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Cook Islands Māori

Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori, but is a distinct language in its own right. Cook Islands Māori is simply called Māori when there is no need to disambiguate it from New Zealand Māori, but it is also known as Māori Kūki ʻĀirani (or Maori Kuki Airani) or, controversially,[3] Rarotongan. Many Cook Islanders also call it Te reo Ipukarea, literally "the language of the Ancestral Homeland".

Official status

Cook Islands Māori became an official language of the Cook Islands in 2003; from 1915 until then, English had been the only official language of the Cook Islands.

Te Reo Maori Act definition

The Te Reo Maori Act 2003 states that Māori:[4]

  1. means the Māori language (including its various dialects) as spoken or written in any island of the Cook Islands; and
  2. Is deemed to include Pukapukan as spoken or written in Pukapuka; and
  3. Includes Māori that conforms to the national standard for Māori approved by Kopapa Reo.

Pukapukan is considered by scholars and speakers alike to be a distinct language more closely related to Samoan and Tokelauan than Cook Islands Māori. It belongs to the Samoic subgroup of the Polynesian language family. The intention behind including Pukapukan in the definition of Te Reo Maori was to ensure its protection.

The dialects[5] of the East Polynesian varieties of the Cook Islands (collectively referred to as Cook Islands Māori) are:

Cook Islands Māori is closely related to Tahitian and New Zealand Māori, and there is a degree of mutual intelligibility with both of these languages.

The language is theoretically regulated by the Kōpapa reo māori board created in 2003, but this organisation is currently dormant.

Writing system and pronunciation

There is a debate about the standardisation of the writing system. Although the usage of the macron (־) te makarona and the glottal stop amata (ʻ) (/ʔ/) is recommended, most speakers do not use the two diacritics in everyday writing. The Cook Islands Māori Revised New Testament uses a standardised orthography (spelling system) that includes the diacritics when they are phonemic but not elsewhere.[citation needed]

Consonants

  1. ^ Present only in Manihiki
  2. ^ Present only in Penrhyn
  3. ^ Present only in Manihiki and Penrhyn

Vowels

Grammar

Cook Islands Māori is an isolating language with very little morphology. Case is marked by the particle that initiates a noun phrase, and like most East Polynesian languages, Cook Islands Māori has nominative-accusative case marking.

The unmarked constituent order is predicate initial: that is, verb initial in verbal sentences and nominal-predicate initial in non-verbal sentences.

Personal pronouns

  1. you -2 or more- and I
  2. they and I

Tense-Aspect-Mood markers

Most of the preceding examples were taken from Cook Islands Maori Dictionary, by Jasper Buse with Raututi Taringa edited by Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moekaʻa, Auckland, 1995.

Possessives

Like most other Polynesian languages (Tahitian, New Zealand Māori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan ...), Cook Islands Māori has two categories of possessives, "a" and "o".

Generally, the "a" category is used when the possessor has or had control over the initiation of the possessive relationship. Usually this means that the possessor is superior or dominant to what is owned, or that the possession is considered as alienable. The "o" category is used when the possessor has or had no control over the initiation of the relationship. This usually means that the possessor is subordinate or inferior to what is owned, or that the possession is considered to be inalienable.

The following list indicates the types of things in the different categories:

Te puaka a tērā vaʻine : the pig belonging to that woman;
ā Tere tamariki : Tere's children;
Kāre ā Tupe mā ika inapō : Tupe and the rest didn't get any fish last night
Tāku ; Tāʻau ; Tāna ; Tā tāua ; Tā māua…. : my, mine ; your, yours ; his, her, hers, our ours…
Ko tāku vaʻine tēia : This is my wife;
Ko tāna tāne tērā : That's her husband;
Tā kotou ʻapinga : your possession(s);
Tā Tare ʻapinga : Tērā possession(s);
Te ʻare o Tere : The house belonging to Tere;
ō Tere pare : Tere's hat;
Kāre ō Tina noʻo anga e noʻo ei : Tina hasn't got anywhere to sit;
Tōku ; Tōʻou ; Tōna ; Tō tāua ; Tō māua…: my, mine  ; your, yours ; his, her, hers ; our, ours …
Ko tōku ʻare tēia : This is my house;
I tōku manako, ka tika tāna : In my opinion, he'll be right;
Tēia tōku, tērā tōʻou : This is mine here, that's yours over there

Vocabulary

Dialectology

Although most words of the various dialects of Cook Islands Māori are identical, there are some differences:

Demographics

Notes

  1. ^ Rarotonga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Tongareva (Penrhyn) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Rakahanga-Manihiki at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ "2013 Census ethnic group profiles". Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  3. ^ Sally Akevai Nicholas (2018). "Language Contexts: Te Reo Māori o te Pae Tonga o te Kuki Airani also known as Southern Cook Islands Māori". In Peter K. Austin; Lauren Gawne (eds.). Language Documentation and Description (PDF). Vol. 15. London: EL Publishing. pp. 36–37. Retrieved 27 January 2021. This practice conflicts with that of community members, who use the name Rarotongan to specifically refer to the variety spoken in Rarotonga. Non-Rarotongan Cook Islands Māori speakers can be offended by this conflation... Therefore, the name "Rarotongan" should be only be used to refer to the Rarotongan variety and never to Cook Islands Māori as a whole.
  4. ^ "Te Reo Maori Act 2003". Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
  5. ^ These are 'dialects' in the sense of having mutual intelligibility.
  6. ^ Tongarevan is sometimes also considered as a distinct language.
  7. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.
  8. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.
  9. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.
  10. ^ a b "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.
  11. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.
  12. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.
  13. ^ "Language spoken at home | Australia | Community profile". profile.id.com.au.

Sources

External links

Cook Islands Māori test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator