CLASSES OF NOUNS IN RESPECT TO ORIGIN.

Nouns in Maori may be comprised under three classes, primitive and derivative, and verbal.[8]

(a.) Nouns primitive are those which designate animals, plants, numbers, members of the animal body, some of the great objects of the natural world.

N.B.—It is often impossible to distinguish between primitive and derivative nouns.

(b.) Nouns derivative, which are altogether the most numerous, comprise,

1st. Nouns derived from verbs, i. e., the verb, in its simple form, used as a noun; e. g.,

(2.) Nouns derived from adjectives; e. g.,

(3.) Nouns derived from adverbs and prepositions, e. g.

(4.) Compound Words. These are always formed by two words placed in immediate juxta-position, without any elision of either; e. g.

(c.) Verbal nouns are well worthy of the attention of the critical student. They are of very extensive uses in Maori, and a proper introduction of them will give animation and elegance to the sentence. The rules for their formation will be found hereafter. See verbs.

They are generally employed to denote time, place, object, means, or some accompaniment on, or relation of the act, or quality of the ground form.—Other uses of them will be mentioned in the syntax.

To set forth the various uses of the verbal noun here would carry us beyond our limits. We shall therefore only give a few examples;—sufficient, however, we trust to lead the critical student into more extensive inquiry;

Note.—Instances will sometimes occur in which the simple root, or the verbal form, may be indifferently used in the sentence. The critical student, however, will generally be able to see the reason; e. g., te here o tona hu, the thong of his shoe; te herenga o tona hu, the holes, &c., by which the thong is fastened.

Proper Names should, perhaps, have been classed under the head of derivative nouns.

They are epithets arbitrarily assumed, as among the Hebrews, from some circumstance, quality, act, or thing. Sometimes they are simple; e. g., ko te Tawa, Tawa (a tree). Sometimes compound; e. g., Tangikai, cry for food. They are generally known by a prefixed; when a is not prefixed, by the context.

Note.—Sometimes we meet with English appellatives employed as appellatives in Maori, but with the form peculiar to proper names; e. g., a mata, the mistress; a pepi, the baby; a tekawana, the governor. These, however, must be regarded as solecisms, and as in no way supported by Maori analogy.[9]

We sometimes also meet with a Maori proper name employed as an appellative; i. e., If an individual of a particular district has been remarkable for any quality, his name will often be predicated of any other in whom the same feature of character is discernible: thus, Ropeti, of Waikato, was remarkable for making a great show of hospitality:—hence, to any person else who has been detected acting in a similar way, it will be said, Ko Ropeti, There is Ropeti.

As all these terms are necessarily limited in their use to a particular district, we need not notice them further.