OF THE CONSONANTS.

H.

This is the same as the English h.

It is not however known on the western coast of New Zealand to the southward of Mokau, in the district of Taranaki. Its place is supplied by a curious stammer or jirk of the voice. A gentle sibilancy accompanies its pronunciation amongst Ngapuhi, which some speakers erroneously confound with sh.

K.

K has the sound of the English k; as in kill, &c.

M. N. P.

M, N, P, have the same sound as in English.

R.

R has two sounds: (1) rough; as in rain, river, &c.; e. g., kahore, rorea, roro, roto.

(2) The second is more soft, and is formed by a gentle jar of the tongue against the palate; so gentle indeed is the vibration, that most foreigners pronounce it like d or l, as in raro, ruru, rimu, pouaru, pari, muri, mariri, koiri, korikori, kouru, maru.

T.

This is a letter which few Europeans pronounce correctly. It is not pronounced like the t in temper, tea, &c.; but rather like the sharp th of apathy, sympathy, Athens, apothecary. Those who watch a native's tongue while pronouncing this letter, will find that the rule for attaining this sound is, to apply the tongue, not to the root, but to the top of the teeth, and hardly emit a.

W.

Has two sounds, one simple, as that in wind, &c., e. g., wai, water, waka, a canoe, ware, a plebeian.

2. An aspirated w, as in when, where, &c.; whai, follow, whare, a house, &c.

NG.

The speaker should be careful, in uttering this sound not to separate the n from the g, as is sometimes done by foreigners. The n and g intimately coalesce, and those who have learned to pronounce the French encore will find no difficulty in catching it. The following rule will, we trust, help the beginner.

Press the middle of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, near the throat, and simultaneously relax the pressure, and pronounce na. Of course care must be taken that the tip of the tongue does not touch the palate.[3]

Following is a table setting forth a few of the variations in pronunciation of the leading dialects of New Zealand.

It will be observed that the name of a place is employed to denote the dialect for which that place and its vicinity are remarkable.

NGAPUHI.WAIKATO.EASTROTO-TAUPO.TARA-
CAPE.RUA.NAKI.
KeriKeriKariKariKari
TatouTatouTatauTatauTatou & TatauTatou
MatouMatouMatauMatauMatou & MatauMatou
RatouRatouRatauRatauRatou & RatauRatou
Koro & KoruaKorua
KoutouKoutouKoutauKoutauKoutou & KoutauKotou
Taua or TaoTauaTauaTaua
Maua or MaoMauaMauaMaua
Raua or RaoRauaRauaRoua
HeiHeiHaiHaiHai & HeiEi
KeiKeiKaiKaiKai & KeiKei
TuteiTutaiTutaiTutaiTutaiTutei
WhaWa
MaoaMaiaMaoaMaia & Maoa
HohouWhawhauHohou & WhawhuaO-ou
TeinaTeinaTainaTainaTeinaTeina
TaraiTaraiTareiTareiTarai
HeoiHeotiHeotiEoi & Eoti
KuaKuaKouaKua & KouaKu
KiaKiaKiaKiaKiaKi
HoroHohoroO-oro
TopaTaoTaoTao
RoaRo
TonuTonuTou

See also the letters ng and h.

[3]  This sound is not known in the Bay of Plenty. Its place is supplied by a simple n, further southward by k.

CHAPTER II.
OF THE ARTICLE.

§ 1. The articles in Maori are as follows:—

(a.) The definite article te and its plural nga; e. g.

(b.) The indefinite articles he, tetahi, and its plural etahi; e. g.

(c.) The arthritic particles a and ko; e. g.

§ 2. Te is not so uniformly definite as the English the; being sometimes used;

(a.) Where no article would be employed in English, i. e., in cases where the noun is taken in its widest sense; e. g.

(b.) Sometimes it is employed instead of the English a; e. g.

(c.) Sometimes it is used instead of the pronoun some; e. g.

(d.) It is employed for many other purposes which the English the does not recognize. We shall only mention the following;

Note.—It has been asserted that te is sometimes used in the plural number, as in the preceding example, "te kaipuke," and in the following; te tini o te tangata, many men; ka reka te pititi, peaches are sweet.

We are more inclined to think that we have, in these examples, the operation of a figure of frequent occurrence in Maori, viz., synecdoche, and that one of a class is made to represent a whole class.

Expressions of this kind are common in English, without involving the plural number of the article; e. g., the fruit of the tree, a great many, a few men, &c. Bishop Lowth's remarks on these instances are quite to the point.

"The reason of it, he says, is manifest from the effect which the article has in these phrases; it means a small or great number, collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a whole, that is, of unity. Thus likewise, a hundred, a thousand is one whole number, an aggregate of many collectively taken; and therefore still retains the article a, though joined as an adjective to a plural substantive; as, a hundred years."

(e.) Lastly, te is sometimes employed before proper names; e. g.

Note 1.—To define the rule by which the article is prefixed or omitted before proper names is a work of some difficulty, usage being very irregular.

Note 2.—Sometimes te is blended with o into one word; as in the following example: ki to Hone ware, to the house of John, instead of ki te whare o Hone.

Note 3.—The student should be careful, in speaking, to distinguish between the article te, and the negative particle te. The latter should always be pronounced more distinctly and forcibly than the article.

§ 3. Nga may with strict propriety be called the plural of the definite article. There are a few exceptions, or rather slight variations, which we do not think it necessary to mention.

§ 4. He varies in some respects in its uses from the English a.

(a.) It is used sometimes where no article would be employed in English; e. g.

(b.) It is occasionally used in the same sense as some in English, e. g.,

(c.) It is used in the plural number, e. g.

§ 5. A great many uses of the indefinite article are shared by he with te tahi. We shall mention here a few of them.

N.B.—Te tahi exactly corresponds with the definition given by Bishop Lowth of the English article a. "It determines it (the thing spoken of) to be one single thing of the kind, leaving it still uncertain which." A similar use of the numeral one we find in French, sometimes in Hebrew, and more than once in the New Testament; (vid. Mat. xxi. 19, and Mark xiv. 51.)

We need not look abroad for parallel instances; our indefinite article an being, as every etymologist is aware, the Saxon article, which signifies one.

(b.) Etahi may be considered as corresponding to the partitive article des of the French. It determines the things spoken of to be any number of things of the kind, leaving it uncertain how many, or which, of the things they are. It closely resembles the adjective some of English, and we enumerate it here among the articles because it only differs from te tahi (which is clearly an article) in being its plural; e. g.

§ 6. A[4] is a regular attendant on the personal pronouns; e. g.

(b.) It is also the article by which the names of individuals and tribes are always preceded; e. g.

Note 1.—When the particle ko is prefixed to either the proper name, or the pronoun, a is omitted; e. g.

(2) It is also omitted after the prepositions e, ma, mo, no, na, o, a. The prepositions with which it is retained are i, ki, kei, and their compounds—i runga i, &c.; e. g.

Note 2.—Europeans who have not made the language a study, often very incorrectly substitute e for a before a proper name; e. g., they will say, kei hea e te Waru, where is te Waru, and again kua tae mai e Nanaia, Nanaia has arrived. E, as we shall show hereafter, is the sign of the vocative case. A is omitted before such words as the following, kei nga Pakeha, kei nga Maori, &c.

Note 3.—A is sometimes in Waikato prefixed to appellatives; e. g. ki a tuahangata, a papa, a kara.

(c.) A is also prefixed to the names of places, and to prepositions, and adverbs which have assumed the form of substantives, when in the nominative case; e. g.

Note.—Sometimes a is prefixed to the name of the place when the people of the place, and not the place itself, are intended; e. g. ka mate i a Waikato, will be killed by Waikato.

Some speakers are often guilty of solecisms from not remembering that a is not prefixed to any of the oblique cases of the names of places. Thus we heard some old residents in the land say, Haere ki a Pokuru, Go to Pokuru. Haere ki a Waitemata, Go to Waitemata. According to this form Pokuru, and Waitemata are not places, but persons.

(d.) A is always prefixed to any inanimate thing to which a name has been given; i. e. to trees, canoes, ships, boats, meres,[5] guns, &c.; e. g.

Note.—Stars also come under the operation of this rule, e. g.

Houses, Caves, and such like, are regulated by rule (c), e. g.

If the above rules be correct—and we are persuaded that the candid inquirer will assent to them, the following remarks may, perhaps, be worthy the consideration of our Missionary brethren.

1st. We think that we are distinctly warranted by the analogy of the language to treat the books of the Old and New Testaments as proper names, and prefix a to them; as in the following examples, kei a Kenehi, kei a Roma. Such portions however, as the Psalms, the Law, the Acts, the Revelations, &c., might, we think, be most safely considered as appellatives. Such an usage has obtained in English, and will not, we believe, be thought a novelty in Maori, by any one who attends to such sentences as the following:

2. The following sentences are incorrect:

N.B.—The speaker should distinguish between the article, and the preposition a; as in the following sentence:

The preposition a in these elliptical sentences should always be pronounced peculiarly strong.

He should also note the following;

[4]  Some perhaps may object to our regarding a as an article, and may remind us of the definition that an article is "a word prefixed to substantives to point them out, and show how far their signification extends." This however is to make rules precede investigation, and our reply is, that if Bishop Lowth, from whom this definition is derived, had been writing on the Greek article, he would, most probably, have never given such a definition. Every scholar is aware of the disputes that have been agitated among the learned respecting the uses of this article, and that some have even maintained "that its use is guided by no rule at all." The fact is, every language has its peculiarities, and it would be absurd to maintain that because any given part of speech has certain powers in one language, it must have the same in another.

We denominate this article arthritic, because it is, as the Greeks would say, an arthron, a limb of the word to which it is prefixed, though it in no way defines the extent of its signification; unless perhaps we consider that, by its denoting the word to be either a pronoun, a proper name, &c., it thus, in a certain measure, restricts its application, and thus accords with the definition which some writers would give of the article; viz., "an index to the noun."

[5]  The mere is a native weapon for war made of the axe stone. It is an article of great value, and descends from father as an oha, an heirloom in the tribe.

[6]  Tawera is the morning star.

[7]  This star makes his appearance about the month of June, in the first month of the New Zealander, and creates an important epoch in his agricultural operations.

CHAPTER III.
OF THE NOUNS.