100 Maori words every New Zealander should know
August 5th 2008 08:48
Maori Language Week has not long passed us by, but it wasn’t because of the week itself that I came across a site today called NZ History online. (I was working on things Maori in my job.) It has a page focused on 100 Maori words every New Zealander should know, and I’ve just been looking down the page to see how much I do know.
Maori words have become more commonplace in the everyday speech of most New Zealanders: we hear and read the words in the media, and people use them as part of the normal language now. Not always accurately, maybe, but at least they use them. It’s another way the two peoples of the land are coming closer, I feel.
Out of the first twenty or so words here are four I wouldn’t really recognise:
Nau mai!: Welcome!
Manuhiri: guests, visitors
Whaikorero: the art and practise of speech making
Kaikorero or kaiwhai korero: speaker (there are many other terms).
And there are several add-ons to the whare word (house) that describe which particular kind of house it is. They’re not particularly familiar.
The words are grouped into six areas, and that’s helpful.
There’s the marae (usually the whole, often enclosed, area inhabited by a tribe or large family group). And then there are concepts, people and their groups, place names, greetings and body parts.
It’s a well-laid out site, not just about words, but also about the history of the language and more. Each word can be clicked on to hear what it sound like, though it seemed a bit fiddly doing them one at a time. Obviously better to go for the whole batch.
I’ve joined up with another site where they send you a Maori word each day. It’s used in a couple of different phrases, with the English translation underneath. Muri was today’s word. It means behind (as in behind something).
I muri tenei pukapuka i te turu.
This book was behind the chair.
As well as giving you this sentence, it explains that it’s a locative sentence, and the link will take you to an explanation of that piece of grammar, as well as showing you how the other words in the sentence fit together. Very neat!
Maori words have become more commonplace in the everyday speech of most New Zealanders: we hear and read the words in the media, and people use them as part of the normal language now. Not always accurately, maybe, but at least they use them. It’s another way the two peoples of the land are coming closer, I feel.
Out of the first twenty or so words here are four I wouldn’t really recognise:
Nau mai!: Welcome!
Manuhiri: guests, visitors
Whaikorero: the art and practise of speech making
Kaikorero or kaiwhai korero: speaker (there are many other terms).
And there are several add-ons to the whare word (house) that describe which particular kind of house it is. They’re not particularly familiar.
The words are grouped into six areas, and that’s helpful.
There’s the marae (usually the whole, often enclosed, area inhabited by a tribe or large family group). And then there are concepts, people and their groups, place names, greetings and body parts.
It’s a well-laid out site, not just about words, but also about the history of the language and more. Each word can be clicked on to hear what it sound like, though it seemed a bit fiddly doing them one at a time. Obviously better to go for the whole batch.
I’ve joined up with another site where they send you a Maori word each day. It’s used in a couple of different phrases, with the English translation underneath. Muri was today’s word. It means behind (as in behind something).
I muri tenei pukapuka i te turu.
This book was behind the chair.
As well as giving you this sentence, it explains that it’s a locative sentence, and the link will take you to an explanation of that piece of grammar, as well as showing you how the other words in the sentence fit together. Very neat!
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