Te Reo Glossary and Cultural Information

Click on the words in orange to hear how they are pronounced.

These are common words and phrases that you hear throughout the convention and in use in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Greetings

E noho rā Goodbye (from a person leaving)

Haere rā Goodbye (from a person staying)

Haere mai Welcome! Come!

Hei konā rā Goodbye (less formal)

Kia ora Hi! G’day! (general informal greeting)

Mōrena (Good) morning!

Nau mai Welcome! Come!

Tēnā koe formal greeting to one person

Tēnā kōrua formal greeting to two people

Tēnā koutou formal greeting to many people

Tēnā tātou katoa formal inclusive greeting to everybody present, including oneself

The marae

Hui meeting, conference, gathering

Marae the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house; or the whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc.

Haere mai! Welcome! Enter!

Nau mai! Welcome!

Tangihanga funeral ceremony in which a body is mourned on a marae

Tangi short (verbal version) for the above; or to cry, to mourn

Karanga the ceremony of calling to the guests to welcome them onto the marae

Manuhiri guests, visitors

Tangata whenua original people belonging to a place, local people, hosts

Whaikōrero the art and practice of speech making

Kaikōrero or kaiwhai kōrero speaker (there are many other terms)

Haka chant with dance for the purpose of challenge

Waiata song or chant which follows a speech

Koha gift, present (usually money, can be food or precious items, given by guest to hosts)

Whare nui meeting house; sometimes run together as one word – wharenui

Whare whakairo carved meeting house

Whare kai dining hall

Whare paku lavatory, toilet

Whare horoi ablution block, bathroom

Concepts

Aroha compassion, tenderness, sustaining love

Ihi power, authority, essential force

Mana authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence

Manaakitanga respect for hosts or kindness to guests, to entertain, to look after

Mauri hidden essential life force or a symbol of this

Noa safe from tapu (see below), non-sacred, not tabooed

Raupatu confiscate, take by force

Rohe boundary, a territory (either geographical or spiritual) of an iwi or hapū

Taihoa to delay, to wait, to hold off to allow maturation of plans, etc.

Tapu sacred, not to be touched, to be avoided because sacred, taboo

Tiaki to care for, look after, guard (kaitiaki: guardian, trustee)

Taonga treasured possession or cultural item, anything precious

Tino rangatiratanga the highest possible independent chiefly authority, paramount authority, sometimes used for sovereignty

Tūrangawaewae a place to stand, a place to belong to, a seat or location of identity

Wehi to be held in awe

Whakapapa genealogy, to recite genealogy, to establish kin connections

Whenua land, homeland, country (also afterbirth, placenta)

People and their groups

Ariki male or female of high inherited rank from senior line of descent

Hapū clan, tribe, independent section of a people (modern usage – sub-tribe); pregnant

Iwi people, nation (modern usage – tribe); bones

Kaumātua elder or elders, senior people in a kin group

Ngāi Tātou a term for everyone present – ‘we all’

Pākehā this word is not an insult; its derivation is obscure; it is the Māori word for people living in New Zealand of British/European origin; originally it would not have included, for example, Dalmatians, Italians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese

Rangatira person of chiefly rank, boss, owner

Tama son, young man, youth

Tamāhine daughter

Tamaiti one child

Tamariki children

Tāne man/men, husband(s)

Teina/taina junior relative, younger brother of a brother, younger sister of a sister

Tipuna/tupuna ancestor

Tuahine sister of a man

Tuakana senior relative, older brother of a brother, older sister of a sister

Tungāne brother of a sister

Wahine woman, wife (wāhine: women, wives)

Waka canoe, canoe group (all the iwi and hapū descended from the crew of a founding waka)

Whāngai fostered or adopted child, young person

Whānau extended or non-nuclear family; to be born

Whanaunga kin, relatives

Components of place names

Terms for geographical features, such as hills, rivers, cliffs, streams, mountains, the coast; and adjectives describing them, such as small, big, little and long, are found in many place names. Here is a list so you can recognise them:

Au current

Awa river

Iti small, little

Kai in a place name, this signifies a place where a particular food source was plentiful, e.g., Kaikōura, the place where crayfish (kōura) abounded and were eaten

Manga stream

Mānia plain

Maunga mountain

Moana sea, or large inland ‘sea’, e.g., Taupō

Motu island

Nui large, big

Ō or o means ‘of’ (so does a, ā); many names begin with Ō, meaning the place of so-and-so, e.g., Ōkahukura, Ōkiwi, Ōhau

One sand, earth

Pae ridge, range

Papa flat

Poto short

Puke hill

Roa long

Roto lake; inside

Tai coast, tide

Wai water

Whanga harbour, bay

A note on pronunciation

The following English equivalents are a rough guide to pronouncing vowels in Māori:

a as in far

e as in desk and the first ‘e’ in where; it should be short and sharp

i as in fee, me, see

o as in awe (not ‘oh!’)

u as in sue, boot

There are fewer consonants, and only a few are different from English:

r should not be rolled. It is pronounced quite close to the sound of ‘l’ in English, with the tongue near the front of the mouth.

t is pronounced more like ‘d’ than ‘t’, with the tip of the tongue slightly further back from the teeth

wh counts as a consonant; the standard modern pronunciation is close to the ‘f’ sound. In some districts it is more like an ‘h’; in others more like a ‘w’ without the ‘h’; in others again more like the old, aspirated English pronunciation of ‘wh’ (‘huence’ for whence)

ng counts as a consonant and is pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘singer’. It is not pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘finger’, i.e., Whāngārei is pronounced Far-n(g)ah-ray (not Fong-gah-ray); Tauranga is pronounced Tow- (to rhyme with sew) rah-n(g)ah (not Tow-rang-gah).

The macron – a little line above some vowels – indicates vowel length. Some words spelled the same have different meanings according to their vowel length. For example, anā means ‘here is’ or ‘behold’: Anā te tangata! (Here is the man!) Ana, with no macron, means a cave.

Some writers of modern Māori double the vowel instead of using macrons when indicating a long vowel; the first example would be Anaa te tangata!

Source: Waatea News.com