The English word Maori is a borrowing from the Māori language, where it is spelled Māori. In New Zealand, the Māori language is often … See more

Origins
According to legend, Māori came to New Zealand from Hawaiki. Current anthropological … See more

Nearly all speakers are ethnic Māori resident in New Zealand. Estimates of the number of speakers vary: the 1996 census reported 160,000, while other estimates have reported as few … See more

Māori has five phonemically distinct vowel articulations, and ten consonant phonemes.
Vowels
Although it is commonly claimed that vowel realisations (pronunciations) in Māori show little … See more

New Zealand has two de jure official languages: Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, whereas New Zealand English acts as a See more

Comparative linguists classify Māori as a Polynesian language, specifically as an Eastern Polynesian language belonging to the See more

The modern Māori alphabet has 15 letters, two of which are digraphs (character pairs). The five vowels have both short and long forms, with the long forms denoted by macrons marked above them.
The order of the alphabet is as follows: A, E, H, I, K, M, N, O, … See more