العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolMāORI LANGUAGE
'Māori' or 'Te Reo Māori',[1] commonly shortened to 'Te Reo' (literally ''the language'') is an official language of New Zealand. An Eastern Polynesian language, it is closely related 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.
Official status
Māori is one of three official languages of New Zealand, the others being English and New Zealand Sign Language. Most government departments and agencies now have bilingual names, for example, the Department of Internal Affairs is known as ''Te Tari Taiwhenua'', and bodies such as local government offices and public libraries also have bilingual signs. New Zealand Post recognises Māori place names in postal addresses. It should be noted however, that while there is a right to conduct business with government agencies in Māori, 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.
A ruling by the Privy Council held the Government responsible under the Treaty of Waitangi for the preservation of the language. Accordingly, since March 2004, it has funded Māori Television, a service broadcast partly in Māori. In 2007, Māori Television announced it would set up a second channel on the Freeview service.
History
Detail from the carved ridgepole of a house
Māori was brought to New Zealand by Polynesians coming, most likely, from the area of the Cook Islands or Tahiti, in seagoing canoes that may have been double-hulled, and were probably sail-rigged. In the last 200 years the Māori language has had a tumultuous history — going from the position of predominant language of New Zealand, until the 1860s when it became a minority language in the shadow of the English brought by British settlers, missionaries, gold-seekers and traders. In the late 19th century, the English school system was introduced for all New Zealanders, and from the 1880s, the use of Māori in school was forbidden (it is argued that this was at the request of Māori leaders, who appreciated the value to their young people of fluent English) (see Native Schools). Increasing numbers of Māori people learned English. Until World War II, however, most Māori still spoke Māori as a native language. Worship was in Māori; it was the language of the home; political meetings were conducted in Māori and some literature and many newspapers were published in Māori.
As late as the 1930s, some Māori parliamentarians were disadvantaged because the Parliament's proceedings were in English. 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 be considered native speakers. Even for many of those people, Māori was no longer the language of the home.
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. This was followed by the founding of the Kura Kaupapa Māori, a primary school program in Māori.
Classification
The major subgroups of East Polynesian
Geographic distribution
Māori is spoken most extensively in New Zealand by over 100,000 people, nearly all of them of Māori descent. Estimates of the number of speakers vary: the 1996 census reported 160,000, while other estimates have reported as low as 50,000. According to the 2006 census [2], 131,613 Māori (23.7 per cent) "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.
As indicated above, the level of competence in the language of self-reported Māori speakers is 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). The number of Māori monoglots is likely to be very small indeed but the number of those who spoke Māori before they learnt English will be higher, because Māori is still a community language in some predominantly-Māori settlements in the Northland, Urewera and East Cape areas, though Māori is also the exclusive speech in ''kohanga reo'' Māori-immersion kindergarten throughout New Zealand and increasing numbers of Māori are choosing to 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 being the primary language of the Pākehā cities). Therefore, today, Māori speakers are nearly always bilingual with English as either their first or second language.
The Māori language is also spoken by the Māori diaspora, most significantly in Australia, where census data reveal it was the home language of 5,504 persons in 2001 [3] — an increase of 32.5 per cent since 1996. This represents 7.5 per cent of the Māori community in Australia. Māori is also likely to be spoken as a home language in Māori households in Britain, the United States, Canada and elsewhere.
Orthography
There are 20 letters and digraphs in the modern Māori alphabet: A Ā E Ē H I Ī K M N O Ō P R T U Ū W NG and WH.
[4] 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. Their efforts at phonetic spelling were remarkably successful, and written Māori has changed little since then, with only the distinguishing of ''w'' and ''wh'', and later the marking of long vowels. Literacy was an exciting new concept that the Māori embraced 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, such as leaves and charcoal, carved wood, and the cured skins of animals, when no paper was available.
Long vowels
A decifiency in the alphabet devised at Cambridge University was that it did not mark vowel length, which is phonemic in Māori, that is, it 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. There are occasional and inconsistent vowel length markings even in 19th century manuscripts written by Māori. These markings can include macron-like bars over vowels, or the doubling of the vowels. In the 19th century Māori-language newspapers, there is some sporadic use of macrons or other length marking methods. In Sir Apirana Ngata's ''Maori Grammar and Conversation'' (7th printing, dated 1953) macrons are used, 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 was of Ngāti Maniapoto descent) promoted the use of double vowels (thus ''Maaori'') and that became the standard at Auckland until Biggs died around 2000. The Māori Language Commission, which is the authority for Māori spelling and orthography, was established by the Māori Language Act 1987, and promoted the use of macrons, as did other universities.
Phonology
In the vowel and consonant tables below, each cell contains a phonetic transcription above and the corresponding orthographic representation in bold below.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | 'i' 'ī' | 'u' 'ū' | |
| Close-Mid | 'e' 'ē' | 'o' 'ō' | |
| Open | 'a' 'ā' |
All vowel-pairs are in use except ''uo'', and all vowel sounds are given their full value, whether stressed or not, but final short vowels may be devoiced.
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | 'p' | 't' | 'k' | |
| Fricative | 'wh' | 'h' | ||
| Nasal | 'm' | 'n' | 'ng' | |
| Tap | 'r' | |||
| Semivowel | 'w' |
While pronunciations vary, <wh> generally denotes a bilabial fricative , a sound which is comparable to that of an "f" articulated by putting the lips together as if to make a "w" sound; today the labiodental is also used, which may be an influence from English. ("WH" has occasionally been written with "F", to emphasise that the sound is a single consonant and not w + h, but this has not caught on in general usage.) Māori
Because English voiceless stops are often strongly aspirated, while voiced stops have little or no aspiration, the non-aspirated stops of Māori will often be misidentified as voiced by English speakers. A similar situation exists with the liquids ''r'' versus ''l''; English speakers may at times be unable to tell whether the speaker is saying ''k'' or ''g'', ''t'' or ''d'', ''r'' or ''l''. This has led to placenames like 'Tolaga Bay' in the North Island and 'Otago' and 'Waihola' in the South Island.
Syllables
A syllable in Māori has the form '(C)V(V)'. Two consonants are never together (''ng'' and ''wh'' being single consonants), and no syllable ends with a consonant. (These rules give rise to such transliterations as ''Perehipeteriana'', "Presbyterian".) All 'CV' combinations are in use except ''who''. ''wo'', ''wu'' and ''whu'' occur only in a few loan words from English such as ''wuru'', "wool" and ''whutuporo'', "football".
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 says is the unit of Māori speech, not the word. A central component of the phrase is the 'base' or lexical word. Bases are further divided by Biggs into nouns, universals, statives, locatives and personals, and particles (grammatical words) into verbal particles, pronouns, locatives, possessives and definitives.
'Nouns' are bases that can take a definite article, but can not occur as the nucleus of a verbal phrase, such as ''ika'', fish, ''rākau'', tree. Nouns usually keep the same form in both singular and plural, the change of number being indicated by a change in the definite article from ''te'' (singular "the") to ''ngā'' (plural "the"). Some words lengthen a vowel in the plural, such as ''wahine'', woman; ''wāhine'', women. Nouns can be derived from other bases by adding the suffixes ''-nga, -anga, -kanga, -manga, -ranga, -tanga'' or ''–whanga''. There is a correspondence 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' are bases that can be 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' are 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). 'Personals' are bases that 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 is rich in 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 the first-person forms in the dual and in the plural are inclusive or exclusive of you, 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 in 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. Other definitives are 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).Defintives 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. For example: ''ia'' (he/she), ''rāua'' (they two), ''rātou'' (they 3 or more). The words ''rua'' (2) and ''toru'' (3) are still discernible in endings of the dual and plural pronouns.
Māori has four distinctions in pronouns and possessives: first exclusive, first inclusive, second and third. The plural pronouns are: ''mātou'' (we, exc), ''tātou'' (we, inc), ''koutou'' (you), ''rātou'' (they). The dual pronouns are: ''māua'' (we two, exc), ''tāua'' (we two, inc), ''kōrua'' (you two), ''rāua'' (they two). The difference between exclusive and inclusive is the treatment of the person addressed. ''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").
The correct use of the numbers is important 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)
Dialects
Linguists generally state that there are 3 major dialect divisions: Western North Island, Eastern North Island, and South Island. Within these divisions, there is also regional variation, and within regions there is tribal variation. The major differences are in pronunciation of words, variation of vocabulary, and idiom. Standard Māori is based on the language of Ngā Puhi and Waikato tribal areas, which are part 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 are generally of the opinion that there is 'very little evidence from the data collected that grammatical structures differ significantly from one area to the next. .. Most of the tribal variation in the 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' (Bauer 1993:xxi-xxii). Bauer also notes that that the variation is more to be found in vocabulary and pronunciation, but this is generally no barrier to communication.
The main pronunciation variations are that some speakers in the Wanganui and Taranaki replace the ''h'' (with a glottal stop and have a glottalised pronunciation of ''wh''. In Tūhoe and the Eastern Bay of Plenty some speakers merge ''ng'' into ''n''. This causes little ambiguity in practice. In parts of the Far North, ''wh'' resembles bilabial English ''wh'' (when speakers distinguish it from ''w''). In the South Island some speakers merge ''ng'' and ''k''. However this change did not occur in the whole of the tribal area, with the result that the tribal name can also appear as Ngāi Tahu, as it does in Acts of Parliament.[5]
Calendar
From missionary times, Māori used transliterations for days of the week and 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 are based on the pagan origins of the English names (eg 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
External links
★ 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.
★ 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 Maori monolingual dictionary for learners
Notes
1. (IPA:)
2. http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/095030F8-BD62-4745-836D-0EF185619C37/0/2006censusquickstatsaboutmaorirevised.pdf
3. http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/WAPeople%5CSect1%5CTable%201p04%20Aust.pdf
4. An underlined k is sometimes used when writing the Southern dialect, to indicate that the k in question corresponds to the ''ng'' of the standard language. A glottal stop may be indicated in various ways when writing the Wanganui dialect.
5. Until the last decade or so, southern Māori was actively discouraged in favour of standard (northern North Island) Māori, which was the only form used by government and most institutions. It 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 ''Aorangi'' by other Māori, was later named Mount Cook after Captain Cook. Its official name is now ''Aoraki/Mount Cook'' and only this name may be printed on maps and official documents. Similarly, Dunedin's main research library, the Hocken Library, now has the name ''Te Uare Taoka o Hākena'', rather than ''Te Whare Taonga o Hākena''.
References
★ 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.
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
