100 Māori words every New Zealander should know - Māori Language Week | NZHistory, New Zealand history online
Whare horoi ablution block, bathroom
Concepts
Aroha compassion, tenderness, sustaining love
Ihi power, authority, essential force
Mana authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence
Manaakitanga respect for hosts or kindness to guests, to entertain, to look after
Mauri hidden essential life force or a symbol of this
Noa safe from tapu (see below), non-sacred, not tabooed
Raupatu confiscate, take by force
Rohe boundary, a territory (either geographical or spiritual) of an iwi or hapū
Taihoa to delay, to wait, to hold off to allow maturation of plans, etc.
Tapu sacred, not to be touched, to be avoided because sacred, taboo
Tiaki to care for, look after, guard (kaitiaki: guardian, trustee)
Taonga treasured possession or cultural item, anything precious
Tino rangatiratanga the highest possible independent chiefly authority, paramount authority, sometimes used for sovereignty
Tūrangawaewae a place to stand, a place to belong to, a seat or location of identity
Wehi to be held in awe
Whakapapa genealogy, to recite genealogy, to establish kin connections
Whenua land, homeland, country (also afterbirth, placenta)
People and their groups
The following English equivalents are a rough guide to pronouncing vowels in Māori:
a as in far
e as in desk and the first ‘e’ in where; it should be short and sharp
i as in fee, me, see
o as in awe (not ‘oh!’)
u as in sue, boot
There are fewer consonants, and only a few are different from English:
r should not be rolled. It is pronounced quite close to the sound of ‘l’ in English, with the tongue near the front of the mouth.
t is pronounced more like ‘d’ than ‘t’, with the tip of the tongue slightly further back from the teeth
wh counts as a consonant; the standard modern pronunciation is close to the ‘f’ sound. In some districts it is more like an ‘h’; in others more like a ‘w’ without the ‘h’; in others again more like the old aspirated English pronunciation of ‘wh’ (‘huence’ for whence)
ng counts as a consonant and is pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘singer’. It is not pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘finger’, i.e., Whāngārei is pronounced Far-n(g)ah-ray (not Fong-gah-ray); Tauranga is pronounced Tow- (to rhyme with sew) rah-n(g)ah (not Tow-rang-gah).
The macron – a little line above some vowels – indicates vowel length. Some words spelled the same have different meanings according to their vowel length. For example, anā means ‘here is’ or ‘behold’: Anā te tangata! (Here is the man!) Ana, with no macron, means a cave. Some writers of modern Māori double the vowel instead of using macrons when indicating a long vowel; the first example would be Anaa te tangata!
Using te reo in email (and snail mail)
This is a guide to appropriate email greetings and sign-offs in te reo Māori.
We encourage you to add other phrases you have received – or any questions you have – as community contributions below this post; or email us at info@nzhistory.net.nz.
Generic greetings suitable for most occasions
Formal for one person (where in English you might use ‘Dear’): Tēnā koe
Informal: Kia ora