s Māori leaders began to recognize the dangers of the loss of their language and initiated Māori language recovery-programs such as the Kōhanga Reo There followed the founding of the Kura Kaupapa Māori, a primary school program in Māori. Kura Kaupapa Māori are Māori-language immersion schools (kura where the philosophy and practice reflect Māori cultural values with the aim of revitalising Māori language

Linguistic classification

Comparative linguists classify Māori as a Polynesian language; specifically as an Eastern Polynesian language belonging to the Tahitic subgroup, which includes Rarotongan, spoken in the southern Cook Islands, and Tahitian, spoken in Tahiti and the Society Islands. Comparative linguistics (originally comparative Philology) is a branch of Historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to The Polynesian languages are a Language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. Eastern Polynesian is a language subgroup of the Polynesian languages consisting of 13 languages all spoken on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Tahitic languages are a group of Eastern Polynesian languages in the Central Eastern branch The Cook Islands Maori language also called Māori Kūki 'Āirani or Rarotongan, is the Official language of the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands ( Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) are a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand. Tahitian, a Tahitic language, is one of the two official languages of French Polynesia (along with French) Tahiti is the largest Island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the Archipelago of Society Islands in the The Society Islands ( French: Îles de la Société or officially Archipel de la Société) are a group of Islands in the south Pacific Other close relatives include Hawaiian, Marquesan (languages in the Marquesic subgroup), and the Rapa Nui language of Easter Island (see articles by Biggs, Clark, and Harlow cited in the "References" section below). The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i) is an Austronesian language that takes its name from Hawai'i, the largest island in the tropical Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects of the Marquesic group spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia Marquesic Languages are a small but historically important subgroup of Central Eastern Polynesian languages: Marquesan languages of the Marquesas The Rapa Nui language (also Rapanui) is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Rapanui, the inhabitants of Easter Island. While all these Eastern Polynesian languages inter-relate very closely, they do not rank as dialects of a single language, but as languages in their own right that diverged over centuries, with limited mutual intelligibility. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of Nonetheless, Tupaia, a Tahitian travelling with Captain James Cook in 1769-1770, could communicate effectively with Māori. Tupaia (c 1725 &ndashDecember 1770) was a Polynesian Navigator and Arioi (Tohunga or Priest) originally from Captain James Cook FRS RN ( – 14 February 1779) was an English Explorer, Navigator and Subjectively, speakers of modern Māori generally report that they find the languages of the Cook Islands, including Rarotongan, the easiest other Polynesian languages to understand and converse in. The Cook Islands ( Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) are a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand. See also Austronesian languages.

Geographic distribution

Over 100,000 people, nearly all of them of Māori descent, speak Māori — most extensively in New Zealand. This article discusses the Māori people of New Zealand For their language see Māori language, and for other meanings see Māori (disambiguation. Estimates of the number of speakers vary: the 1996 census reported 160,000, while other estimates have reported as few as 50,000. ^[4] According to the 2006 census, 131,613 Māori (23. 7 percent) "could [at least] hold a conversation about everyday things in te reo Māori". In the same census, Māori speakers accounted for 4. 2 per cent of the New Zealand population. ^[4]

As indicated above, the level of competence in the language of self-reported Māori speakers remains unknown and variable — some speakers use te reo as their main home language, whereas many more use only a few words or phrases (passive bilingualism). Probably very few Māori monoglots exist, but a larger number will have spoken Māori before they learnt English, because:

• Māori still serves as a community language in some predominantly-Māori settlements in the Northland, Urewera and East Cape areas
• kohanga reo Māori-immersion kindergartens throughout New Zealand use Māori exclusively
• increasing numbers of Māori raise their families bilingually

Urbanisation after the Second World War led to widespread language shift from Māori predominance (with Māori the primary language of the rural whānau) to English predominance (English serving as the primary language in the Pākehā cities). Geography Northland is located in what is often referred to by New Zealanders as the Far North, or because of its mild climate The Winterless North. Te Urewera, often known as The Ureweras, is an area of the central North Island of New Zealand. For other uses see East Cape (disambiguation. East Cape ( is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. Whānau is a Māori-language word for extended Family. Other meanings though less commonly used in English are to give birth, or genus New Zealand European Pākehā are New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry Therefore, as of 2007, Māori-speakers almost always operated bilingually, with New Zealand English as either their first or second language. New Zealand English ( NZE, en-NZ) is the form of the English language used in New Zealand.

The Māori diaspora also speaks the Māori language, most significantly in Australia, where census-data revealed it as the home-language of 5,504 persons in 2001^[5] — an increase of 32. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. 5 per cent since 1996. This represents 7. 5 per cent of the Māori community in Australia.

Orthography

The modern Māori alphabet has 20 letters and digraphs: A Ā E Ē H I Ī K M N O Ō P R T U Ū W NG and WH. ^[6] Missionaries made their first attempts to write the language using the Roman alphabet as early as 1814, and Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University worked with chief Hongi Hika and his junior relative Waikato to systematize the written language in 1820. Samuel Lee (1783 &ndash 1852 was an English Orientalist, born in Shropshire; professor at Cambridge, first of Arabic and then The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Hongi Hika (1772?&ndash1828 was a New Zealand Māori Rangatira (chief and war leader of the Ngapuhi Iwi (tribe Their efforts at phonetic spelling proved remarkably successful, and written Māori has changed little since then, innovating only by distinguishing w and wh, and later marking long vowels. Māori embraced the exciting new concept of literacy enthusiastically, and missionaries reported in the 1820s that Māori all over the country taught each other to read and write, using sometimes quite innovative materials in the absence of paper, such as leaves and charcoal, carved wood, and the cured skins of animals.

Long vowels

The alphabet devised at Cambridge University had a deficiency in that it did not mark vowel-length, which operates phonemically in Māori — meaning that varying lengths of vowels can change the meaning of words, as seen in the following examples:

• ata 'morning', āta 'carefully'
• mana 'prestige', māna 'for him/her'
• manu 'bird', mānu 'float'
• o 'of', ō 'provisions for a journey'

Māori themselves devised ways to mark vowel-length, sporadically at first. Occasional and inconsistent vowel-length markings occur even in 19th-century manuscripts written by Māori. These markings can include macron-like bars over vowels, or the doubling of the vowels. A macron, from Greek el μακρόv ( makrón) meaning "long" is a Diacritic ¯ placed over or under a Vowel which was originally Nineteenth-century Māori-language newspapers show some sporadic use of macrons or other length-marking methods. Sir Apirana Ngata's Maori Grammar and Conversation (7th printing, dated 1953) uses macrons, but inconsistently. With the teaching of Māori at Universities since the 1960s a more systematic use of vowel-length marking came into play. At Auckland University, Professor Bruce Biggs (who had Ngāti Maniapoto descent) promoted the use of double vowels (thus Maaori), and that became the standard at Auckland until Biggs died around 2000. Ngāti Maniapoto is an Iwi (tribe based in the Waikato-Waitomo region of New Zealand's North Island. The Māori Language Commission, established by the Māori Language Act 1987 as the authority for Māori spelling and orthography, promoted the use of macrons, as did other universities. New Zealand 's Māori Language Commission ( Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori) is a State organisation set up under the Māori Language Act 1987 with the following

Phonology

In the vowel and consonant tables below, each cell contains a phonetic transcription above and the corresponding orthographic representation in bold below. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal Phonetic transcription (or phonetic notation) is the visual system of symbolization of the sounds occurring in spoken human Language. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː i ī		u uː u ū
Close-Mid	e eː e ē		o oː o ō
Open		a aː a ā

Speakers use all vowel-pairs except uo, and all vowel sounds receive their full value, whether stressed or not, but final short vowels may get devoiced. A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A close-mid vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p p	t t	k k
Fricative	ɸ wh			h h
Nasal	m m	n n	ŋ ng
Tap		ɾ r
Semivowel	w w

While pronunciations vary, <wh> generally denotes a bilabial fricative [ɸ], a sound comparable to that of an "f" articulated by putting the lips together as if to make a "w" sound; today the labiodental [f] also occurs, possibly as a result of influence from English. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels The digraph wh is used to express a Phoneme: In the English language, ( Voiceless labial-velar fricative) the continuation of A bilabial fricative is a Phone whose Place of articulation is Bilabial (with both lips and whose Manner of articulation is Fricative Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States ^[7] Māori <r>, a tap, [ɾ], resembles the <r> in Spanish or the t in the American English pronunciation of "city". The alveolar tap or flap is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology.

Syllables

A syllable in Māori has the form (C)V(V): a vowel preceded by an optional consonant and followed by an optional vowel. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds Two consonants never appear together (ng and wh function as single consonants), syllables always end in a vowel, though some speakers may occasionally de-voice a final vowel. (These rules give rise to such transliterations as Perehipeteriana, "Presbyterian". Transliteration is the practice of Transcribing a Word or text written in one Writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice ) All possible CV combinations exist; though who. wo, wu and whu occur only in a few loan-words from English such as wuru, "wool" and whutuporo, "football". ^[8]

Dialects

Linguists generally isolate three major dialect-divisions for the Māori language:

1. Western North Island
2. Eastern North Island
3. South Island

Within these broad divisions, regional variation occurs, and individual regions show tribal variations. The major differences occur in the pronunciation of words, variation of vocabulary, and idiom. Standard Māori derives from the language of the Ngā Puhi and Waikato tribal areas, both parts of the Western North Island dialect-chain. A fluent speaker of Māori has no problem understanding other dialects of Māori, and learners of the language may be unable to discern the subtle differences between dialects.

In terms of grammar, according to Winifred Bauer, scholars generally detect

"very little evidence from the data collected that grammatical structures differ significantly from one area to the next. Most of the tribal variation in grammar is a matter of preferences: speakers of one area might prefer one grammatical form to another, but are likely on occasion to use the non-preferred form, and at least to recognise and understand it. "^[9]

Bauer also notes that that vocabulary and pronunciation show more variation, but generally without raising barriers to communication.

North Island dialects

Regional variations involve some speakers in the Wanganui and Taranaki regions replacing h (with a glottal stop and using a glottalised pronunciation of wh. Wanganui is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Geography and people Taranaki is situated on the west coast of the North Island surrounding the volcanic peak This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter. In Tūhoe and the Eastern Bay of Plenty some speakers merge ng into n. Ngāi Tūhoe (IPA'ŋaɪː 'tuːhoe a Māori Iwi ("tribe" of New Zealand, takes its name from an ancestral figure Tūhoe-pōtiki History According to local Māori traditions, the Bay of Plenty was the landing point of several migration canoes that brought Māori settlers to New Zealand This causes little ambiguity in practice. In parts of the Far North, wh resembles bilabial English wh (when speakers distinguish it from w). In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet

South Island dialects

In the South Island some speakers merge ng and k. The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. However this change did not occur in the whole of the tribal area, with the result that the tribal name Kāi Tahu can also appear as Ngāi Tahu, as it does in Acts of Parliament.

Until the last decade or so, authorities actively discouraged southern Māori in favour of standard (northern North Island) Māori, the only form used by government and by most institutions. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The southern dialect has gained acceptance in recent years, however, leading to changes in the official names and translations of several southern places and institutions. New Zealand's highest mountain, known for centuries as Aoraki in southern-Māori dialects that merge ng with k, and as Aorangi by other Māori, later received the name "Mount Cook" (after Captain Cook). Captain James Cook FRS RN ( – 14 February 1779) was an English Explorer, Navigator and It now bears the official name Aoraki/Mount Cook and only this name may appear printed on maps and in official documents. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Similarly, Dunedin's main research library, the Hocken Library, now has the name Te Uare Taoka o Hākena, rather than (northern) Te Whare Taonga o Hākena. Dunedin (dəˈneɪdɪn) Ōtepoti in Maori is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the region of The Hocken Library (also known by its Southern Māori name of Te Uare Taoka o Hākena) is a research library and historical archive based in the New Zealand Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

Grammar

Bases

Professor Bruce Biggs of the University of Auckland developed a grammar of Māori (Biggs 1998) which defines possible forms of the phrase, which he regards as the basic unit of Māori speech, rather than the word. The base or lexical word forms a central component of the phrase. Biggs further divides bases into nouns (universals, statives, locatives and personals) and particles (grammatical words: verbal particles, pronouns, locatives, possessives and definitives).

Nouns comprise bases that can take a definite article, but cannot occur as the nucleus of a verbal phrase; for example:ika (fish) or rākau (tree). Nouns usually keep the same form in both singular and plural: a change in the definite article from te (singular "the") to ngā (plural "the") indicating the change of number. Some words lengthen a vowel in the plural, such as wahine (woman); wāhine (women). Speakers can derive nouns from other bases by adding the suffixes -nga, -anga, -kanga, -manga, -ranga, -tanga or –whanga. A correspondence exists between the beginning of the passive suffix and that of the derived noun suffix, so inu drink, inumia, passive, inumanga, occasion of or thing for drinking, and tangi, weep, tangihia, passive, tangihanga, occasion for weeping.

Universals function as bases used passively, such as inu, drink, (inumia, be drunk — of a liquid), tangi, weep (tangihia, be wept over). The passive suffixes are -a, -ia, -ina, -hia, -kia, -mia, -na, -ngia, -ria, -tia and -whia. Each universal generally takes the same suffix. The passive may also be used imperatively, as in inumia! (drink it!).

Statives serve as bases that can be used as verbs but cannot be used not passively, such as ora, alive tika, correct. These are generally referred to as 'stative verbs'. When used in sentences, statives require different syntax than other verb-like bases. Locative bases are bases that can follow the locative particle ki (to, towards) directly, such as runga, above, waho, outside, and placenames (ki Tamaki, to Auckland). Personal bases take the personal article a after ki, such as names of people (ki a Hohepa, to Joseph), personified houses, personal pronouns, wai? who? and Mea, so-and-so.

Particles

Like all Polynesian languages, Māori has a rich array of particles. These include verbal particles, pronouns, locative particles, definitives and possessives.

Verbal particles indicate aspectual properties of the verb they relate to. They include ka (inceptive), i (past), kua(perfect), kia (desiderative), me (prescriptive), e (non-past), kei (warning, “lest”), ina or ana (punctative-conditional, "if and when"), and e … ana (imperfect).

Pronouns have singular, dual and plural number, and different first-person forms in the dual and in the plural express groups either inclusive or exclusive of the listener. Locative particles refer to position in time and/or space, and include ki (towards), kei (at), i (past position), and hei (future position). Possessives fall into one of two classes, a and o, depending on the dominant versus subordinate relationship between possessor and possessed, so ngā tamariki a te matua, the children of the parent, but te matua o ngā tamariki, the parent of the children.

Definitives include the articles te (singular) and ngā (plural) and the possessives tā and tō. These also combine with the pronouns. Demonstratives have a deictic function, and include tēnei, this (near me), tēnā, that (near you), tērā, that (far from us both), and taua, the aforementioned. Other definitives include tēhea? (which?), and tētahi, (a certain). Definitives that begin with t form the plural by dropping the t: tēnei (this), ēnei (these).

Personal pronouns

Like other Polynesian languages, Māori has three numbers for pronouns and possessives: singular, dual and plural. In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. For example: ia (he/she), rāua (they two), rātou (they 3 or more). Etymologists can still discern the words rua (2) and toru (3) in endings of the dual and plural pronouns.

Māori has four distinctions in pronouns and possessives: first exclusive, first inclusive, second and third. It has the plural pronouns: mātou (we, exc), tātou (we, inc), koutou (you), rātou (they). The language features the dual pronouns: māua (we two, exc), tāua (we two, inc), kōrua (you two), rāua (they two). The difference between exclusive and inclusive lies the treatment of the person addressed. In Linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person Pronouns and Verbal morphology, Mātou refers to the speaker and others but not the person or persons spoken to (i. e. , "I and some others, but not you"), while tātou refers to the speaker, the person or persons spoken to, and everyone else (i. e. , "You and I and others").

Speakers distinguish correct use of the numbers in all aspects of the language. For example, everyday greetings take different forms depending on the number of people greeted:

• Tēnā koe: hello (to one person)
• Tēnā kōrua: hello (to two people)
• Tēnā koutou: hello (to more than two people)
• Tene Korutea' : good bye

Calendar

From missionary times, Māori used transliterations of English names for days of the week and for months of the year. From about 1990, the Māori Language Commission / Te Taura Whiri o te Reo Māori has promoted new ("traditional") sets. Its days of the week have no pre-European equivalent but reflect the pagan origins of the English names (for example, Hina = moon), the months of the year on one regional traditional calendar which, being lunar, does not quite match the Julian/Gregorian months.

Transliteration Mane - Monday Tūrei - Tuesday Wenerei - Wednesday Tāite - Thursday Paraire - Friday Rāhoroi/Hāterei - Saturday Rātapu/Wiki - Sunday

Official Rāhina - Monday Rātū - Tuesday Rāapa - Wednesday Rāpare - Thursday Rāmere - Friday Rāhoroi - Saturday Rātapu - Sunday

Month	Transliteration	Official
January	Hānuere	Kohi-tātea
February	Pēpuere	Hui-tanguru
March	Māehe	Poutū-te-rangi
April	Āperira	Paenga-whāwhā
May	Mei	Haratua
June	Hune	Pipiri
July	Hūrae	Hōngongoi
August	Ākuhata	Here-turi-kōkā
September	Hepetema	Mahuru
October	Oketopa	Whiringa-ā-nuku
November	Noema	Whiringa-ā-rangi
December	Tīhema	Hakihea

See also

• Māori influence on New Zealand English
• Māori people
• Māori Language Week, celebrated in the last week of July

References & Notes

• Biggs, Bruce (1994). Does Māori have a closest relative? In Sutton (Ed. )(1994), pp. 96–-105.
• Biggs, Bruce (1998). Let's Learn Māori. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
• Bauer, Winifred (1997). Reference Grammar of Māori. Reed.
• Clark, Ross (1994). Moriori and Māori: The Linguistic Evidence. In Sutton (Ed. )(1994), pp. 123–-135.
• Harlow, Ray (1994). Māori Dialectology and the Settlement of New Zealand. In Sutton (Ed. )(1994), pp. 106–-122.
• Sutton, Douglas G. (Ed. ) (1994), The Origins of the First New Zealanders. Auckland: Auckland University Press.

External links

• Māori Language Act 1987
• korero.maori.nz Māori language educational resources
• Ethnologue report for Maori
• Māori Language Commission (sets definitive standards).
• English and Māori Word Translator, originally developed at the University of Otago. The University of Otago ( Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo) in Dunedin is New Zealand 's oldest university with over 20000 students enrolled during
• Ngata Māori–English English–Māori Dictionary from Learning Media; gives several options and shows use in phrases.
• Collection of historic Māori newspapers
• Maori Phonology
• maorilanguage.net Learn the basics of Māori Language with video tutorials
• Microsoft New Zealand Māori Keyboard
• Maori Language Week (NZHistory) - includes a history of the Māori language, the Treaty of Waitangi te reo claim and 100 words every New Zealander should know
• Huia Publishers, catalogue includes Tirohia Kimihia the world's first Māori monolingual dictionary for learners

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