Māori language

An Eastern Polynesian language of the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand (Aotearoa). Its closest relative is Cook Island Māori, which has particular affinities to the New Zealand Māori dialects of Northland and Taranaki, and the k-dialect of much of the South Island. It is part of the Tahitic subgroup of Eastern Polynesian. The extinct Moriori language of the Chatham Islands, east of mainland New Zealand, is a widely divergent dialect of Māori.

Phonology and alphabet

The letters of the Māori alphabet are, in order:

a, e, h, i, k, m, n, ng, o, p, r, t, u, w, wh.

The digraphs ng and wh each represent single sounds, and are treated as distinct letters, so that ngaru is after noho, and whare after wiri alphabetically.

The vowels a, e, i, o and u have phonemic length. In older written and printed Māori, vowel length is not normally indicated. Nowadays, length is most commonly indicated by the macron: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū. In some publications, especially those by people associated with Auckland University, length is indicated by doubling: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu.

References

Ray Harlow: A Māori Reference Grammar, Longman, Auckland, 2001