Grammar of the New Zealand language (2nd edition)

See also the letters ng and h.

CHAPTER II.
OF THE ARTICLE.

§ 1. The articles in Maori are as follows:—

(a.) The definite article te and its plural nga; e. g.

• te tangata, the man.
• nga tangata, the men.

(b.) The indefinite articles he, tetahi, and its plural etahi; e. g.

• Sing. he maripi, a knife.
• Plur. he maripi ena? are those knives?
• te tahi maripi, a knife.
• e tahi maripi, knives.

(c.) The arthritic particles a and ko; e. g.

• a Hone, John.
• ko koe, you.

§ 2. Te is not so uniformly definite as the English the; being sometimes used;

(a.) Where no article would be employed in English, i. e., in cases where the noun is taken in its widest sense; e. g.

• I ma te kaipuke, went by ship.
• He kino te tutu, disobedience is sinful.
• Ko te rangi me te wenua e pahemo, Heaven and earth shall pass away.

(b.) Sometimes it is employed instead of the English a; e. g.

• He mea kaha te hoiho, a horse is a strong thing.
• E kore te tangata tika e wehi i te mate, a virtuous man fears not death.

(c.) Sometimes it is used instead of the pronoun some; e. g.

• Kei tahaetia e te tangata, lest it should be stolen by some person; na te tangata noa atu, by some person or other.

(d.) It is employed for many other purposes which the English the does not recognize. We shall only mention the following;

• Te tini o te kaipuke, How many ships there are!

Note.—It has been asserted that te is sometimes used in the plural number, as in the preceding example, "te kaipuke," and in the following; te tini o te tangata, many men; ka reka te pititi, peaches are sweet.

We are more inclined to think that we have, in these examples, the operation of a figure of frequent occurrence in Maori, viz., synecdoche, and that one of a class is made to represent a whole class.

Expressions of this kind are common in English, without involving the plural number of the article; e. g., the fruit of the tree, a great many, a few men, &c. Bishop Lowth's remarks on these instances are quite to the point.

"The reason of it, he says, is manifest from the effect which the article has in these phrases; it means a small or great number, collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a whole, that is, of unity. Thus likewise, a hundred, a thousand is one whole number, an aggregate of many collectively taken; and therefore still retains the article a, though joined as an adjective to a plural substantive; as, a hundred years."

(e.) Lastly, te is sometimes employed before proper names; e. g.

• Te Puriri, Te Uira

Note 1.—To define the rule by which the article is prefixed or omitted before proper names is a work of some difficulty, usage being very irregular.

Note 2.—Sometimes te is blended with o into one word; as in the following example: ki to Hone ware, to the house of John, instead of ki te whare o Hone.

Note 3.—The student should be careful, in speaking, to distinguish between the article te, and the negative particle te. The latter should always be pronounced more distinctly and forcibly than the article.

§ 3. Nga may with strict propriety be called the plural of the definite article. There are a few exceptions, or rather slight variations, which we do not think it necessary to mention.

§ 4. He varies in some respects in its uses from the English a.

(a.) It is used sometimes where no article would be employed in English; e. g.

• A, ho atu ana e ratou he moni ki a ia, and they gave him money.

(b.) It is occasionally used in the same sense as some in English, e. g.,

• kawea he wai, fetch some water.

(c.) It is used in the plural number, e. g.

• He uwha kau aku poaka, my pigs are all females.
• He tini oku kainga, my farms are many.

§ 5. A great many uses of the indefinite article are shared by he with te tahi. We shall mention here a few of them.

• Ho mai te tahi maripi, give me a knife.
• Tahuna mai te tahi rama, kindle a light.

N.B.—Te tahi exactly corresponds with the definition given by Bishop Lowth of the English article a. "It determines it (the thing spoken of) to be one single thing of the kind, leaving it still uncertain which." A similar use of the numeral one we find in French, sometimes in Hebrew, and more than once in the New Testament; (vid. Mat. xxi. 19, and Mark xiv. 51.)

We need not look abroad for parallel instances; our indefinite article an being, as every etymologist is aware, the Saxon article, which signifies one.

(b.) Etahi may be considered as corresponding to the partitive article des of the French. It determines the things spoken of to be any number of things of the kind, leaving it uncertain how many, or which, of the things they are. It closely resembles the adjective some of English, and we enumerate it here among the articles because it only differs from te tahi (which is clearly an article) in being its plural; e. g.

• Maku e tahi ika, give me some fish.

§ 6. A[4] is a regular attendant on the personal pronouns; e. g.

• a koe, you; ki a ia, to him.

(b.) It is also the article by which the names of individuals and tribes are always preceded; e. g.

• a Hone, kei a Hone with John; i a Ngapuhi.

(c.) A is also prefixed to the names of places, and to prepositions, and adverbs which have assumed the form of substantives, when in the nominative case; e. g.

• Kua horo a Pukerangiora, Pukerangiora (the fort) has been stormed. Kua tukua atu e ahau a Whangarei mo Hone, I have given Whangarei to John. Kua kainga a runga o nga puka nei, the tops of the cabbage have been eaten off.
• A hea? what place? A Rangitoto.

Note.—Sometimes a is prefixed to the name of the place when the people of the place, and not the place itself, are intended; e. g. ka mate i a Waikato, will be killed by Waikato.

Some speakers are often guilty of solecisms from not remembering that a is not prefixed to any of the oblique cases of the names of places. Thus we heard some old residents in the land say, Haere ki a Pokuru, Go to Pokuru. Haere ki a Waitemata, Go to Waitemata. According to this form Pokuru, and Waitemata are not places, but persons.

(d.) A is always prefixed to any inanimate thing to which a name has been given; i. e. to trees, canoes, ships, boats, meres,[5] guns, &c.; e. g.

• Kei te tua i a Ruhaia, he is cutting down (the tree) Ruhaia. E waihape ana a Karapaina, Columbine is tacking. Mo to tahaetanga i a Pahikoura for your having stolen (the mere[5]) Pahikoura.
• I toa ai a Hongi i whakawirinaki ia ki tana pu ki a Tanumia, Hongi was brave because he trusted in his gun Tanumia.

CHAPTER III.
OF THE NOUNS.

CLASSES OF NOUNS IN RESPECT TO ORIGIN.

Nouns in Maori may be comprised under three classes, primitive and derivative, and verbal.[8]

(a.) Nouns primitive are those which designate animals, plants, numbers, members of the animal body, some of the great objects of the natural world.

N.B.—It is often impossible to distinguish between primitive and derivative nouns.

(b.) Nouns derivative, which are altogether the most numerous, comprise,

1st. Nouns derived from verbs, i. e., the verb, in its simple form, used as a noun; e. g.,

• He noho noa iho taku, it is a simple sitting of mine; I have no fixed object in stopping (here.)
• He haere pai to haere? Is your going a good going, i. e., are you going with good intent?

(2.) Nouns derived from adjectives; e. g.,

• He aha te pai o tena mea? what is the worth of that thing?
• Keihea te pakaru, where is the broken place?

(3.) Nouns derived from adverbs and prepositions, e. g.

• He kore rawa, it is nil.
• Engari a reira e pai ana, there (or that place) is better.
• Kua ki a roto, the inside is full.
• Parua a tua, coat the other side (with raupo.)

(4.) Compound Words. These are always formed by two words placed in immediate juxta-position, without any elision of either; e. g.

• Hia kai, (desire food) hunger; mate moe, (craving sleep), sleepiness; hoa riri, (angry friend), enemy; mahi atawhai, (cherishing act, &c.) a cherishing, &c.; kai whakaako, (one that teaches) a teacher; kai whakamarie, (one that pacifies) a pacifier; tangata atua, a man having a God; tangata pakeha, a man having a European to live with him; he hunga kainga, a people having a place to reside on; ahu taonga (bent on gain) avariciousness; ahu whenua, (having the mind occupied with the earth) industriousness, or peaceableness; whenua rangatira, (a noble land, not disturbed by invasions) peace; houhanga rongo, making peace; ngakau whakakake, pride; he whare kore, (a no house) homelessness; he horoi kore (a no soap) soaplessness; whakaaro kore, thoughtlessness, &c.

(c.) Verbal nouns are well worthy of the attention of the critical student. They are of very extensive uses in Maori, and a proper introduction of them will give animation and elegance to the sentence. The rules for their formation will be found hereafter. See verbs.

They are generally employed to denote time, place, object, means, or some accompaniment on, or relation of the act, or quality of the ground form.—Other uses of them will be mentioned in the syntax.

To set forth the various uses of the verbal noun here would carry us beyond our limits. We shall therefore only give a few examples;—sufficient, however, we trust to lead the critical student into more extensive inquiry;

• Ko tona moenga tena, that is where he slept.
• Te pumautanga o te Whakaaro, the full assurance of hope; te whakangarungarunga o te wai, the troubling of the water.
• Te peheatenga i meatia ai, the manner in which it was done.
• Te patunga poaka, the place where the pigs are killed.
• Kahore aku kete kumara hei whakahokinga atu mo to puka, I have no basket of kumara with which to send back, (i. e., to pay for the loan of) your spade.
• I te hanganga o te ao, when the world was made.
• I ana inoinga, in his prayers, (i. e., when he prayed.)
• Ko tona kiteatanga tenei, this is the opportunity for looking for, or seeing, it.
• To tatou nuinga, the rest of our party.
• I taku oranga, while I live.

Note.—Instances will sometimes occur in which the simple root, or the verbal form, may be indifferently used in the sentence. The critical student, however, will generally be able to see the reason; e. g., te here o tona hu, the thong of his shoe; te herenga o tona hu, the holes, &c., by which the thong is fastened.

Proper Names should, perhaps, have been classed under the head of derivative nouns.

They are epithets arbitrarily assumed, as among the Hebrews, from some circumstance, quality, act, or thing. Sometimes they are simple; e. g., ko te Tawa, Tawa (a tree). Sometimes compound; e. g., Tangikai, cry for food. They are generally known by a prefixed; when a is not prefixed, by the context.

OF GENDER, NUMBER, AND CASE.

Maori, we may premise, admits of no such thing as declension by inflection, i. e., by a variation of the ground form. All the relations, it is capable of expressing, are denoted by words, or particles, prefixed or post-fixed to the noun.

Gender of Nouns.—Distinctions of gender are but seldom recognized in Maori. Only two are ever noticed, viz., the masculine and feminine. These are always expressed by different words, e. g.

In salutation, the sex of the person is almost always denoted by the address, e. g.,

The distinction of sex in the other branches, is generally designated by tane and wahine postfixed to the relation; e. g.,

• hunaonga wahine, daughter-in-law.
• hungawai tane, father-in-law.

Number.—Substantives in Maori have two numbers, singular and plural.

The singular is known by the singular articles te, and tetahi, or by one of the singular pronouns connected with the noun; e. g.

• Te whare o Hone, the house of John.
• Toku paraikete, my blanket.

The plural is known by (1) nga, e tahi, or (2) one of the plural or dual pronouns preceding the noun; e. g.

• nga wahine, the women.
• aku tupuna, my forefathers.

(3.) Sometimes the plural is designated by o, without te preceding the noun; e. g.

• kei o Hone matua pea, with John's uncles, perhaps.

(4.) In a few cases we meet with an alteration in the ground form; e. g.,

• Tamaiti, son; Tamariki, sons, or children.

(5.) In some trissyllables, the first syllable of the plural is pronounced long; as in matua, tupuna, wahine, tangata.

Note.—Examples of these two latter heads are not of frequent occurrence.

(6.) We frequently meet with ma joined to the proper name, in a sense corresponding to hoi amphi, and hoi peri in Greek, to denote the person and his company: e. g.,

• Kei a Kukutai ma, with Kukutai and his party.

(7.) Sometimes also ma is in the same sense postfixed to appellatives; e. g.,

• E mara ma! E hoa ma! E ko ma!

(8.) Sometimes an act oft repeated, or many things of the same kind are denoted by a reduplication of one or more syllables; e. g.,

• Kakata, a frequent laughing.
• Mamahi, over-work.
• Kimokimo, a winking of the eyes.

1. What is called the accusative case in Latin is most frequently denoted by i. This particle is different from the preposition i, and is only employed to denote the passing on of the action of the verb to the noun; e. g., Ko wai hei keri i te mara? who is to dig the field? (vid. prepositions i.)

2. The vocative case is always denoted by e; e. g., E Hone! O John!

CHAPTER IV.
OF THE ADJECTIVE.

Maori adjectives have no peculiar or appropriate form. They know no distinction of gender, number, case, or comparison.

In common with substantives, adjectives admit often of reduplication to denote repetition, or many things the same kind, &c.—vid. ch. 3, number § 8., e. g.

• Mahi kakata, a frequent laughing.
• He rakau kikino kau, they are all bad trees.

Note.—Comparison in Maori is formed by periphrasis, for which vid. S.

CHAPTER V.
OF THE NUMERALS.

Numerals in Maori abound in distinctions that are not to be met with in other languages.

Tahi, one, has sometimes a form peculiar to itself, being prefixed by ko. All between tahi and tekau may be prefixed by e. All the simple numbers, i. e. all less than ten, will, when preceding the higher numbers, take their ordinary prefixes; e. g.

• E rua, two—e rua rau, two hundred.
• Ka toru, three—ka toru nga rau, three hundred, or it is 300.
• Kia wha, let it be four—kia wha mano, let it be four thousand &c.
• Ka rima five,—ka rima mano, five thousand, &c.
• Ka rima tekau, fifty, &c., &c., &c.

Numbers between ten and twenty are expressed by ten and unit; e. g.

• E ono, six,—tekau ma ono (ten and six) sixteen.
• E whitu, seven,—tekau ma whitu, seventeen.

Twenty, and all numbers between twenty and a hundred, may be expressed in two ways:

1st, (which is now the more general,) by a unit preceding ten; e. g., e ono tekau, (six tens) sixty; ka iwa tekau, ninety, &c.

2ndly, by hoko prefixed to the unit; e. g., hokorua twenty.

Note.—The Maori mode of counting has always, heretofore, been by pairs: thus hokorua, twenty, stands for twenty pair, i. e. forty, and so on. When they wish it to be understood singly they postfix taki-taki to the numeral adjective; e. g., hokorua taki-taki, twenty. Sometimes topu, or pu, is postfixed to make it more clear that the double of the number is intended; e. g., e waru topu, (eight doubled) sixteen.

Ngahuru, with Ngapuhi, denotes ten, and tekau, eleven. In this, the central part of the island, as far as Taupo, ngahuru and tekau represent both of them ten.

In expressing a sum of tens and units, the smaller number follows ten or its multiple, and is connected with it by the numeral conjunction ma; e. g., thirty-four is denoted by "e toru tekau ma wha."

In expressing a sum of hundreds, with tens and units, the tens are postfixed to the hundreds without a ma intervening; e. g., 136 is expressed by "ko tahi rau, e toru tekau, ma ono."

A sum of thousands, hundreds, tens and units, is expressed in the same way, the particle ma only intervening between the ten and the unit; e. g., 1136 is expressed by "ko tahi mano, ko tahi rau, e toru tekau, ma ono."

For denoting a number of persons less than ten, toko is generally prefixed to the numeral; e. g.,

• tokowhitu tatou, we are seven in number.

For denoting distribution tātaki is prefixed to the numeral; kia tātaki rua pu nga utu i te tangata, let each man have four payments.

Note.—Tataki prefixed does not always denote distribution; e. g., Ka tataki-hia nga whakato o ta koutou mara? How many baskets (are these) that have been sown in your cultivation?

In measuring length, a fraction is denoted by huka; e. g.,

• E ono whatianga, huka to te whitu, It is six whatiangas[10] long, not quite seven.
• E waru maro[10], huka to te iwa, It is eight maro, not quite nine.

Ordinals.—The ordinal numbers are formed:

1. By tua prefixed to the cardinal; e. g., tua toru, third, tua iwa, ninth.

2. By whaka prefixed; e. g., whakatekau, tenth.

3. By the simple cardinal with the definite article, ko te wha tenei o aku haerenga mai, this is the fourth of my comings here; i. e., this is the fourth time I have come here.

CHAPTER VI.
OF THE PRONOUNS.

The personal pronouns of Maori are as follows:

The first person dual and plural has, as may be seen in the above table, two forms, taua and tatou, maua and matou; the former class may be denominated inclusive, the latter exclusive. For example:

The speaker of a company, who is addressing a person just come in, uses matou; e tatari ana matou ki a koe, we are, or have been waiting for you. If he means that only himself and another have been waiting, he uses maua, e tatari ana maua kia a koe: but when he addresses the whole company he uses tatou; Tatou ki te kai, let us go to dinner. If however he is addressing only another beside himself, he uses taua; Taua ki te kai, let us (two) go to dinner. Again, if he says, No matou tenei kainga, he tells you, the hearer, that he and others possess this farm. If he says, No maua tenei kainga, he tells you that he and some other person already mentioned possess it. If however he use tatou, No tatou tenei kainga, he means that all that he is addressing have a share in it. If he says, No taua tenei kainga, he tells you, the hearer, that it belongs to you and himself.