Kia ora! This week I touch on the many uses of Ki. Specifically comments following adjectives. Ray Harlow has this to say [A Maori Reference Grammar, pg 138]:

Many adjectives take comments beginning with ki. These are usually adjectives which decscribe the attitude or ability of a person with respect to some activity or object, and include mohio (knowledgeable), kaha (strong, able, energetic), whakahihi (proud), pai (good, but when followed by a comment in ki it can mean 'like').

He mohio ia ki te tarai waka - He is knowledgeable in canoe making.

He whakahihi ia ki tona mohio ki te reo Maori - She is proud of her knowledge of Maori.

He pai ia ki tana mahi - He likes his work

He tino kaha ratou ki te whai i ta ratou e hiahia nei - The are vere energetic at pursuing their own goals.

Tena koutou katoa!

Due to the influence of the English language, English sentence patterns have entered into te reo.

I briefly look into some specific sentence patterns that have been affected. An asterisks means the sentence is wrong.

*Tatari moku. - Wait for me.

*He tuatahi tenei moku - This is a first for me.

Ray Harlow has this to say [A Maori Reference Grammar, pg 147]

A handful of transitive verbs prefer ki as the object marker:

"E tatari ana nga tamariki ki te pahi. - The children are waiting for the bus."

Following after Ray Harlow's example, the correct form for *He tuatahi tenei moku are below:

He tuatahi tenei ki ahau. - This is a first for me.

Kia ora ano!

This week we take a look the many uses of Pewhea/Pehea. Harlow says: [page 206, A Maori Reference Grammar]

Kei te pehea koe? - How are you?

I pehea te pēne? - What was the band like?

I titiro pehea atu ia ki a koe? - How did he look at you? (skeptically, suspiciously, in a friendly way, etc)

I peheatia nga tangata mau herehere e nga hoia? - How were the prisoners treated by the soldiers?

Me pehea e pai ake ai te ahua o ta tatou noho i Aotearoa nei? - How can our living conditions in New Zealand be improved?

Me pehea ta tatou whakatika i te whakahuatanga o nga kupu Maori? - How are we to correct the pronunciation of Maori word?

I pehea te tunu kai i nga wa o mua atu i te hiko? - How did people cook their food before there was electricity?

Kaore i taea te pehea? - Nothing could be done, there was no alternative.

Kia ora!

Kia ora ra e kui ma e koro ma!

This week I touch on how to express Reciprocity. Here is what Ray Harlow has to say (A Maori Reference Grammar, pg 61)

Me aroha tetahi ki tetahi - We should love one another

Na, kati ta tatou whakahe tetahi i tetahi - Let us each stop passing judgement, therefore, on one another (Paipera, Romans 14:13)

Me inoi ano koutou tetahi mo tetahi - You should pray for one another (Paipera, James 5:16)

I also look into answering the question "Does how you sound when speaking Maori really matter?"

My opinion is that I want the way I speak the reo to sound as close as possible to how our people spoke, prior to the domination of the English language.

The main points of advice I offer are to:

1. Check out and listen to the Radio Kahungunu Archives - This is by far my favourite resource.
2. Listen to how our cousins from Te Moananui a Kiwa and how they sound when they speak their reo as most of the time that is their first language.
3. In Maori, T has two sounds [tʰ] and [t],
4. Focus on listening as much as possible

kia ora ra,

Tena koutou katoa!

Today we take a a look into using "I" and the many uses it has. As always, I cite from Ray Harlow.

Marks past location in a place:

I konei raua i nanahi. - They (two) were here yesterday.

I Rotorua te whakataetae i tera tau. - The competition was (held) in Rotorua last year.

Marks past possession:

I a Hone nga ki inapo. - Hone had the keys last night.

Marks the object of transitive or experience verbs:

Kei te tuhi au i taku reta ki a ia. - I am writing my letter to him.

Marks cause of a particular state of affairs:

Kua maakuu katoa nga tamariki i te ua. - The children are all wet from the rain.

Marks the agent of a neuter verb:

I pakaru te wini i a Tamahae. - Tamahae broke the window.

Comments of place:

E mahi ana ia i Poneke. - She works in Wellington.

Comments of time:

I konei raua i nanahi. - They (two) were here yesterday.

Mark a place from which motion occurs:

Kua tae mai ratou i Rotorua. - They have arrived (here) from Rotorua.

Marks comparison:

He nui ake toku whare i to Hoani. - My house is bigger than Hoani's.

Comments on locative nouns designating relative position.

Kei runga i te tepu. - Is on the table.

Tena koutou katoa!

If you have any questions, or if you just wana chat. Feel free to send me an email:

amaoripodcast@protonmail.com

This week I touch on the O-Category. Below is what I cite from Ray Harlow's A Maori Reference Grammar pg 143-145

a. Large, immovable entities that belong to the possessor, such as houses, land, country:

Toona whare (His house), No Ngaitai aua whenua (Those lands belong to Ngaitai.)

b. Subject of nominalisations of neuter and experience verbs and of passive transitive verbs:

Te rongonga o te tangata i te putorino. (The man's hearing the flute.)

Te whainga o te kuri e nga tamariki. (The children's chasing of the dog.)

c. Subjects of nominalisations of intransitive verbs:

Too raua taenga atu. (Their arrival.)

d. All family relationships and kinship terms for the generations of the same generation or above, and friends:

Te tukakana o Mere (Mere's older sister.)

Tokowha oona teina. (He has four younger brothers.)

Oona maatua. (His parents.)

He hoa nooku. (A friend of mine.)

Korua ko toou hoa wahine. (You and your wife.)

e. Parts of a whole, including parts of the body and by extension, clothing worn by someone:

Te tuanui o te whare. (The roof of the house)

Toona ringa. (Her hand.)

Tooku potae. (My hat.)

Te koi hoki o te hinengaro o te tamaiti ra. (What a smart kid that is!)

f. Attributes of people and things, such as size, age, colour, name, qualities which inhere in a person always take o.By this are meant aspects of a thing or person. A person's language is regarded as an attribute in this way:

Ko Rei tooku ingoa. (My name is Rei.)

He aha te kara o ana makawe. (What colour is his hair?)

Tekau tau te pakeke o taku tamaiti. (My son is ten years old.)

He aha te painga o te pera? (What is the good of doing that?)

Ko te reo Maori too ratou reo tuatahi. (Maori is their first language.)

g. Emotions that one feels, knowledge and thoughts that one has, even "sins" that one commits, or mistakes that one makes, are treated as internal aspects of a person which emanate from s/he, rather than as actions that her/him perform. Thus, these also usually take o:

Te aroha o te Atua. (The love of God.)

Murua oo matou hara. (Forgive us our trespasses.)

He nui rawa atu toona mohio ki taua take. (His knowledge of that matter is very great, he knows a great deal about that matter.)

Noona te he. (Hi was his mistake, his fault.)

Tino pai te whakaaro o Pita kia ... (That's a good idea of Pita's to ...)

h. Finally among the types of word to be listed here, means of conveyance, be they mechanical like cars, or animate like horses, toke o if the possessor uses them for that purpose:

i tae mai nga tamariki ma rungia i oo ratou hoiho. (The children arrived on their horses.)

Kia ora!

This week I touch on A-Category. Hopefully you find it useful!

Anyways, here is a brief overview of what sits under this category according to the book A Maori Reference Grammar.

1. Small portable objects which are owned by the possessor, eg books, toys, tools, cups. - Nahaku tena pukapuka / That book belongs to me.
2. Subjects of nominalisations of active transitive verbs. - Te tuhinga a Hemi i tana reta / Hemi's writing of his letter.
3. Actions carried out by the possessor and things produced by such actions. - Te korero a Pita / Pita's speech.
4. Family relationships for the generation below. - Tahaku mokupuna.
5. Consumables, except fresh water and medicine (though some iwi dialect class washing water as o, and drinking water as a, and others o for both). Homai he paraoa mahaku. / Give me some bread.
6. Animals as pets. - Nga kuri a te rangatira / The chiefs dogs.

Kia ora!

This week I touch on the Actor Emphatic Sentences. Na/No and Ma/Mo

These types of sentences focus on "Who" did the action. These are the examples from Te Wiremu:

Naku tena tangata i pupuri / Naku i pupuri tena tangata - I detained that man

Ma Horo e hanga he whare mou / Ma Horo he whare mou e hanga - Horo shall build a house for you.

The doer has special forms, here are what they correspond to:

For Na and Ma sentences:

-ku / -haku - au/ahau

-au / -hau - koe

-na / -hana - ia