Re: Maori
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:30 pm
Awesome! Thanks a lot!
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Examples of question-word questions are He aha kēia? "A what this?", "What is this?" and 'O wai kou inoa "[subject] who your name?", "What is your name?"
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Possessives fall into one of two classes marked by a and o, depending on the dominant versus subordinate relationship between possessor and possessed, so nga tamariki a te matua, the children of the parent, but te matua o nga tamariki, the parent of the children.
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To pluralize nouns marked with a possessive, add mau between the possessive and the noun.
ka'u mau puke (my books)
kona mau puke (his books)
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Verbs
[edit] Tense, aspect, and mood
Verbs can be analytically modified to indicate tense, aspect and mood as follows:[1]:p.19
* ua + verb: perfective aspect, past tense; or perfect tense/aspect (ua hana au "I worked", "I have worked"). Note that the pre-verbal marker ua is often omitted in speech.
* ua + verb + e: pluperfect tense/aspect (ua hana e au "I had worked")
* i + verb: past tense (i hana au "I worked"); or, perfect participle (i hana "having worked", "who had worked")
* e + verb + ana: imperfective aspect (e hana ana au "I was working", "I will be working")
* ke + verb + nei: present tense, progressive aspect (ke hana nei au "I am working")
* e + verb: future tense/mood (e hana au "I will work"); or, infinitive (e hana "to work"); or, imperative mood (e hana oe "Work thou!")
* mai + verb: negative imperative mood
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mai + verb: negative imperative mood
Yeah that seems highly likely, and I am sure the examples I have given here could be interpreted other ways, tho I am not really grammar literate enough to know much different. There has been a lot of debate about ergativity in Polynesian, and whether the passive in Maori is really a passive or what. I just know I have a lot of trouble "getting" Tongan or Samoan whereas the EP languages are kind of like Maori with some of the words changed.Drydic Guy wrote:Re Tongan, at least: I have a pdf that claims that the language is ergatively-aligned. And backs it up with examples.
You wouldn't use O for a book.Reo wrote:For the next example we need to know a bit about possessives in Maori, which come in two flavours, A and O marking dominant/subordinate or alienable/inalienable depending who wrote the grammar. Here's what Wiki says from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ori_language
Okay so here's the Hawaiian example from Wiki.Code: Select all
Possessives fall into one of two classes marked by a and o, depending on the dominant versus subordinate relationship between possessor and possessed, so nga tamariki a te matua, the children of the parent, but te matua o nga tamariki, the parent of the children.
Maori doesn't pluralise possessives that way, it uses t-deletion. Nonetheless, the HAW possessives "ka'u" and "kona" here have direct cognates in MAO "tāku" / "taku" and "tōna".Code: Select all
To pluralize nouns marked with a possessive, add mau between the possessive and the noun. ka'u mau puke (my books) kona mau puke (his books)
And while Maori and Hawaiian both A and O possessives, Maori also has some possessives that are neutral for A/O.
MAO tōku pukapuka
my book (o possessive)
MAO tāku tama
my boy (a possessive)
but with a short "a"
MAO taku pukapuka
my book (unmarked for A/O)
MAO taku tama
my boy (unmarked for A/O)
and the plurals drop the t-
MAO ōku pukapuka
my books (o possessive)
MAO āku tama
my boys (a possessive)
but with a short "a"
MAO aku pukapuka
my books (unmarked for A/O)
MAO aku tama
my boys (unmarked for A/O)
I read a paper about this. I imagine it's a topic of some concern among older Māori speakers.Reo wrote: Actually, no. NZ English vowels are only marginally different from Australian English - which Māori could not have influenced. It's more like Māori vowels are becoming more English-like among younger speakers. You are right about the flora and fauna vocab tho.
That was just a reply to your suggestion about the origin of NZE vowels.Chargone wrote:which parts of Australia was that about anyway?
the south east of Australia, where for a Long time the accent had more in common with NZ than with the rest of Australia, or other parts with a more stereotypical 'Australian' accent?
because even if the difference is small, in the latter case Kiwi's will notice it as 'different' more easily than they will a lot of English accents (though far from all, obviously) or some American accents...
meh *shrugs*
You should stick to a language you know. What does "You speak to the family of ZBB" mean? And it should be whānau o ZBB.Turtlehead wrote:Ka korero koe ki te whanau a ZBB, e Reo.
You should stick to a language you know. What does "You speak to the family of ZBB" mean? And it should be whānau o ZBB.Turtlehead wrote:Ka korero koe ki te whanau a ZBB, e Reo.
I realised long ago. People are too nice to him - designing him a 12-case conlang for instance, when it was obvious he didn't know cases from jackshit.Yng wrote:If you haven't realised already that talking to Turtlehead is effectively a waste of time, now might be a good time.
There is always time to learn, wouldn't life suck if you were born knowing everything?Reo wrote:I realised long ago. People are too nice to him - designing him a 12-case conlang for instance, when it was obvious he didn't know cases from jackshit.Yng wrote:If you haven't realised already that talking to Turtlehead is effectively a waste of time, now might be a good time.
this presupposes an actual willingness and/or ability to do so, mind you.Turtlehead wrote:There is always time to learn, wouldn't life suck if you were born knowing everything?Reo wrote:I realised long ago. People are too nice to him - designing him a 12-case conlang for instance, when it was obvious he didn't know cases from jackshit.Yng wrote:If you haven't realised already that talking to Turtlehead is effectively a waste of time, now might be a good time.
Well on a positive note, I do know a little more about cases now.Chargone wrote:this presupposes an actual willingness and/or ability to do so, mind you.Turtlehead wrote:There is always time to learn, wouldn't life suck if you were born knowing everything?Reo wrote:I realised long ago. People are too nice to him - designing him a 12-case conlang for instance, when it was obvious he didn't know cases from jackshit.Yng wrote:If you haven't realised already that talking to Turtlehead is effectively a waste of time, now might be a good time.
there's a depressingly large number of people in this world lacking one or the other. or both.
(the various collection societies, for example... )
yay learning!Turtlehead wrote:Well on a positive note, I do know a little more about cases now.Chargone wrote:this presupposes an actual willingness and/or ability to do so, mind you.Turtlehead wrote:There is always time to learn, wouldn't life suck if you were born knowing everything?Reo wrote:I realised long ago. People are too nice to him - designing him a 12-case conlang for instance, when it was obvious he didn't know cases from jackshit.Yng wrote:If you haven't realised already that talking to Turtlehead is effectively a waste of time, now might be a good time.
there's a depressingly large number of people in this world lacking one or the other. or both.
(the various collection societies, for example... )
Learning is a positive step towards knowing stuff.Chargone wrote:yay learning!
Better translation of Turtlehead's "Maori": At the learn in the walking good to the knowledge of the people.Turtlehead wrote:Learning is a positive step towards knowing stuff.
Kei te ako i te hikoi pai ki te mohio a nga mea.
E pehea ana koe e korero ana i tenei?Reo wrote:Better translation of Turtlehead's "Maori": At the learn in the walking good to the knowledge of the people.Turtlehead wrote:Learning is a positive step towards knowing stuff.
Kei te ako i te hikoi pai ki te mohio a nga mea.
If you want me to answer that you will have to give a translation. Maori is not English badly translated with a dictionary and so "E pehea ana koe e korero ana i tenei?" doesnt make sense.Turtlehead wrote:E pehea ana koe e korero ana i tenei?Reo wrote:Better translation of Turtlehead's "Maori": At the learn in the walking good to the knowledge of the people.Turtlehead wrote:Learning is a positive step towards knowing stuff.
Kei te ako i te hikoi pai ki te mohio a nga mea.
That is true, and I would admit I am not fluent, but you could at least be abit gracious in your responses.Reo wrote:If you want me to answer that you will have to give a translation. Maori is not English badly translated with a dictionary and so "E pehea ana koe e korero ana i tenei?" doesnt make sense.Turtlehead wrote:E pehea ana koe e korero ana i tenei?Reo wrote:Better translation of Turtlehead's "Maori": At the learn in the walking good to the knowledge of the people.Turtlehead wrote:Learning is a positive step towards knowing stuff.
Kei te ako i te hikoi pai ki te mohio a nga mea.