We have heard the following very erroneous expressions from some old settlers:
- Tutakina to tatau o te aroaro, shut the door of the front, i. e. the front door.
- Kei muri i te whare, behind the house.
Muri and mua (as well as the substantive aroaro) are chiefly employed in connexion with living objects. When allusion is made to the date of events, the student will remember that the prepositions a, mo, mo, a, hei, kei, ko, hei a and ko a, denote future time, and that no, i, and o will always indicate past time.
These prepositions will sometimes take verbal particles into connexion with them, and may be frequently found in other forms to occupy the place of verbs, substantives, and adverbs; vid. ch. 1, § 6. (c), ch. 7. § 1. (b), and ch. 9.
Sometimes we meet with other forms for denoting what would be represented by a preposition in English. Though their proper place belongs to the dictionary, we beg the reader's permission to insert a few here:
| Puta noa i tera taha, (make its appearance out at the other side);—through. | ||||
| A taea noatia tenei ra, | { | arrives on to | } | |
| or | or | this day. | ||
| A tae noa ki tenei ra | till it reaches | |||
- A Mangapouri atu ana, even to Mangapouri.
- I te takiwa, (in the interval);—between.
- I te ritenga atu, (in the line or direction of);—ante and contra—over against.
- Ki tona aroaro, (to his front);—before.
- I tetahi taha ona i tetahi taha, (on one side, on one side);—round about him.
- Ki tera taha, (to the other side);—across (a stream).
The prefix whaka, when in union with a word, will impart the meaning of towards, and change it into an adverb; e. g.,
- Kumea whakarunga, pull upwards.
- Haere whaka tepa, go towards the pa.
- I hoatu ai e ahau i whakaaro ki tona matua, I gave it to him in consideration of his father; (propter.)
- Kihai ahau i whakaae, i whakaaro hoki ki a Hone; I did not assent on account of John; i. e. for John's sake.
The above form deserves, we think, the notice of our Missionary brethren as supplying a good approximation to an use of the word by, which we have not been able to find under the preposition ki or mo, viz., when it is used in adjuration. If, for example, we had to translate into prose the following stanza:—