§. 7. The active is the simple root modified by one or more of the words already mentioned, e. g. e patu ana ahau, I am striking.
§. 8. The passive is the root varied in its termination; e. g. e patua ana ahau, I am struck.
Note.—The student will find, as we proceed, that the Maori passive differs in some respects from that of the English, Latin and Greek.
§. 9. The neuter expresses being, or a state or condition of being; when the agent and the object acted upon coincide, and the event is properly neither action nor passion, but rather something between both: as I am, I sleep, I walk."[14]
Note.—Verbs derived from the simple adjective will generally rank under the head of neuter. Under this class also do we reduce a species of verbs in the arrangement of which we have felt some difficulty; viz.—such words as, pakaru, broken; marere, conceded, &c., i. e., words which are neuter in form, but passive in meaning; which correspond in meaning to the past participle passive of the European languages, but are not traceable to any root. After much consideration we are inclined to think that they may most satisfactorily be regarded as adjectives, and classified accordingly: thus, in the following sentence, "kua pakaru te waka i te ngaru," the canoe has been broken by the waves, we should regard pakaru as an adjective, or rather a verbalized adjective, just as much as we should kino in the following, "kua kino te waka i te paru," the canoe is bad, or uncomfortable, through the filth.
To any who wishes to regard such a class as passive participles, we would reply, that the preposition i, (not e,) following them clearly determines them as belonging to the neuter family; and that though their meaning may not coincide with our definition of a neuter verb, yet we feel no difficulty on that head; for we only act in common with other grammarians, who have laid it down as a useful rule "a potiori nomen fit."
As it may be useful to the student to be acquainted with this class of words we will supply a table of some of the principal, after we have made some farther observations on the voices.[15]
In the passive we meet with variation in the termination of the ground-form.
(a) It will be seen that the above arrangement is made according to the final letter of the ground form, and that each division contains some examples of reduplicated words, and of words ending in diphthongs.