Maori language: helping you with our place names
Travel Tips — By Heather Hapeta on July 25, 2010 at 10:50 pmSince 1975 New Zealand has marked Maori Language Week – one of our official languages (the other two are English and NZ Sign Language) and this week is for all New Zealanders to celebrate te reo Maori (the Maori language) and to encourage us to use more Maori phrases in our everyday life. This year it’s this week (26 July–1 August 2010) and the theme is ‘Te Mahi Kai – The Language of Food’.
Visitors to New Zealand are often surprised at the number of Maori worlds we use in our daily speech, and of course many place names are Maori so I thought it would be helpful for you to know some of the names geographical features and adjectives that describe them so you can recognise them:
- Awa / river
- Iti / small or little
- Kai / one of the meanings of kai is food; in a place name it signifies a place where a particular food source was plentiful – for example, close to Christchurch is Kaikoura, the place where crayfish (kōura) abounded and were eaten
- Manga / stream
- Maunga / mountain
- Moana / sea
- Motu / island
- Nui / large, big
- O means ‘of’ (so does a, ā); many place names begin with ō, meaning the place of so-and-so – two examples here in Christchurch: firstly our Maori name is Otautahi (belonging to Tautahi) and Opawa (belonging to Pawa)
- Papa / flat: Local example, Papanui
- Roa / long
- Roto / lake; inside
- Wai / water
- Whanga / harbour, bay
And some greetings you will hear on radio, tv and in the street . . .
- E noho rā Goodbye (from a person leaving)
- E haere rā Goodbye (from a person staying)
- Hei konā rā Goodbye (less formal)
- Haere mai Welcome!, Come!
- Kia ora Hi (general informal greeting)
- Nau mai Welcome! Come!
- Tēnā koe formal greeting to one person
See more here, and hear how to pronounce them here on the New Zealand history website.
The longest place name in New Zealand (the world?) is in Hawke’s Bay. It’s a hill known as “Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu”, which translates into English as “the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as ‘landeater’, played his flute to his loved one.” We dont have any nearly that long in Otautahi!
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