NCEA Level 2 Cook Islands Māori cheat sheet

Cook Islands Māori - Language, Orthography and Grammar

• Cook Islands Māori (Māori Kūki 'Āirani) is a Polynesian language of the Tahitic branch, closely related to Tahitian and to New Zealand Māori; it is distinct from both and is an official language of the Cook Islands.

• The modern alphabet uses 13 letters: a, e, f, ng, i, k, m, n, o, p, r, t, u, v (' is a diacritic, not a separate letter); ng is a single letter and alphabetises after n.

• Two diacritics carry meaning: the macron (meke/mekē) marks a long vowel, and the glottal stop ('), called 'amata, marks a distinct consonant; omitting either changes the word, e.g. 'āuri (iron) vs auri (type of tree).

• Vowel length and the glottal stop are phonemic: compare marama (moon/light) and mārama (clear/understand), so written accents must be reproduced in formal writing.

• The five vowels are a, e, i, o, u, each with a short and a long form; long vowels are written with a macron (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) rather than doubled letters in standard modern orthography.

• Word order is predicate-initial: verb–subject–object (VSO) in neutral clauses, with the predicate often introduced by particles such as e, kua, ka, or te … nei/na.

• Tense-aspect-mood is marked by pre-verbal particles, not by verb inflection: kua = perfect/completed, ka = future or inceptive, e = progressive, 'i = past/imperfect, kia = desiderative or purpose.

• Nouns are not marked for number on the noun itself; plurality is shown by the article (te = singular, ngā = plural), by numerals, or by context.

• Possession is classified as A-class (dominant, e.g. tāku/tōku with active control, food, and movable goods) versus O-class (subordinate, e.g. tōku with body parts, kin, and inalienable items); the choice of a/ō reflects the relationship, not the speaker's gender.