Māori Orthographic Conventions

The following is a set of writing conventions that the Māori Language Commission recommends be observed by writers and editors of Māori language texts. The Commission believes it is essential for the survival of the language that a standardised written form be adopted by all those involved in the production of material in Māori, in order that a high quality literary base may be built up as a resource for the Māori language learners of today and of the future.

With the exception of a limited amount of morphological, phonological and lexical variation across tribes, the "variation" that occurs in the written form of the language these days is rarely meaningful. Indeed most of the incongruencies that abound in present-day Māori writing serve only as a hindrance to those who rely on contemporary Māori text to facilitate their acquisition of the language.

When one considers the disquieting fact that the majority of Māori language users under 50 years of age are still very much learners of the language, one should appreciate that a lack of orthographic uniformity must surely render the rules of the language more difficult to grasp, and ultimately be detrimental to its growth and maintenance.?or the well-being of the language, therefore, the Commission urges that the "rules" given below be applied universally by those involved in the production of Māori language material.

MACRON

It is especially important that the distinction - between long and short vowel length be marked - in the same way, all of the time.?he Commission believes that the macron is the most efficient means of marking long vowel length, and advocates the use of this marker in all but a handful of cases, as described in the following section.

?t is sometimes argued that whilst the need to mark the distinction between minimal pairs or sets of words such as tara / tāra, and keke / kekē / kēkē is obvious, there is no such reason to mark the long vowel length of particles such as ngā, nā and mō. The Commission contends that there is no good reason not to mark the long vowel sound in such words, as it can only serve to reinforce the simple message that the macron holds for learners of the language, namely: "all macronised vowels are pronouncedLONG". Put another way, macronising these words reduces the exceptions to the macron rule stated above. Indeed it may be argued that this reduces the number of irregular forms to just one word in Māori, namely ka (as a verbal particle).

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1. LONG vowels are marked by the macron

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

2. LOAN-words (from English for the most part) follow the same rules as indigenous words:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

3. WHERE two vowels of like quality fall together at a morpheme boundary, the two vowels are written separately in place of a macronised single vowel.

3.1 Addition of prefix:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

3.2 Reduplication:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

3.3 Words containing etymological morpheme boundaries (ie. those which appear to have existed historically, but which are no longer perceived by native speakers) follow this pattern:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

3.4 Words containing a prefix that ends in the letter 'a' and a base that begins with a long 'ā'.  (The retention of the double vowel ('aa') renders the macron on the second 'a' superfluous.)

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

3.5 In the case of the passive suffix, where both the passive suffix and the last letter of the base are 'a':

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

Similarly, in the case of the verb kī 'say', the recommended form is kīia

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4.0 POSSESSIVE Particles: ā, ō,a, o

4.1 Preposed genitive markers ā and ō (like tā and tō) are written long:

4.2 Postposed genitive markers a and o are written short:

Consider the following examples which combine both:

5. THE following particles are always written long:
mā, mō, nā, nō, ngā, kē, rā, ā (when indicating future time, e.g. ā te Mane)

6. THE following particles are always written short:
ko, i, ki, e, me, a (as a nominal particle, e.g. ki a ia, ki a Heta)
ka (as a verbal particle)

7. Miscellaneous:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

8. Pluralising Māori words in English text

In Māori, the form of a word is not altered to show number, tense etc. These elements of meaning are carried by separate words (for example, te vs. ngā to indicate number/plurality; i vs. ka vs kei te to indicate tense, mood etc.) This rule holds for Māori words that appear in English text.

1. 'The taking of toheroa has been prohibited on this beach for over 10 years.'
* 'The taking of toheroas has been prohibited on this beach for over 10 years.'

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

2. 'It was interesting to see how many Pākehā had joined the march by the time it reached Parliament.'
* 'It was interesting to see how many Pākehās had joined the march by the time it reached Parliament.'

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WORD DIVISIONS

1. SUFFIXES are part of the word:

1.1 Passive:

1.2 Nominalisation:

2. PREFIXES are part of the word:

2.1 Agentive:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

2.2 Causative:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

2.3 Other prefixes:

3. COMPOUND Words

3.1 Generally, compound words consisting of four (4) vowels or fewer are written as a single word:

3.2 Compound words consisting of more than (4) vowels are written astwo words:

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4. NOUN/VERB -ā- noun:

A hyphen should be used to link the 'ā' to the word that follows it. The use of a hyphen to link it to the word that precedes it is optional. Generally speaking, the more established expressions of this form include hyphens on either side, for example:

However in many expressions both forms are acceptable:

te whakamāori-ā-waha 'interpreting' AND
te whakamāori ā-waha

5. PROPER names

Just as people have the right to spell their own name as they wish, so place names, ancestral names and tribal names should be spelt in accordance with the wishes of those people most closely connected to them.The following conventions are given as a guide only, to aid in correct pronunciation and access to meaning.

5.1 Place names and personal names:

Generally, the constituent parts of compound names should be separated by hyphens.

A name beginning with Te does not have a hyphen between Te and the rest of the name. In this instance the first letter of the rest of the name is capitalised.

There is a variation of this basic hyphenation rule which has gained popularity in recent times, namely that where a name is made up of two words, the second of which is a frequently occurring epithet such as nui, iti, roa and rua, the hyphen may be omitted. For example:

The only difficulty with this type of special case is determining where to draw the line between what is a 'frequently occurring' epithet and what is not. One could argue that many of the adjectives that occur in place names of this form fall into this category. Take, for example the words tapu (One-tapu, Motu-tapu...), rau (Kawe-rau, Mata-rau, Wai-rau...), and kino (Mā-kino, Wai-kino...).

As far as the Commission knows, this matter has yet to be resolved by the Māori language writing and editing fraternity. Perhaps the more important thing at the present time is to follow a single rule and to apply it consistently to any given text. In this way internal consistency can at least be maintained at a time when the wider issue has yet to be resolved.

5.2 Tribal names:

The words Ngā, Ngāi, Ngāti and Te are written separately.

The remainder of the name follows the same rules as other proper names(see 6.1):

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6. NAMES of days:

The following is a list of alternatives for the days of the week in Māori. Although the borrowings from English are still the most common forms used (with the exception of the Māori equivalents for Saturday and Sunday), the two alternative sets of names are preferred by some speakers of Māori. The source of the first of these, which follow the numerical order of the first five days of the week, is unknown. The second of the alternative lists was provided by the Commission in response to a request for Māori equivalents based on the original meaning of the English names.

6.1

6.2 Names of months:

The following are the most common alternative names for the months of the year in Māori.

7. MISCELLANEOUS:

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates form not recommended.

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CAPITALISATION

1. ARTICLE Te/te

1.1 Capitalised article: Te

1.1.1. Proper Names:

1.2 Lower case article: te

1.2.1 Documents:

1.2.2 Names for the Lord:

1.2.3 Positions:

Note: when used as a form of address, the article is capitalised:

Note: When used in a general way, such nouns are not capitalised:

Ko te kaiwhakahaere te tangata ko tāna mahi he whakahaere i te tari.
'The manager is the person whose job it is to manage the office'.

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1.2.4. Institutions:

Note 1: Once again, when used in a general way, the nouns begin with lower case letters:

E whitu ngā whare wānanga o te motu.
E tautoko ana au i ngā uaratanga o te kura kaupapa Māori.

Note 2: However, when such names stand alone rather than as part of running text, the initial Te is capitalised. (For example when the title appears in letterhead or in a list of organisations.)

1.2.5 Festivals, etc:

1.2.6.Days of the Week:

2. NATIONAL, ethnic or religious groups

2.1 As nouns these words are capitalised:

2.2 Also as adjectives:

Note: when māori is used as a means 'ordinary', it is not capitalised:

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3. IN titles of institutions etc, only nouns, adjectives and verbs are capitialised:

Note: Initial Te is capitalised, however, when the name is not part of running text. [see 1.2.4 of this section, note 2]

4. IN compound place names and proper names linked by hyphens, the first letter of the name is capitalised (if there is an initial Te, it is capitalised separately [see 1.1.1]). The only other parts of the name whose first letters are capitalised are those which are themselves proper names:

5. WHERE kinship terms or parts thereof take the place of personal names, they are capitalised.

[Equivalents of these in English are: Grandad, Dad, Grandma, etc.]

6. WHERE kinship and other terms function as direct forms of address following te or ngā, they are not capitalised.

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NGĀ KĀRAWARAWATANGA (PUNCTUATION)

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HE KUPU AHUREO (METALINGUISTIC TERMS)

NGĀ TURE ĀPITI KUPU (SYNTAX)

(He mea tango noa mai ēnei kupu i tā Cleve Barlow, tāna whakamāori i te pukapuka wetewete a Biggs.)

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