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7 unusual facts about Māori language


Bare Island, New Zealand

Bare Island, also known as Motu-O-Kura (or "the Island of Kura" in Māori), is a small island located in the Pacific Ocean in the southern Hawke's Bay on the eastern North Island of New Zealand.

Mākaro / Ward Island

Maori tradition is that both of these islands received their original Māori names from Kupe, the semi-legendary first navigator to reach New Zealand and get home again with reports of the new land, but this cannot be verified.

Matthew Cowley

He was affectionately known as the "Polynesian Apostle" because of his intimate knowledge of Polynesian culture and the Māori language.

Ngata

Ngata is a Māori surname, most commonly found among members of the Ngāti Porou iwi.

Otago Access Radio

Toroa, the Māori word for albatross, was chosen as being representative of the Dunedin area due to the location of a notable albatross colony within the city limits at Taiaroa Head on Otago Peninsula.

Ruapuke Island

It was named "Bench Island" upon its European discovery by Captain James Cook in 1770, but has rarely been known by any other name than its Māori name, which means "two hills".

Stewart Island / Rakiura

The original Māori name, Te Punga o Te Waka a Maui, positions Stewart Island / Rakiura firmly at the heart of Māori mythology.


Amphibola crenata

Amphibola crenata (titiko in the Māori language or mud-flat snail in English) is a species of air breathing snail with an operculum, a pulmonate gastropod mollusc which lives in a habitat that is intermediate between the land and the sea, not entirely terrestrial and not entirely marine.

Ashhurst

The Māori name for the area is Raukawa, after a native aromatic plant (Pseudopanax edgerleyi), whereas for the town it is Otangaki.

Chatham Island

The island is called Rekohu ("misty skies") in Moriori, and Wharekauri in Maori.

De facto

In New Zealand, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language are de jure official languages, while English is a de facto official language.

Don Selwyn

He was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust and directed the 2002 film The Merchant of Venice, the first Maori language feature film with English subtitles.

Havaii

Few web pages recognize this special character, with Microsoft releasing a Maori character font in 2003, although it does not address the glottal stop used by Maori outside of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Henry Cleary

He learned Māori in order to teach Māori people in their own language, and was responsible for establishing St Peter's Rural Training School for Māori boys.

Mai FM

Between 1996 and 2005 Mai FM also operated a second station Ruia Mai on 1179 AM in Auckland with all programming in the Māori language.

Mai FM is New Zealand's biggest Hip Hop and RnB radio station with a commitment to the Māori language and culture.

New Zealand Rockwren

The New Zealand Rockwren (Xenicus gilviventris), or Rock Wren, or Pīwauwau in (Māori, is a small New Zealand wren (family Acanthisittidae) endemic to the South Island of New Zealand.

Tahuna, Waikato

In the Māori language Tahuna means sandbank, likely to refer to the sandbanks along the nearby Piako River, where a Māori settlement started.

Talofa

Another Samoan salutation To life, live long! properly translated Ia ola! also echoes in places such as Aotearoa (New Zealand), where the formal greeting in Māori is Kia ora and in Tahiti (French Polynesia) where it is 'Ia orana.

Tauweru

It is named after and located on the middle reaches of the Tauweru River, which drains into the Ruamahanga River near Gladstone and Te Whiti, and the name means "hanging in clusters" in the Māori language.

Tuamotuan language

Pa‘umotu is closely related to the languages of eastern Polynesian including Hawaiian, Māori, Cook Islands Māori and Rapa Nui, the language of Easter Island.

Tuatua

Paphies subtriangulata is a species of edible bivalve clam known as tuatua in the Māori language, a member of the family Mesodesmatidae and endemic to New Zealand.


see also

Google Maori

Google Māori was launched during Māori Language Week (Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori) in 2008 at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, in Rotorua.

Papango

New Zealand Scaup, a diving duck, known in the Maori language as the Papango