Maori, known to its own speakers as te reo Maori, is the Polynesian language of the Maori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, the language of whakapapa (genealogy) and karakia (ritual invocation), and the language in which Matariki, the pre-dawn rising of the Pleiades that marks the Maori new year, and Te Waka o Rangi, the canoe figure spanning Scorpius to Orion, are named and told. Suppressed for much of the twentieth century under assimilationist policy, it is now an official language of New Zealand and the subject of a sustained revitalization movement. The atlas holds Maori as the source language behind the Aotearoa cosmological material it catalogs.
Facts
Origins
Language FamilyPolynesian, within the Oceanic branch of Malayo-Polynesian and so within Austronesian; closely related to Hawaiian, Tahitian, Rarotongan and the other Eastern Polynesian languages. 2 Place of OriginMaori originated in New Zealand, brought by Polynesian voyagers and belonging to the Austronesian language family. 2Tradition: The Austronesian Languages Status
Endangerment StatusRated Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010 edition), notwithstanding a substantial revitalization effort in New Zealand since the 1980s through Maori-medium immersion schooling (kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Maori) and broadcast media. Geography
Modern AreaAotearoa New Zealand, with speaker communities also in Australia; an official language of New Zealand since 1987. 5 Identity
Native ScriptLatin-based orthography devised by early nineteenth century missionaries, using macrons (tohuto) to mark long vowels; no indigenous script existed before European contact. 1 Practice
Liturgical and Scriptural RoleThe language of karakia and of the star lore behind Matariki, the first pre-dawn rising of the Pleiades that marks the new year, and Te Waka o Rangi, the canoe figure whose turning through the sky was read by navigators. 4 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Maori directly: "pass, which describes a tohunga as a Maori expert practitioner of a religious or technical skill, priest, healer, navigator or carver among them, notes the cognate role across Polynesia (Hawaiian..."
Attested in Region
Named or Composed in This Language
Sources
1. The World's Writing Systems
Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1996View the Source 2. The Austronesian Languages
Robert Blust, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Australian National University, 2013On Maori's Polynesian origin and Austronesian family membershipView the Source 3. UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
Christopher Moseley (ed.), with contributing regional linguists, UNESCO Publishing, 2010View the Source 4. The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori, Genuine and Empirical
Elsdon Best, Dominion Museum, Wellington, 1922
5. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), SIL International, 2024View the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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