Te Reo: The Māori Language of New Zealand Quiz

Answer: Polynesian, less than 5%

The indigenous population of New Zealand is the Māori who ethnically represent approximately 15% of New Zealanders. The Māori language is an Eastern Polynesian language and closely related to Cook Islands, and Tahitian languages. The 2013 New Zealand census reported that about 149,000 people, or 3.7 per cent of the New Zealand population, "could hold a conversation in Māori". Statistics New Zealand further reported that in 2015, around 55 per cent of Māori adults reported "some knowledge of the language; but of these speakers, only 64 per cent use Māori at home" but approximately 50,000 people can speak the language fluently.

The number of speakers declined sharply after WWII but has been subjected to re-vitalisation projects recently and was named an official language in 1987.

The language is called "Te Reo in Māori, meaning "The language". The other two official languages of New Zealand are English and New Zealand Sign language.

Answer: 15

The modern Māori alphabet has 15 letters: A E H I K M N O P R T U W NG and WH, where the five main vowel sounds are similar to English equivalents but there is still some conjecture over the consonants. The two digraphs (two letters to signify a single sound), 'ng' sounds like the 'ng' in 'sing' and 'ring'.

The 'wh' sound sounds like a soft 'f' but when the 'f' is transcribed into Māori, it is transcribed as 'p' and not 'wh'.

Answer: All five vowels have long and short forms

The Māori language suffered because it had no indigenous writing system. In 1820 Professor Samuel Lee, working with two indigenous Māori speakers at Cambridge University, gave phonetic spellings to a written form of the language. This was published as "First Grammar and Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language" (1820). Missionaries did not favour this publication and by 1930 had revamped the orthography.

Answer: Yes, vowels have a long and short sound

In the Māori language, each vowel sound has a long and short sound.For example, the 'i' in 'kianga' (act of speaking) is short but the 'i' in 'iwi', both of them are long (iwi = extended family) . The Cambridge University written alphabet did not differentiate vowel length. Popular but inconsistent vowel differentiation methods included diacritic marks especially the macron above the affected vowel, or writing the word with a double vowel. The macron has become the favoured (but not standardised) method but there are some exceptions:
1. In the Waikato region of the North Island, double vowels are still used as the preferred method as decreed by the local Māori iwi.
2. Place names with double vowels have stayed with their original spelling
3. Some government department still use the double vowels as there could be confusion between English and Māori versions. For example the Government taxation department "Te Tari Taake" might be interpreted differently if it used the now conventional " Te Tari Take".
Diphthongs in Māori differ little than the combining of individual vowel sounds of the single vowels.

Answer: Adding an 's' to a noun

Māori has definite articles as does English. There is a singular article ("te") and a plural particle ("nga"). Deictic particles are those that give context to time and place (similar to the function that "here" or "this" have in English). Vowel length is sometimes elongated for plurals. For example "wahine" means woman; "waahine" means women.
There is no "S" in the language to make a plural as you do in English.
incidentally, all Māori words always end in a vowel.

Answer: "Be Strong"

"Kia ora" is a Māori word that has entered New Zealand English and it is one of the 100 Māori words all New Zealanders should learn according to the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. It literally means "be healthy" but it really is used as an informal greeting and farewell. It has a similar meaning to "kia orana" which is found in other Polynesian languages.
"Be Strong" is "kia kaha" in Māori, a phrase frequently used to indicate support for a person in a poor position.

Answer: Not quite. The first verse is sung in Māori, then repeated in English.

New Zealand has two national anthems, "God Defend New Zealand" and "God Save the Queen". Both have the same status but the former is nearly always preferred. When deciding which anthem is to be played, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has stated '"God Save the Queen" would be appropriate at any occasion where the Queen, a member of the royal family, or the Governor-General, when within New Zealand, is officially present or when loyalty to the Crown is to be stressed. "God Defend New Zealand" would be preferred when the national identity of New Zealand is to be emphasised". "God Defend New Zealand was added as the second national anthem in 1977".

In the late 1990s it became the usual practice to sing the first verse of "God Defend New Zealand" in Māori and the repeat the first verse in English, though the two verses have slightly different meanings.

Answer: Haka

The dance is erroneously thought to be a war dance which is only part of its history. It is a ceremonial dance, though it was performed by warriors just before a battle with many aggressive behaviours including protruding the tongue, showing the whites of eyes, foot stomping and slapping hands against the arms and body.
The first line (which is repeated) is
"Ka Mate! Ka Mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!" which translates as "I die! I die! I live! I live!"

Answer: It translates as "Mount Mount Grand"

Mount Maunganui is the name of the large lava dome at the end of a peninsula adjacent to Tauranga, a large North Island city. As the place around the dome became settled it was named after the mountain, and when a bridge was built to Tauranga, it was incorporated into that city. "Maunga" is a Māori word for "mountain", "nui" means great so the hybrid word translates as "Great mountain, mountain".

Other common Māori/English tautologies include the Waikato River ("river strong flowing river") and Lake Rotorua, ("Lake Lake Second").

Answer: Kai - Sweet potato

Kai is the Māori word for food in general and is frequently used to signify same throughout New Zealand. (Sweet potato is "kumara". Food prepared with hot rocks in an earth oven is a special favourite and is called a "hangi". "Pākeha' is sometimes used as a derogatory term to indicate someone is not a Maori. "Aotearoa" (OW-tee-ah-row-a) translates as "long white cloud" while some persist in translating it as "Place of the long white cloud".

Originally a Māori word for the North Island of New Zealand, it became in time a term for all of New Zealand.