te wiki o te reo maori
Jul. 25th, 2007 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labellementeusekia ora tatou! It's te Wiki o te reo Maori - Maori Language week. I'm slack about trying to korero Maori in everyday life but maori language week is about giving it a go - saying "kia ora" on the phone or when you see someone (I do do this), leaning a little bit more about the language and about using it. this is basically what all New Zealanders have imprinted on them at the kindergarten stage. Here are a few things that it's neat and easy to pull out in a conversation this week (macrons omitted because... I'm really, really lazy and can't figure out how to do them.)
te reo maori is really, really easy to pronounce. It looks a bit scary because it doesn't look much like English, but basically, it has five vowel sounds and ten consonants and none of them ever change. No exceptions, no silent letters, no random decisions to spell things in a completely contradictory fashion. There's a bit of variety in the vowels, which can be short or long (think of the difference between the "e" sound in "pencil" and in "measure") but otherwise, really really simple.
The vowel sounds are:
"a" as in car;
"e" as in pen;
"i" as in eat;
"o" as in fork;
"u" as in you.
The consonant sounds are:
h, k, m, n, p, r, and t, all as English; wh which sounds like the English "f"; and ng, which is the only consonant english doesn't recognise, but we do us it, all the time; it's the "ng" sound in singing.
here is a page with some extra detail and here is a page which uses the phonetic alphabet, if you're familiar with that.
Heoi ano (anyway), on to the actual language!
kia ora - hi, hello. You might also hear tena koe (hello to one person), tena korua (hello to two people - not common) or tena kotou (hello to many people.)
ko Tui ahau - My name is Tui. You can use your own name here or find a good transliteration (Lucy becomes Ruriha, Emily becomes Amiria, David becomes Rawiri, Mary becomes Mere, Sarah becomes Hera, Victoria becomes Wikitoria, and so on.)
Kei te pehea koe? - How are you?
Kei te pai, kei te pai ahau - I'm good. kei nui te pai - I'm REALLY good. kei te hiamoe ahau - I'm sleepy. kei te hiakai ahau - I'm hungry. kei te hiainu ahau - I'm thirsty. kei te pokea e te mahi - I'm really busy.
Me koe? - How about you?
Morena - good morning. Morena, e [name] - Good morning, [name.]
ae - yes! the neat thing about this is that it sounds almost exactly like "aye."
kaore, kao, kahore - no.
1-10 in Maori (because everyone should know how to count to ten in as many different languages as possible):
tahi, rua, toru, wha, rima, onu, whitu, waru, iwa, tekau.
getting higher than 1-10 is rilly easy: tekau ma tahi is eleven (ten - ma - one, geddit?), rua tekau is 20, rua tekau ma tahi is 21, and so on. I don't know past 99, sorry!
Colours!
ma is white, whero is red, kakariki green. That's all I remember of the colour song from kindergarten, except mawhero is definitely pink! kikorangi blue, kahurangi is too; kowhai is yellow and pango is black.
ka pai! - Good job!
kia pai - be good!
kia kaha - be strong.
whanau - family.
whare - house.
kai - food.
whakarongo - listen.
e noho - sit down. e tu - stand up.
ho mai te [object] - pass me the [object]. I am especially confounded with using this phrase because I don't normally know the Maori for what I want passed to me (fork, salt shaker, remote control) but I try.
Thrilled and excited? Ka pai! check out 100 words every Kiwi should know and korero Maori this week. Or, heck. After this week.
And finally:
e noho ra! - goodbye when you are leaving.
haere ra! - goodbye when someone is leaving you.
te reo maori is really, really easy to pronounce. It looks a bit scary because it doesn't look much like English, but basically, it has five vowel sounds and ten consonants and none of them ever change. No exceptions, no silent letters, no random decisions to spell things in a completely contradictory fashion. There's a bit of variety in the vowels, which can be short or long (think of the difference between the "e" sound in "pencil" and in "measure") but otherwise, really really simple.
The vowel sounds are:
"a" as in car;
"e" as in pen;
"i" as in eat;
"o" as in fork;
"u" as in you.
The consonant sounds are:
h, k, m, n, p, r, and t, all as English; wh which sounds like the English "f"; and ng, which is the only consonant english doesn't recognise, but we do us it, all the time; it's the "ng" sound in singing.
here is a page with some extra detail and here is a page which uses the phonetic alphabet, if you're familiar with that.
Heoi ano (anyway), on to the actual language!
kia ora - hi, hello. You might also hear tena koe (hello to one person), tena korua (hello to two people - not common) or tena kotou (hello to many people.)
ko Tui ahau - My name is Tui. You can use your own name here or find a good transliteration (Lucy becomes Ruriha, Emily becomes Amiria, David becomes Rawiri, Mary becomes Mere, Sarah becomes Hera, Victoria becomes Wikitoria, and so on.)
Kei te pehea koe? - How are you?
Kei te pai, kei te pai ahau - I'm good. kei nui te pai - I'm REALLY good. kei te hiamoe ahau - I'm sleepy. kei te hiakai ahau - I'm hungry. kei te hiainu ahau - I'm thirsty. kei te pokea e te mahi - I'm really busy.
Me koe? - How about you?
Morena - good morning. Morena, e [name] - Good morning, [name.]
ae - yes! the neat thing about this is that it sounds almost exactly like "aye."
kaore, kao, kahore - no.
1-10 in Maori (because everyone should know how to count to ten in as many different languages as possible):
tahi, rua, toru, wha, rima, onu, whitu, waru, iwa, tekau.
getting higher than 1-10 is rilly easy: tekau ma tahi is eleven (ten - ma - one, geddit?), rua tekau is 20, rua tekau ma tahi is 21, and so on. I don't know past 99, sorry!
Colours!
ma is white, whero is red, kakariki green. That's all I remember of the colour song from kindergarten, except mawhero is definitely pink! kikorangi blue, kahurangi is too; kowhai is yellow and pango is black.
ka pai! - Good job!
kia pai - be good!
kia kaha - be strong.
whanau - family.
whare - house.
kai - food.
whakarongo - listen.
e noho - sit down. e tu - stand up.
ho mai te [object] - pass me the [object]. I am especially confounded with using this phrase because I don't normally know the Maori for what I want passed to me (fork, salt shaker, remote control) but I try.
Thrilled and excited? Ka pai! check out 100 words every Kiwi should know and korero Maori this week. Or, heck. After this week.
And finally:
e noho ra! - goodbye when you are leaving.
haere ra! - goodbye when someone is leaving you.
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Date: 2007-07-25 08:39 am (UTC);)
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Date: 2007-07-25 09:12 am (UTC)I can't believe how much te reo I've forgotten - it's such a fun language to korero. :)
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Date: 2007-07-25 09:26 am (UTC)ae! i've never really had any speaking ability but I reportedly do have a very authetic sounding accent ;) and I'm a confident reader, although obviously I don't normally understand much of what I'm reading.
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Date: 2007-07-25 01:57 pm (UTC)