Let's Learn Maori

Bruce Biggs

• Publisher: Auckland University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781775581109
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Revised edition of the best-selling, self-help tutor in the Maori language presented in a new, easy-to-use format.

1. The phrase

1.1 The phrase as a pause unit of speech

(The examples in this section may be heard on Track 2 of the recordings.)

The phrase, not the word, is the unit of Maori speech which must be emphasised in learning. It is the natural grammatical unit of the language, and even more importantly, it is the natural pause unit of speech. Every sentence in Maori consists of one or more phrases. After every phrase it is permissible to pause briefly. On the other hand it is incorrect to pause after each word within a phrase.

To a native speaker of Maori the pause points come naturally. For our purposes, however, it will be helpful if phrases are marked off by commas, thus:

Haere mai, ki te whare.

Come to the house.

Ka pai, te whare nei.

This house is good.

Each phrase is said as a single intonation contour, the voice rising to a point of intensity which is called the phrase stress. The position of the phrase stress will vary from phrase to phrase, and it may shift position in the same phrase, according to that phrase’s position in the sentence. Rules to determine the position of phrase stress are given in section 54.6. In the following examples phrase stress is marked by an acute accent. Elsewhere an appropriate positioning of phrase stress may be determined by listening carefully to the recording of the sentence concerned.

Haere mái, ki te wháre.

Come to the house.

Ka pai, te whare nei.

This house is good.

Teenaa koe, Raapata.

Good-day friend.

Kéi hea, too káainga?

Where is your home?

Kei Aakarána, tooku káainga.

My home is in Auckland.

Listen carefully to the recording of Track 2 until you can recognise the sound of phrase stress. Throughout the recordings each example will be said twice, then followed by a pause which will allow you to repeat it twice. Imitate the pronunciation carefully, paying special attention to phrase stress and to the flow and intonation of the instructor’s voice.

1.2 The grammar of the phrase

A Maori phrase consists of two parts, a nucleus and a periphery. The nucleus may be thought of as the central part of the phrase, containing its lexical meaning. The periphery is that part of the phrase which precedes and follows the nucleus. The periphery of the phrase contains its grammatical meaning, indicating, for example, whether it is singular or plural, verbal or nominal, past or present, and so on. A phrase will always contain a nucleus. In some phrases there will be a word or words preceding the nucleus, in other phrases there will be a word or words following the nucleus, while in many phrases there will be words both preceding and following. In a few cases the nucleus will stand alone. The position preceding the nucleus of a phrase is called the preposed periphery; the position following the nucleus is called the postposed periphery.

Maori words may be classified into two kinds, bases and particles. Bases express lexical or real meaning. Thus the words whare ‘house’ and pai ‘good’ are bases. On the other hand ka is a particle. It occurs in the preposed periphery and indicates that the following base is being used verbally, so we may say that its meaning is grammatical rather than lexical. Some particles indicate grammatical relationships and functions such as subject, predicate, comment, and focus (see 38 for definition and discussion of these terms). Other particles, especially those occurring in the postposed periphery, limit and define (qualify) the meaning of the base in the nucleus. Bases always occur in the nucleus of the phrase, while particles, with certain exceptions, occur in the periphery.

PREPOSED PERIPHERY	NUCLEUS	POSTPOSED PERIPHERY
ka	pai
te	whare	nei
	haere	mai
ki te	whare
kei	hea
to	kaainga
kei	Aakarana
tooku	kaainga

In the first of the phrases in the above table, the base pai meaning ‘good’ is shown to be used verbally by the presence of the verbal particle ka in the periphery. So the phrase may be translated ‘is good’. In the second phrase the nucleus contains the base whare ‘house’. In the preposed periphery the particle te indicates that ‘the (one)’ house is being referred to. In the postposed periphery nei indicates ‘proximity to the speaker’, so the whole phrase may be translated ‘this house’.

In the third phrase the base haere has a range of meaning which covers both of the English words ‘come’ and ‘go’. In the postposed periphery, however, the particle mai ‘motion towards speaker’ indicates that in this case haere should be translated ‘come’, and the whole phrase has the meaning ‘come hither’ or ‘come here’.

In the fourth phrase the base whare appears again in the nucleus position. In the preposed periphery we find two particles. Ki indicates ‘motion towards’ and, as we know, te means ‘the (one)’. The phrase may be translated, therefore, ‘to the house’.

In the fifth phrase the base hea ‘where?’ is preceded by the preposed particle kei which means ‘present position’. The sixth phrase contains the base kaainga ‘home’ preceded by the particle to ‘your’. Literally the two phrases mean ‘at where your home?’ or ‘where is your home?’

In the seventh and eighth phrases the base Aakarana ‘Auckland’ is preceded by the same particle kei ‘present position’ and the base kaainga ‘home’ is preceded by tooku ‘my’. The sentence therefore means ‘my home is at Auckland.’

All Maori phrases are either verbal phrases or nominal phrases. A verbal phrase is marked as such by a preposed verbal particle as in ka...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 The phrase
• 2 The articles
• 3 The positional particles nei, na, ra, and the definitives teenei, teenaa, teeraa
• 4 Nominal sentences
• 5 Active and stative verbal sentences
• 6 Comments introduced by i and ki
• 7 Passives
• 8 Verbal particles
• 9 Personal pronouns
• 10 Use of the personal pronouns
• 11 Locative particles ki, kei, i, hei
• 12 Locative bases
• 13 Dominant and subordinate possession: the particles a and o
• 14 The possessive particles ta and to, and the T-class possessives
• 15 The definitives
• 16 Parts of speech: the base classes
• 17 Prepositions
• 18 The possessive prepositions na, no, ma, mo
• 19 The imperative with universals
• 20 Negative transforms of verbal sentences
• 21 The directional particles mai, atu, iho, ake
• 22 The manner particles rawa, tonu, kee, noa, pea, koa
• 23 The verbal phrase
• 24 The actor emphatic
• 25 Negative transforms of nominal sentences
• 26 Time
• 27 Derived nouns
• 28 The causative prefix whaka- and derived universals
• 29 Kei meaning ‘lest’ or ‘don’t’
• 30 The pseudo-verbal continuous with i te and kei te
• 31 Complex phrases
• 32 The uses and meanings of i and ki in non-initial phrases
• 33 The imperative with statives
• 34 Subordinate clauses with kia
• 35 The proper article a
• 36 The continuative particle ana
• 37 Interjections and interjectory phrases
• 38 The structure of the simple verbal sentence
• 39 No te and its various meanings
• 40 Reduplication
• 41 The biposed particle anoo
• 42 Numerals
• 43 Taua and teetahi
• 44 The locatives koo, konei, konaa, koraa, reira
• 45 Agreement of qualifying bases and manner particles with passives and derived nouns
• 46 Hoomai, hoatu and hoake
• 47 The postposed particle hoki
• 48 The structure of the Maori phrase
• 49 Subordinate constituents of complex sentences
• 50 Explanatory predicates to stative sentences
• 51 Reflexive-intensive pronouns and possessive pronouns
• 52 Days, weeks, months and years
• 53 More about conditional constituents: ‘if’ and ‘when’
• 54 A brief guide to pronunciation
• Index and vocabulary
• Back Cover