NZ Scholarship Te Reo Rangatira key terms

The elevated, formal register of Māori used in oratory, ritual, and composition; characterised by archaic vocabulary, metaphorical allusion, and proverbial density rather than everyday conversational style.

A traditional proverb or significant saying, often attributed to ancestors, used to compress an argument into an image; quoting one appropriately signals mastery of inherited knowledge and its relevance to the present.

A proverb whose author is known and named, distinguishing it from an anonymous whakataukī; attribution is part of the form, and misattribution weakens the rhetorical force of the quotation.

A tribal saying encapsulating identity, landscape, and history, often citing a mountain, river, ancestor, or marae; used to locate the speaker genealogically rather than to argue a general point.

A simile or comparison, usually introduced by 'kei te' or 'pēnei i', that links a subject to a familiar image; in formal composition the image carries the evaluation, so the comparison itself becomes the argument.

A metaphor or figurative allusion in which one thing is spoken of as another without a comparative marker; extended metaphor across a whole passage is a recognised marker of compositional skill.

A colloquial idiom or informal expression of everyday speech, such as an exclamation of surprise or disgust; recognising register means knowing when kīwaha are inappropriate in formal writing.

A dialectal or tribal-specific word or form; candidates are expected to identify dialect variation and to justify a chosen form rather than treat one variety as standard.

Genealogical descent linking a person to ancestors, land, and tribal groups; recitation establishes standing to speak, and errors in descent lines are treated as serious faults in formal contexts.

A formal greeting or acknowledgement, delivered in speech or writing, that positions the speaker in relation to the audience, the land, and the occasion before substantive content begins.

An opening chant or recited formula that begins a formal speech, often allusive and rhythmic, chosen to set tone and claim the floor; its imagery typically foreshadows the argument to follow.

Formal oratory on the marae, structured by convention and evaluated on allusion, delivery, and appropriateness to the occasion; written analysis may ask candidates to identify its rhetorical moves.

The high-pitched call, normally by a woman, that opens encounter between visiting and hosting groups; its language is formulaic and its imagery of lament and welcome is frequently analysed in texts.

A song, including composed laments, love songs, and action songs; analysis considers poetic imagery, structure, and the historical circumstances of composition as well as performance features.

A lament composed to mourn a death or loss, typically moving from grief through remembered association to consolation; its imagery of landscape and weather is a common focus of close reading.

A traditional chant or sung poem without set action, preserved through generations; the term is often used for the classical repertoire whose language is archaic and densely allusive.

A performed chant with forceful movement, composed for many purposes including welcome, mourning, and protest; analysis attends to the relationship between words, rhythm, and physical expression.

Speech, talk, narrative, or discussion; in examination contexts it names the act of speaking and the body of oral account that written texts draw on.

A narrative, often traditional, carrying history, values, and explanation of the world; analysis treats it as a structured artefact whose characters and episodes encode social meaning.

Knowledge and narrative passed down through generations, including genealogy, tradition, and custom; the phrase marks inherited authority rather than mere anecdote.

A word or term; close analysis distinguishes root, prefix, and suffix, and considers how a single kupu can shift meaning with context or with a change of register.

A sentence or clause; grammatical analysis identifies its predicate, subject, and particles, and considers how sentence structure creates emphasis or rhythm in a passage.

An addition or appended element, including the particle phrases that extend a sentence; recognising what is added, and why, supports analysis of emphasis and information structure.

An adjective or descriptive word; in formal composition, precise and unexpected description is valued over generic praise, and analysis notes which qualities the writer chooses to foreground.

A word class covering particles and small grammatical words that carry tense, aspect, and direction; accurate use of these particles is a common discriminator in writing tasks.

A worker or someone who performs a task; the term also appears in compounds naming roles, so context determines whether it refers to a person, an occupation, or an actor in a narrative.

A topic, policy, or underlying purpose; in literary analysis it names the theme or governing intention of a text, and in formal speech the stated reason for gathering.

A root, cause, reason, or matter under discussion; argumentative writing is expected to identify the take of a position and to trace it to evidence rather than assert conclusions.

Customary practice and the body of obligations governing appropriate conduct; in text analysis it provides the standard against which behaviour of characters or speakers is judged.

Protocol or the set order of procedure for a gathering, distinct from the wider body of custom; knowing kawa explains why particular speeches or greetings occur in a fixed sequence.

The open area in front of a meeting house where formal encounter takes place; the term also extends to the whole complex and its community, and it frames the setting of much formal language.

The mourning gathering held after a death, lasting several days and structured by speech, song, and hospitality; texts about it are frequently set for analysis of grief and obligation.

Shame, shyness, or the discomfort of being exposed before others; the concept recurs in narrative and is often analysed as a social sanction rather than a private emotion.

Love, sympathy, or compassion, and the obligations that follow from it; the term carries relational weight, so translation as simple affection can miss duties of care.

Prestige, authority, and spiritual power that inhere in a person, group, or place and can be enhanced or diminished by conduct; it is a central evaluative concept in analysis of conflict.

A state of sacred restriction setting something apart and governing who may approach it; narrative tension often arises from breach of tapu and the restoration of order that follows.

A founding genealogy or origin account that traces a group back to ancestors, land, or cosmic beginnings; such accounts authorise claims and are analysed for their rhetorical as well as historical function.