In the second half of the 19th century, European children in rural areas spoke Māori with Māori children. It was common for prominent parents of these children, such as government officials, to use Māori in the community.[6][7] Māori declined due to the increase of the European population and government-imposed educational policies; by the early 20th century its use was banned in school playgrounds and classrooms across the country. The number of speakers fell sharply after 1945,[8] but aMāori language revival movement began in the late 20th century and slowed the decline. TheMāori protest movement and theMāori renaissance of the 1970s caused greater social awareness of and support for the language.[9]
The2018 New Zealand census reported that about 190,000 people, or 4% of the population, could hold an everyday conversation in Māori. As of 2015[update], 55% of Māori adults reported some knowledge of the language; of these, 64% use Māori at home and around 50,000 people can speak the language "well".[10] As of 2023, around 7% of New Zealand primary and secondary school students are taught fully or partially in Māori, and another 24% learn Māori as anadditional language.[11]
The English wordMaori is a borrowing from the Māori language, where it is spelledMāori. In New Zealand, the Māori language is often referred to aste reo[tɛˈɾɛ.ɔ] ("the language"), short forte reo Māori ("the Māori language").[17]
The Māori-language spelling⟨Māori⟩ (with a macron) has become common inNew Zealand English in recent years, particularly in Māori-specific cultural contexts,[17][18] although the traditional macron-less English spelling is still sometimes seen in general media and government use.[19]
Most government departments and agencies have bilingual names—for example, theDepartment of Internal Affairs is alternativelyTe Tari Taiwhenua—and places such as local government offices and public libraries display bilingual signs and use bilingual stationery; some government services now even use the Māori version solely as the official name.[25] Personal dealings with government agencies may be conducted in Māori, but in practice, this almost always requiresinterpreters, restricting its everyday use to the limited geographical areas of high Māori fluency, and to more formal occasions, such as duringpublic consultation. An interpreter is on hand at sessions of theNew Zealand Parliament for instances when a member wishes to speak in Māori.[18][26] Māori may be spoken in judicial proceedings, but any party wishing to do so must notify the court in advance to ensure an interpreter is available. Failure to notify in advance does not preclude the party speaking in Māori, but the court must be adjourned until an interpreter is available and the party may be held liable for the costs of the delay.[27]
A 1994 ruling by theJudicial Committee of the Privy Council (then New Zealand's highest court) held the Government responsible under theTreaty of Waitangi (1840) for the preservation of the language.[28] Accordingly, since March 2004, the state has fundedMāori Television, broadcast partly in Māori. On 28 March 2008, Māori Television launched its second channel,Te Reo, broadcast entirely in the Māori language, with no advertising or subtitles. The first Māori TV channel,Aotearoa Television Network (ATN) was available to viewers in the Auckland region from 1996 but lasted for only one year.[29]
The official status of Māori, and especially its use in official names and titles, is a political issue in New Zealand. In 2022 a 70,000 strong petition fromTe Pāti Māori went to Parliament calling for New Zealand to be officially renamedAotearoa, and was accepted for debate by the Māori Affairs select committee.[31] DuringNew Zealand First's successful campaign to return to Parliament in 2023, party leaderWinston Peters ridiculed the proposal as "ideological mumbo jumbo"[32] and criticised the use of the name in government reports.[33] Peters promised his party would remove Māori names from government departments,[34] saying "Te Whatu Ora, excuse me, I don't want to speak the Māori language when I go to hospital."[35] As part of its coalition agreement with New Zealand First, theNational-led government agreed to ensure all public service departments had their primary name in English except for those specifically related to Māori.[36][37]
Māori evolved in isolation from otherPolynesian languages. Six dialectal variations emerged amongiwi due to geographical separation.[40] The language had no written form, but historian Sarah J. K. Gallagher has argued thattā moko, the indigenous art of tattooing, is arguably "a pre-European textual culture in New Zealand... as the Moko can be read, it can be accepted as a form of communication".[41] The idea that tā moko is a written language of sorts has been discussed before.[42][43]
Since its origin, the Māori language has been rich in metaphorical poetry and prose.[14][15] Forms of this includekarakia,whaikōrero,whakapapa andkaranga, and inperforming arts such asmōteatea,waiata andhaka.[16] Karakia are Māoriincantations used to invoke spiritual guidance and protection, and are used before eating or gathering, to increase spiritual goodwill and to declare things officially open.[44] Whaikōrero is the term given to traditional oratory given onmarae, and whakapapa is the story of one's ancestry. According to historianAtholl Anderson, whakapapa used "mnemonic devices, repetitive patterns [and] rhyme" to leave a lasting impression. "Casting knowledge in formulaic or other standarised story forms.. helped to fix the information in the minds of speakers and listeners".[45]
Through the nineteenth century, the Māori language had a tumultuous history. It started this period as the predominant language of New Zealand, and it was adopted by European traders and missionaries for their purposes.[46]
Missionaries learned to speak Māori, and introduced the Latin alphabet to Māori. TheChurch Mission Society (CMS), includingThomas Kendall; Māori, includingTītore andHongi Hika; andCambridge University'sSamuel Lee, developed the written form of the language between 1817 and 1830. In 1833, while living in thePaihia mission-house ofAnglican priest and the now head of theNew Zealand CMS mission, RevHenry Williams, missionerWilliam Colenso published Māori translations including parts of books of theBible, the first books printed in New Zealand. Colenso's 1837 Māori New Testament was the firstindigenous-language translation of the Bible published in the southern hemisphere. Demand for the Māori New Testament, and for the Prayer Book that followed, grew exponentially, as did Christian Māorileadership and public Christian services, with 33,000 Māori soon attending regularly. Literacy and understanding the Bible increasedmana and social and economic benefits.[47] Worship took place in Māori; it functioned as the language of Māori homes; Māori politicians conducted political meetings in Māori; and some literature appeared in Māori, along with many newspapers.[48] Before 1880, some Māori parliamentarians suffered disadvantages because parliamentary proceedings took place in English.[49] However, by 1900, all Māori members of parliament, such asĀpirana Ngata, were university graduates who spoke fluent English.[40]
As early as 1847, English was set as the predominant language of schooling by the Education Ordinance Act; individual schools began to ban the use of Māori, though this was not yet a nationwide policy.[50] TheNative Schools Act 1867 established a schooling system for Māori children, who were to be taught in English whenever possible.[51] This was followed in 1880 by the Native Schools Code, which placed further restrictions on the use of Māori, establishing the expectation that teachers would have some knowledge of the language solely for the purpose of teaching English to younger pupils. Further restrictions on Māori followed, to the point that in the early twentieth century, children were forbidden to speak it in the classroom or playground, under penalty ofcorporal punishment.[52] In recent years, prominent Māori have spoken with sadness about their experiences or experiences of their family members being caned, strapped or beaten in school.[53][54][55]
In many cases these policies were accepted or even encouraged by parents who wanted their children to succeed in the Pākehā world around them;[56] however, it remained government policy to educate Māori in manual trades rather than academic professions until the mid-twentieth century.[57] Proposals in 1930 to introduce Māori to the curriculum were blocked on the grounds that the purpose of education was to "lead the Māori lad to be a good farmer and the Māori girl to be a good farmer's wife".[57]
Most Māori people continued to speak Māori as their first language untilWorld War II. The number of speakers of Māori began to decline rapidly with the migration of Māori to urban areas after the war (theurban Māori).[48] By the 1980s, fewer than 20 per cent of Māori spoke the language well enough to be classed as native speakers. Even many of those people no longer spoke Māori in their homes. As a result, many Māori children failed to learn their ancestral language, and generations of non-Māori-speaking Māori emerged.[58]
In 1984,Naida Glavish, atolls operator, was demoted for using the Māori greeting "kia ora" with customers. The "Kia Ora Incident" was the subject of public and political scrutiny before having her job reinstated by Prime MinisterRobert Muldoon, and became a major symbol of long-standinglinguicism in New Zealand.[59]
He Taonga Te Reo – a celebration of Maori Language poster, Wellington Public Library (1995)
By the 1950s some Māori leaders had begun to recognise the dangers of the loss ofte reo Māori.[60] By the 1970s there were many strategies used to save the language.[60] This included Māori-language revitalization programs such as theKōhanga Reo movement, which from 1982 immersed infants in Māori from infancy to school age.[61] There followed in 1985 the founding of the firstKura Kaupapa Māori (Years 1 to 8 Māori-medium education programme) and later the first Wharekura (Years 9 to 13 Māori-medium education programme). In 2011 it was reported that although "there was a true revival of te reo in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s ... spurred on by the realisation of how few speakers were left, and by the relative abundance of older fluent speakers in both urban neighbourhoods and rural communities", the language has continued to decline."[61] The decline is believed "to have several underlying causes".[62] These include:
the ongoing loss of older native speakers who have spearheaded theMāori-language revival movement
complacency brought about by the very existence of the institutions which drove the revival
concerns about quality, with the supply of good teachers never matching demand (even while that demand has been shrinking)
excessive regulation and centralised control, which has alienated some of those involved in the movement
an ongoing lack of educational resources needed to teach the full curriculum inte reo Māori[62]
naturallanguage attrition caused by the overwhelming increase of spoken English.
Based on the principles of partnership, Māori-speaking government, general revitalisation and dialectal protective policy, and adequate resourcing, theWaitangi Tribunal has recommended "four fundamental changes":[63]
Te Taura Whiri (the Māori Language Commission) should become the lead Māori language sector agency. This will address the problems caused by the lack of ownership and leadership identified by the Office of the Auditor-General.[64]
Te Taura Whiri should function as a Crown–Māori partnership through the equal appointment of Crown and Māori appointees to its board. This reflects [the Tribunal's] concern that te reo revival will not work if responsibility for setting the direction is not shared with Māori.
Te Taura Whiri will also need increased powers. This will ensure that public bodies are compelled to contribute tote reo's revival and that key agencies are held properly accountable for the strategies they adopt. For instance, targets for the training of te reo teachers must be met, education curricula involving te reo must be approved, and public bodies in districts with a sufficient number and/or proportion ofte reo speakers and schools with a certain proportion of Māori students must submit Māori language plans for approval.
These regional public bodies and schools must also consultiwi (Māori tribes or tribal confederations) in the preparation of their plans. In this way, iwi will come to have a central role in the revitalisation ofte reo in their own areas. This should encourage efforts to promote the language at the grassroots.[65]
The changes set forth by the Tribunal are merely recommendations; they are not binding upon government.[66]
Bastion Point land rights activists with Māori-language signs
There is, however, evidence that the revitalisation efforts are taking hold, as can be seen in the teaching ofte reo in the school curriculum, the use of Māori as an instructional language, and the supportive ideologies surrounding these efforts.[67] In 2014, a survey of students ranging in age from 18 to 24 was conducted; the students were of mixed ethnic backgrounds, ranging fromPākehā to Māori who lived in New Zealand. This survey showed a 62% response saying thatte reo Māori was at risk.[67] Albury argues that these results come from the language either not being used enough in common discourse, or from the fact that the number of speakers was inadequate for future language development.[67]
The policies for language revitalisation have been changing in attempts to improve Māori language use and have been working with suggestions from the Waitangi Tribunal on the best ways to implement the revitalisation. The Waitangi Tribunal in 2011 identified a suggestion for language revitalisation that would shift indigenous policies from the central government to the preferences and ideologies of the Māori people.[66] This change recognises the issue of Māori revitalisation as one of indigenous self-determination, instead of the job of the government to identify what would be best for the language and Māori people of New Zealand.[68]
Beginning in about 2015, the Māori language underwent a revival as it became increasingly popular, as a common national heritage and shared cultural identity, even among New Zealanders without Māori roots. Surveys from 2018 indicated that "the Māori language currently enjoys a high status in Māori society and also positive acceptance by the majority of non-Māori New Zealanders".[69][70]
As the status and prestige of the language rose, so did the demand for language classes. Businesses, including Google, Microsoft,Vodafone NZ andFletcher Building, were quick to adopt the trend as it became apparent that usingte reo made customers think of a company as "committed to New Zealand". The language became increasingly heard in the media and in politics. Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern—who gave her daughter a Māori middle name, and said she would learn both Māori and English—made headlines when she toasted Commonwealth leaders in 2018 with a Māori proverb, and the success of Māori musical groups such asAlien Weaponry andMaimoa further increased the language's presence in social media.[69][70][71] Since 2017, a selected number ofDisney movies have received adubbing in Māori,[72][73] the first having beenMoana.[74]
In August 2017,Rotorua became the first city in New Zealand to declare itself asbilingual in the Māori and English languages, meaning that both languages would be promoted. In 2019, the New Zealand government launched theMaihi Karauna Māori language revitalisation strategy with a goal of 1 million people speakingte reo Māori by 2040.[75][76] Also in 2019,Kotahi Rau Pukapuka Trust andAuckland University Press began work on publishing a sizeable library of local and international literature in the language, including theHarry Potter books.[77]
Some New Zealanders have pushed against the revival, debating the replacement of English-language place names with original Māori names, criticising a police car having Māori language and graphics, and complaining aboutte reo Māori being used by broadcasters.[70] In March 2021, theBroadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) said it would no longer entertain complaints regarding the use of the Māori language in broadcasts. This followed a fivefold increase in complaints to the BSA. The use of Māori in itself does not breach any broadcasting standards.[78]
While the preceding are all distinct languages, they remain similar enough thatTupaia, a Tahitian travelling with CaptainJames Cook in 1769–1770, communicated effectively with Māori.[82] Hawaiian newspaperKa Nupepa Kuokoa in 1911 coveringErnest Kaʻai and his Royal Hawaiians' band tour of New Zealand reported that Kaʻai himself wrote to them about the band able to communicate with Māori while visiting their ruralmaraes.[83] Māori actors, travelling to Easter Island for production of the filmRapa-Nui noticed a marked similarity between the native tongues, as did arts curator Reuben Friend, who noted that it took only a short time to pick up any different vocabulary and the different nuances to recognisable words.[84] Speakers of modern Māori generally report that they find the languages of theCook Islands, including Rarotongan, the easiest among the other Polynesian languages to understand and converse in.
Nearly all speakers are ethnic Māori residents of New Zealand. Estimates of the number of speakers vary: the 1996 census reported 160,000,[85] while a 1995 national survey reported about 10,000 "very fluent" adult speakers.[86]As reported in the 2013 national census, only 21.3% of self-identified Māori had a conversational knowledge of the language, and only around 6.5% of those speakers, 1.4% of the total Māori population, spoke the Māori language only. This percentage has been in decline in recent years, from around a quarter of the population[when?] to 21%. In the same census, Māori speakers were 3.7% of the total population.[87]
The level of competence of self-professed Māori speakers varies from minimal to total. Statistics have not been gathered for the prevalence of different levels of competence. Only a minority of self-professed speakers use Māori as their main language at home.[88] The rest use only a few words or phrases (passive bilingualism).[citation needed]
Māori still[update] is a community language in some predominantly Māori settlements in theNorthland,Urewera andEast Cape areas.Kōhanga reo Māori-immersion kindergartens throughout New Zealand use Māori exclusively.[88]
Urbanisation after the Second World War led to widespread language shift from Māori predominance (with Māori the primary language of the ruralwhānau) to English predominance (English serving as the primary language in thePākehā cities). Therefore, Māori speakers almost always communicate bilingually, withNew Zealand English as either their first or second language. Only around 9,000 people speak only in Māori.[68]
In the 2023 school year, around 7.2% of primary and secondary school students in New Zealand were taught fully or partially in Māori. An additional 24.4% were formally taught Māori as an additional language, and 37.1% were taught Māori informally. However, very few students pass through the New Zealand education system without any Māori language education. For example, only 2.1% of students in Year 1 (aged 5) did not receive any Māori language education in 2023.[11]
The use of the Māori language in the Māori diaspora is far lower than in New Zealand itself. Census data from Australia show it as the home language of 11,747, just 8.2% of the total Australian Māori population in 2016.[89]
The modern Māorialphabet has 15 letters, two of which aredigraphs (character pairs). The five vowels have both short and long forms, with the long forms denoted by macrons marked above them.
The order of the alphabet is as follows: A, E, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, R, T, U, W, Ng, Wh.
This standard orthography may be tweaked to represent certain dialects of Māori:
An underlined "ḵ" sometimes appears when writing the Southern dialect, to indicate that the /k/ in question corresponds to theng of the standard language.
BothL andG are also encountered in theSouthern dialect, though not in standard Māori.
Various methods are used to indicate glottal stops when writing theWhanganui dialect.
There was originally no native writing system for Māori. It has been suggested that thepetroglyphs once used by the Māori developed into a script similar to theRongorongo of Easter Island.[90] However, there is no evidence that these petroglyphs ever evolved into a true system of writing. Some distinctive markings among thekōwhaiwhai (rafter paintings) of meeting houses were used as mnemonics in recitingwhakapapa (genealogy) but again, there was no systematic relation between marks and meanings.
Attempts to write Māori words using theLatin script began with Captain James Cook and other early explorers, with varying degrees of success. Consonants seem to have caused the most difficulty, but medial and final vowels are often missing in early sources.Anne Salmond[91] recordsaghee for aki (in the year 1773, from the North Island East Coast, p. 98),Toogee andE tanga roak for Tuki and Tangaroa (1793, Northland, p. 216),Kokramea,Kakramea for Kakaramea (1801, Hauraki, p. 261),toges for tokis,Wannugu for Uenuku andgumera for kumara (1801, Hauraki, pp. 261, 266 and 269),Weygate for Waikato (1801, Hauraki, p. 277),Bunga Bunga for pungapunga,tubua for tupua andgure for kurī (1801, Hauraki, p. 279), as well asTabooha for Te Puhi (1823, Northern Northland, p. 385).
From 1814, missionaries tried to define the sounds of the language.Thomas Kendall published a book in 1815 entitledA korao no New Zealand, which in modern orthography and usage would beHe Kōrero nō Aotearoa. Beginning in 1817, professorSamuel Lee ofCambridge University worked with theNgāpuhi chiefTītore and his junior relative Tui (also known as Tuhi or Tupaea),[92] and then with chiefHongi Hika[93] and his junior relativeWaikato; they established a definitive orthography based on Northern usage, published as theFirst Grammar and Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language (1820).[92] The missionaries of theChurch Missionary Society (CMS) did not have a high regard for this book. By 1830 the CMS missionaries had revised theorthography for writing the Māori language; for example, 'Kiddeekiddee' was changed to the modern spelling, 'Kerikeri'.[94][non-primary source needed]
The Māori embracedliteracy 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, andflax.[95] MissionaryJames West Stack recorded the scarcity of slates and writing materials at thenative schools and the use sometimes of "pieces of board on which sand was sprinkled, and the letters traced upon the sand with a pointed stick".[96]
The alphabet devised at Cambridge University does not mark vowel length. The examples in the following table show that vowel length is phonemic in Māori.
Māori devised ways to mark vowel length, sporadically at first. Occasional and inconsistent vowel-length markings occur in 19th-century manuscripts and newspapers written by Māori, including macron-likediacritics and doubling of letters. Māori writerHare Hongi (Henry Stowell) used macrons in hisMaori-English Tutor and Vade Mecum of 1911,[97] as does SirĀpirana Ngata (albeit inconsistently) in hisMaori Grammar and Conversation (7th printing 1953). Once the Māori language was taught in universities in the 1960s, vowel-length marking was made systematic.Bruce Biggs, ofNgāti Maniapoto descent and professor at theUniversity of Auckland, promoted the use of double vowels (e.g.waahine); this style was standard at the university until Biggs died in 2000.
Macrons (tohutō) are now the standard means of indicating long vowels,[98] after becoming the favoured option of theMāori Language Commission—set up by the Māori Language Act 1987 to act as the authority for Māori spelling and orthography.[99][100] Most news media now use macrons;Stuff websites and newspapers since 2017,[101]TVNZ[102] andNZME websites and newspapers since 2018.[103]
Technical limitations in producing macronised vowels are sometimes resolved by using adiaeresis[104] orcircumflex[105] instead of a macron (e.g., wähine or wâhine). In other cases, it is resolved by omitting the macron all together (e.g. wahine).[106]
Double vowels continue to be used in a few exceptional cases, including:
Inland Revenue continues to spell its Māori nameTe Tari Taake instead ofTe Tari Tāke, mainly to reduce the resemblance oftāke to the English word 'take'.[110]
A considerable number of governmental and non-governmental organisations continue to use the older spelling of⟨roopu⟩ ('association') in their names rather than the more modern form⟨rōpū⟩. Examples includeTe Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa ('the national Māori weavers' collective') andTe Roopu Pounamu (a Māori-specific organisation within theGreen Party of Aotearoa New Zealand).
Although it is commonly claimed that vowel realisations (pronunciations) in Māori show little variation, linguistic research has shown this not to be the case.[112][b]
Vowel length is phonemic, but four of the five long vowels occur in only a handful of word roots, the exception being/aː/.[113][c] As noted above, it has recently become standard in Māori spelling to indicate a long vowel with a macron. For older speakers, long vowels tend to be more peripheral and short vowels more centralised, especially with the low vowel, which is long[aː] but short[ɐ]. For younger speakers, they are both[a]. For older speakers,/u/ is only fronted after/t/; elsewhere it is[u]. For younger speakers, it is fronted[ʉ] everywhere, as with the corresponding phoneme inNew Zealand English. Due to the influence of New Zealand English, the vowel [e] is raised to be near [i], so thatpī andkē (orpiki andkete) now largely share the very same vowel space.[114]: 198–199
Besidemonophthongs Māori has manydiphthong vowel phonemes. Although any short vowel combinations are possible, researchers disagree on which combinations constitute diphthongs.[115]Formant frequency analysis distinguish/aĭ/,/aĕ/,/aŏ/,/aŭ/,/oŭ/ as diphthongs.[116]As in many other Polynesian languages, diphthongs in Māori vary only slightly from sequences of adjacent vowels, except that they belong to the same syllable, and all or nearly all sequences of nonidentical vowels are possible. All sequences of nonidentical short vowels occur and are phonemically distinct.[117][118]
The consonant phonemes of Māori are listed in the following table. Seven of the ten Māoriconsonant letters have the same pronunciation as they do in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For those that do not, the IPAphonetic transcription is included, enclosed in square brackets per IPA convention.
The pronunciation of⟨wh⟩ is extremely variable,[119] but its most common pronunciation (its canonical allophone) is thelabiodental fricative, IPA[f] (as in the English wordfill). Another allophone is thevoiceless bilabial fricative, IPA[ɸ], which is usually supposed to be the sole pre-European pronunciation, although linguists are not sure of the truth of this supposition.[citation needed] At least until the 1930s, the bilabial fricative was considered to be the correct pronunciation.[120] The fact that English⟨f⟩ gets substituted by⟨p⟩ and not⟨wh⟩ in borrowings (for example, EnglishFebruary becomesPēpuere instead ofWhēpuere) would strongly hint that the Māori did not perceive English/f/ to be the same sound as their⟨wh⟩.
Because English stops/p,t,k/ primarily have aspiration, speakers of English often hear the Māori nonaspirated stops as English/b,d,ɡ/. However, younger Māori speakers tend to aspirate/p,t,k/ as in English. English speakers also tend to hear Māori/r/ as English/l/ in certain positions (cf.Japanese r).
/ŋ/ can come at the beginning of a word (like 'sing-along' without the "si"), which may be difficult for English speakers outside of New Zealand to manage.
In some western areas of the North Island,⟨h⟩ is pronounced as a glottal stop[ʔ] instead of[h], and thedigraph⟨wh⟩ is pronounced as[ʔw] instead of[f] or[ɸ].
/ɾ/ is typically aflap, especially before/a/. However, elsewhere it is sometimestrilled.
In borrowings from English, many consonants are substituted by the nearest available Māori consonant. For example, the English affricates/tʃ/ and/dʒ/, and the fricative/s/ are replaced by/h/,/f/ becomes/p/, and/l/ becomes/ɾ/ (the/l/ is sometimes retained in the southern dialect, as noted below).
Syllables in Māori have one of the following forms:V, VV, CV, CVV. This set of four can be summarised by the notation,(C)V(V), in which the segments in parentheses may or may not be present. A syllable cannot begin with two consonant sounds (thedigraphsng andwh represent single consonantsounds), and cannot end in a consonant, although some speakers may occasionally devoice a final vowel. All possibleCV combinations are grammatical, thoughwo,who,wu, andwhu occur only in a few loanwords from English such aswuru, "wool" andwhutuporo, "football".[121]
As in many other Polynesian languages, e.g., Hawaiian, the rendering ofloanwords from English includes representing every English consonant of the loanword (using the native consonant inventory; English has 24 consonants to 10 for Māori) and breaking up consonant clusters. For example, "Presbyterian" has been borrowed asPerehipeteriana; no consonant position in the loanword has been deleted, but/s/ and/b/ have been replaced with/h/ and/p/, respectively.
Stress is typically within the last four vowels of a word, with long vowels and diphthongs counting double. That is, on the last four moras. However, stressed moras are longer than unstressed moras, so the word does not have the precision in Māori that it does in some other languages. It falls preferentially on the first long vowel, on the first diphthong if there is no long vowel (though for some speakers never a final diphthong), and on the first syllable otherwise. Compound words (such as names) may have a stressed syllable in each component word. In long sentences, the final syllable before a pause may have a stress in preference to the normal stressed syllable.
Biggs proposed that historically there were two major dialect groups, North Island and South Island, and that South Island Māori is extinct.[123] Biggs has analysed North Island Māori as comprising a western group and an eastern group with the boundary between them running pretty much along the island's north–south axis.[124]
Within these broad divisions regional variations occur, and individual regions show tribal variations. The major differences occur in the pronunciation of words, variation of vocabulary, and idiom. A fluent speaker of Māori has no problem understanding other dialects.
There is no significant variation in grammar between dialects. "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."[125] Vocabulary and pronunciation vary to a greater extent, but this does not pose barriers to communication.
In the northern dialects, particularly inMuriwhenua and parts ofNgāpuhi, thedigraphwh is not pronounced as⟨f⟩, as it is in most of the other dialects, but as avoiceless bilabial fricative⟨ɸ⟩. Some speakers also reduce this sound to⟨h⟩, particularly in words beginning with the causative prefixwhaka- (e.g.whakarongo), leading to the pronunciation being heard ashaka- (e.g.hakarongo or 'hakarongo).[126][127]
Speakers of the northern dialect, like other dialects, also have preferences for specific renderings of words (e.g.kāhore instead ofkāore,kaurua/kourua instead ofkōrua, etc.), or entirely unique words (e.g.kūkupa instead ofkererū,whareiti instead ofwharepaku, etc.)[126][128]
In the southwest of the North Island, in theWhanganui andTaranaki regions, the phoneme⟨h⟩ is aglottal stop and the phoneme⟨wh⟩ is[ʔw]. This difference was the subject of considerable debate during the 1990s and 2000s over the then-proposed change of the name of the city Wanganui to Whanganui.
InTūhoe and the EasternBay of Plenty (northeastern North Island)⟨ng⟩ has merged with⟨n⟩.
Part of the annotation to aRalph Hotere exhibition at theDunedin Public Art Gallery, written bilingually in English and southern Māori. Note several regional variations, such asnohoka (nohoanga, a place or seat),tikaka (tikanga, customs),āhana/ōhona (ana / ōna,alienable and inalienable "his"),pako (pango, black), andwhaka (whanga, harbour).
In South Island dialects,ng merged intok in many regions. ThusKāi Tahu andNgāi Tahu are variations in the name of the sameiwi (the latter form is the one used in Acts of Parliament). Since 2000, the government has altered the official names of several southern place names to the southern dialect forms by replacingng withk. New Zealand's highest mountain, known for centuries asAoraki in southern Māori dialects that mergeng withk, and asAorangi by other Māori, was later named "Mount Cook". Now its sole official name isAoraki / Mount Cook, which favours the local dialect form. Similarly, the Māori name forStewart Island,Rakiura, is cognate with the name of theCanterbury town ofRangiora. Likewise,Dunedin's main research library, theHocken Collections, has the nameUare Taoka o Hākena rather than the northern (standard)Te Whare Taonga o Hākena.[d] Maarire Goodall andGeorge Griffiths say there is also a voicing ofk tog, which explains why the region ofOtago (southern dialect) and the settlement it is named after –Otakou (standard Māori) – vary in spelling (the pronunciation of the latter having changed over time to accommodate the northern spelling).[129]
The standard Māorir is also found occasionally changed to anl in these southern dialects and thewh tow. These changes are most commonly found in place names, such asLake Waihola,[130] and the nearby coastal settlement ofWangaloa (which would, in standard Māori, be renderedWhangaroa), andLittle Akaloa, onBanks Peninsula. Goodall and Griffiths suggest that final vowels are given a centralised pronunciation asschwa or that they areelided (pronounced indistinctly or not at all), resulting in such seemingly bastardised place names asThe Kilmog, which in standard Māori would have been renderedKirimoko, but which in southern dialect would have been pronounced very much as the current name suggests.[131] This same elision is found in numerous other southern placenames, such as the two small settlements called The Kaik (from the term for a fishing village,kāinga in standard Māori), nearPalmerston andAkaroa, and the early spelling ofLake Wakatipu asWagadib. In standard Māori, Wakatipu would have been renderedWhakatipua, showing further the elision of a final vowel.[citation needed]
Despite the dialect being officially regarded as extinct,[e] its use in signage and official documentation is encouraged by many government and educational agencies in Otago andSouthland.[133][134]
Māori has mostly averb-subject-object (VSO)word order.[135] It is alsoanalytical, featuring almost noinflection, and makes extensive use of grammatical particles to indicate grammatical categories of tense, mood, aspect, case, topicalization, among others. The personal pronouns have a distinction inclusivity, singular, dual and plural numbers,[136] and the genitive pronouns have different classes (a class,o class and neutral) according to whether the possession isalienable or the possessor has control of the relationship (a category), or the possession isinalienable or the possessor has no control over the relationship (o category), and a thirdneutral class that only occurs for singular pronouns and must be followed by a noun.[137] There is alsosubject-object-verb (SOV) word order used in agent emphatic sentences.[138] Examples of this includeNāku te ngohi i tunu ("I cooked the fish"; literallyI the fish cooked) andMā wai te haka e kaea? ("Who will lead the haka?"). Agent emphatic sentences can also take thesubject-verb-object (SVO) word order.[139] In this order the example sentences would be rendered asNāku i tunu te ngohi andMā wai e kaea te haka?
Biggs (1998) developed an analysis that the basic unit of Māori speech is the phrase rather than the word.[140] The lexical word forms the "base" of the phrase. Biggs identifies five types of bases.
Noun bases include those bases that can take a definite article, but cannot occur as the nucleus of a verbal phrase; for example:ika (fish) orrākau (tree).[141] Plurality is marked by various means, including the definite article (singularte, pluralngā),[142] deictic particlestērā rākau (that tree),ērā rākau (those trees),[143] possessivestaku whare (my house),aku whare (my houses).[144] A few nouns lengthen a vowel in the plural, such aswahine (woman);wāhine (women).[145] In general, bases used as qualifiers follow the base they qualify, e.g. "matua wahine" (mother, female elder) from "matua" (parent, elder) "wahine" (woman).[146]
Universal bases are verbs which can be used passively. When used passively, these verbs take a passive form. Biggs gives three examples of universals in their passive form:inumia (drunk),tangihia (wept for), andkīa (said).[147]
Stative bases serve as bases usable as verbs but not available for passive use, such asora, alive ortika, correct.[147] Grammars generally refer to them as "stative verbs". When used in sentences, statives require different syntax than other verb-like bases.[148]
Locative bases can follow the locative particleki (to, towards) directly, such asrunga, above,waho, outside, and placenames (ki Tamaki, to Auckland).[149]
Personal bases take the personal articlea afterki, such as names of people (ki a Hohepa, to Joseph), personified houses, personal pronouns,wai? who? andmea, so-and-so.[149]
Like all other Polynesian languages, Māori has a rich array of particles, which include verbal particles, pronouns, locative particles, articles and possessives.
Verbal particles indicate aspectual, tense-related or modal properties of the verb which they relate to. They include:
Possessives fall into one of two classes of prepositions marked bya ando, depending on the dominant versus subordinate relationship between possessor and possessed:ngā tamariki a te matua, the children of the parent butte matua o ngā tamariki, the parent of the children.[155]
The definite articles arete (singular) andngā (plural).[156][157] Several other determiners termed definitives are related to the singular definite articlete, such as the definitivepossessive constructions withtā andtō and thedemonstrative determiners.[137]
The Māori definite articles are frequently used where the equivalent,the, is not used in English, such as when referring generically to an entire class. In these cases, the singularte can even be used with a morphologically plural noun, as in
In other syntactic environments, the definite article may be used to introduce a noun-phrase which is pragmatically indefinite due to the restrictions on the use ofhe as discussed below.[157]
The indefinite articlehe is used most frequently in the predicate and occasionally in the subject of the sentence, although it is not allowed in subject position in all sentence types.[158] In the predicate, the indefinite articlehe can introduce either nouns or adjectives.[159] The article either can be translated to the English 'a' or 'some', but the number will not be indicated byhe. With nouns that show morphological number,he may be used either with singular or plural forms. The indefinite articlehe when used with mass nouns like water and sand will always mean 'some'.[160]
he tāne
a man
some men
he kōtiro
a girl
some girls
he kāinga
a village
some villages
he āporo
an apple
some apples
he tangata
a person
–
he tāngata
–
some people
The indefinite articlehe is highly restricted in its use and is incompatible with a preceding preposition. For this reason, it cannot be used in the grammatical object of the sentence as these are marked prepositionally, either withi orki. In many cases, speakers simply use the definite articleste andngā in positions wherehe is disallowed, however the indefinite articlestētahi andētahi may be used in these situations to emphasise the indefiniteness.[161]
The proper articlea is used before personal and locative nouns acting as the subject of the sentence or before personal nouns and pronouns within prepositional phrases headed by prepositions ending ini (namelyi,ki,kei andhei).[161]
Proper nouns are not preceded by the proper article when they are neither acting as the subject of the sentence nor in a prepositional phrase headed byi,ki,kei orhei. For example, after the focusing particleko, the proper article is not used.
Demonstratives occur after the noun and have a deictic function, and includetēnei, this (near me),tēnā, that (near you),tērā, that (far from us both), andtaua, the aforementioned (anaphoric). These demonstratives, having a connection to the definite articlete are termed definitives. Other definitives includetēhea? (which?), andtētahi, (a certain). The plural is formed just by dropping thet:tēnei (this),ēnei (these). The related adverbs arenei (here),nā (there, near you),rā (over there, near him).[164]
Phrases introduced by demonstratives can also be expressed using the definite articlete orngā preceding a noun followed by one of the deictic particlesnei,nā orrā. Thet of the singular definite article appears in the singular demonstratives but is replaced by∅ in the plural, having no connection withngā in the majority of dialects.
However, in dialects of theWaikato area, plural forms of demonstratives beginning withng- are found, such asngēnei 'these' instead of the more widespreadēnei (as well as andpossessives such asng(e)ōku 'my (plural, inalienable)' instead ofōku).[166]
The following table shows the most common forms of demonstratives across dialects.
Pronouns have singular, dual and plural number. Different first-person forms in both the dual and the plural are used for groups inclusive or exclusive of the person(s) addressed.
Like other Polynesian languages, Māori has threenumbers for pronouns and possessives: singular,dual and plural. For example:ia (he/she),rāua (those two),rātou (they, three or more). Māori pronouns and possessives further distinguish exclusive "we" from inclusive "we", 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 (me and another),tāua (me and you),kōrua (you two),rāua (those two). The difference betweenexclusive and inclusive lies in the treatment of the person addressed.Mātou refers to the speaker and others but not the person or persons spoken to ("I and some others but not you"), andtātou refers to the speaker, the person or persons spoken to and everyone else ("you, I and others"):[167]
The possessive pronouns vary according to person, number,clusivity, and possessive class (a class or o class). Example:tāku pene (my pen),āku pene (my pens). For dual and plural subject pronouns, the possessive form is analytical, by just putting the possessive particle (tā/tō for singular objects orā/ō for plural objects) before the personal pronouns, e.g.tā tātou karaihe (our class),tō rāua whare (their [dual] house);ā tātou karaihe (our classes). The neuter one must be followed by a noun and only occur for singular first, second and third persons.Taku is my,aku is my (plural, for many possessed items). The plural is made by deleting the initial [t].[137]
A phrase spoken in Māori can be broken up into two parts: the "nucleus" or "head" and "periphery" (modifiers, determiners). The nucleus can be thought of as the meaning and is the centre of the phrase, whereas the periphery is where the grammatical meaning is conveyed and occurs before and/or after the nucleus.[170]
Periphery
Nucleus
Periphery
te
whare
nei
ki te
whare
The nucleuswhare can be translated as "house", the peripheryte is similar to an article "the" and the peripherynei indicates proximity to the speaker. The whole phrase,te whare nei, can then be translated as "this house".[171]
A definite and declarative sentence (may be a copulative sentence) begins with the declarative particleko.[172] If the sentence is topicalized (agent topic, only in non-present sentences) the sentence begins with the particlenā (past tense) or the particlemā (future, imperfective) followed by the agent/subject. In these cases the word order changes to subject-verb-object. These agent topicalizing particles can contract with singular personal pronouns and vary according to the possessive classes:nāku can be thought of as meaning "as for me" and behave like an emphatic or dative pronoun.[173]
Forming negative phrases in Māori is quite grammatically complex. There are several different negators which are used under various specific circumstances.[178] The main negators are as follows:[178]
Negator
Description
kāo
Negative answer to a polar question.
kāore/kāhore/kāre
The most common verbal negator.
kore
A strong negator, equivalent to 'never'.
kaua e
Negative imperatives; prohibitive
ehara
Negation for copulative phrases, topicalized and equative phrases
Kīhai andtē are two negators which may be seen in specific dialects or older texts, but are not widely used.[178] The most common negator iskāhore, which may occur in one of four forms, with thekāo form only being used in response to a question.[178] Negative phrases, besides usingkāore, also affect the form of verbal particles, as illustrated below.
The general usage ofkāhore can be seen in the following examples. The subject is usually raised in negative phrases, although this is not obligatory.[179] Each example of a negative phrase is presented with its analogue positive phrase for comparison.
The passive voice of verbs is made by a suffix to the verb. For example, -ia (or just -a if the verb ends in [i]). The other passive suffixes, some of which are very rare, are: -hanga/-hia/-hina/-ina/-kia/-kina/-mia/-na/-nga/-ngia/-ria/-rina/-tia/-whia/-whina/.[181] The use of the passive suffix -ia is given in this sentence:Kua hangaia te marae e ngā tohunga (The marae has been built by the experts). The active form of this sentence is rendered as:Kua hanga ngā tohunga i te marae (The experts have built the marae). It can be seen that the active sentence contains the object marker 'i', that is not present in the passive sentence, while the passive sentence has the agent marker 'e', which is not present in the active sentence.[182]
New Zealand English has gained many loanwords from Māori, mainly the names of birds, plants, fishes and places. For example, thekiwi, thenational bird, takes its name fromte reo. "Kia ora" (literally "be healthy") is a widely adopted greeting of Māori origin, with the intended meaning of "hello".[189] It can also mean "thank you", or signify agreement with a speaker at a meeting. The Māori greetingstēnā koe (to one person),tēnā kōrua (to two people) ortēnā koutou (to three or more people) are also widely used, as are farewells such ashaere rā. The Māori phrasekia kaha, "be strong", is frequently encountered as an indication of moral support for someone starting a stressful undertaking or otherwise in a difficult situation. Many other words such aswhānau (meaning "family") andkai (meaning "food") are also widely understood and used by New Zealanders. The Māori phraseKa kite anō means 'until I see you again' is quite commonly used.
In 2023, 47 words or expressions from New Zealand English, mostly fromte reo Māori were added to the Oxford English Dictionary.[190]
^Tā moko facial tattoos, as used in the 19th century, have been posited as a form of textual language, but do not correlate to spoken Māori.[5]
^Bauer mentions that Biggs 1961 announced a similar finding.
^Bauer even raised the possibility of analysing Māori as really having six vowel phonemes,a, ā, e, i, o, u ([a,aː,ɛ,i,ɔ,ʉ]).
^The Hocken Library contains several early journals and notebooks of early missionaries documenting the vagaries of the southern dialect. Several of them are shown at Blackman, A.Some Sources for Southern Maori dialect.
^As with many "dead" languages, there is a possibility that the southern dialect may be revived, especially with the encouragement mentioned. "TheMurihiku language – Mulihig' being probably better expressive of its state in 1844 – lives on in Watkin's vocabulary list and in manymuttonbirding terms still in use, and may flourish again in the new climate ofMaoritaka."[132]
^TAONGA, RIGHTS AND INTERESTS: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON WAI 262 AND THE FRAMEWORK OF PROTECTIONS FOR THE MĀORI LANGUAGE – Stephens, Māmari, (2010) NZACL YEARBOOK 16
^abCowan, James: The Maori: Yesterday and To-day Author: Publication details: Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1930, Christchurch. Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection. This text is the subject of: Victoria University of Wellington Library Catalogue
^abKrupa, Victor: METAPHORS IN MAORI VOCABULARY AND TRADITIONAL POETRY* (2006) Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences
^"Languages in Aotearoa New Zealand"(PDF).royalsociety.org.nz. The Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi.Archived(PDF) from the original on 5 March 2022. Retrieved5 May 2022.
^"Karakia", Otago University website. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
^Anderson, Atholl; et al. (November 2015).Tangata Whenua (1st ed.). Auckland: Bridget Williams Books. pp. 47, 48.ISBN9780908321537.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^Ka'ai-Mahuta, Rachael (2011). "The impact of colonisation on te reo Māori: a critical review of the state education system".Te Kaharoa.4 (1).doi:10.24135/tekaharoa.v4i1.117.ISSN1178-6035.
^abAlbury, Nathan John (2 April 2016). "An old problem with new directions: Māori language revitalisation and the policy ideas of youth".Current Issues in Language Planning.17 (2):161–178.doi:10.1080/14664208.2016.1147117.ISSN1466-4208.S2CID147076237.
^abRoy, Eleanor Ainge (28 July 2018)."Google and Disney join rush to cash in as Māori goes mainstream".The Guardian.Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved28 July 2018.John McCaffery, a language expert at the University of Auckland school of education, says the language is thriving, with other indigenous peoples travelling to New Zealand to learn how Māori has made such a striking comeback. 'It has been really dramatic, the past three years in particular, Māori has gone mainstream,' he said.
^Banks 1771, 9 October 1769: "we again advanc'd to the river side with Tupia, who now found that the language of the people was so like his own that he could tolerably well understand them and they him.".
^abAlbury, Nathan (2016). "Defining Māori language revitalisation: A project in folk linguistics".Journal of Sociolinguistics.20 (3):287–311.doi:10.1111/josl.12183.hdl:10852/58904, p. 301.
^Salmond, Anne (1997).Between Worlds: Early Exchanges between Maori and Europeans, 1773–1815. Auckland: Viking.
^abBrownson, Ron (23 December 2010)."Outpost". Staff and friends of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved13 January 2018.
^Stack, James West (1938).Reed, Alfred Hamish (ed.).Early Maoriland adventures of J.W. Stack. p. 217.
^Stowell, Henry M. (November 2008).Maori-English Tutor and Vade Mecum. Read Books.ISBN9781443778398. This was the first attempt by a Māori author at a grammar of Māori.
^"About My Health Account".Health Information and Services. 9 July 2024. Retrieved27 July 2024.If your name contains letters with accents or macrons, type in the letter only, without the accent or macron. Our document-checking service does not recognise letters with accents or macrons.
^Goodall & Griffiths 1980, p. 45: "This hill [The Kilmog]...has a much debated name, but its origins are clear to Kaitahu and the word illustrates several major features of the southern dialect. First we must restore the truncated final vowel (in this case to both parts of the name, 'kilimogo'). Then substitute r for l, k for g, to obtain the northern pronunciation, 'kirimoko'.... Though final vowels existed in Kaitahu dialect, the elision was so nearly complete thatpākehā recorders often omitted them entirely".
^Natusch, S (1999).Southward Ho! The Deborah in Quest of a New Edinburgh, 1844. Invercargill, NZ: Craig Printing.ISBN978-0-908629-16-9.
^"Eastern Southland Regional Coastal Plan", from "Regional Coastal Plan for Southland – July 2005 – Chapter 1". See section 1.4, Terminology. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
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maorilanguage.net Learn the basics of Māori Language with video tutorials
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Huia Publishers, catalogue includesTirohia Kimihia the world's first Māori monolingual dictionary for learners
