Maori is a language spoken by the Maori people – the indigenous people of New Zealand.
- It is an official language in New Zealsnd.
- The name of the language can also be written as ‘Māori’.
- In Maori, the language is often referred to as ‘Te Reo’ which literally means ‘the language’. This is a short form of ‘te reo Māori’ (the Maori language).
Maori belongs to the Austronesian language family.
- It is a member of the Polynesian group of languages.
- Other Polynesian languages include Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan and Hawaiian.
There are approximately 150,000 speakers of the Maori language.
- This figure includes both native speakers and those who speak Maori as a second language.
The Maori language uses a modified version of Latin script.
- To illustrate, here’s a sign written in Maori:
Here are some main features of Maori grammar:
- Maori pronouns are used in singular, dual and plural form. This feature is also found in the Sami languages and Arabic.
- Maori sentences use verb-subject-object word order.
Here is a sample of spoken Maori:
For resources to learn the Maori language, check out the Maori page on this blog.
References
Polyglot in Progress 