Most dialect differences in te reo consigned to history but some still remain
Thursday, 17 September 2020
OPINION: Earlier in our history there were many differences of dialects in te reo Māori across the country. Numerous examples may be found in older writings in newspapers and manuscripts.
But with formal teaching of te reo tending perhaps to focus on a standardised language, some of the less common forms of expression are perhaps falling out of use.
One of the most obvious dialect differences, however, which doesn’t look like disappearing anytime soon is that exemplified in the following two sentences: E haere ana / au / ki te whare. and Kei te haere / au / ki te whare.
These sentences may be taken as having the same meaning, translating into English as: “I am going to the house.”
**READ MORE:
* Words with no parallel in English
* Great simplicity when it comes to verb system in te reo
* Exploring te reo in a broader context
* A little intonation goes a long way when it comes to asking questions in te reo
**
In the first sentence the opening verb phase consists of the base word haere preceded by the particle e and followed by the particle ana.
In the corresponding phrase of the second sentence haere is simply preceded by the two particles kei te…
The construction with e … ana was apparently characteristic of northern and western regions, as the construction using kei te was of eastern and southern areas – but now, of course, with much greater movement of people from place to place around the country, there are no such geographical constraints.
Of further interest here is that whereas the words e … ana are true verb particles (with no parallels in English words) the words kei te are not verb particles. There is a verb particle kei – the “precautionary” or warning particle, as in: Kia tūpato / kei hinga / koe. (“Be careful lest you fall.”) – but when followed by te (“the”) kei is a preposition denoting “at” in the present tense.
Thus, whilst both sentences mean the same, Kei te haere / au. could be translated, word-for-word, as “At the going / I.”
This situation led Bruce Biggs, in his Let’s Learn Maori, to describe the kei te … phrasing (not necessarily in a pejorative sense) as a “pseudo-verbal” construction.
The Kei te … combination doesn’t appear in the “Scheme of the Maori Verb” in the front pages of Williams’ Dictionary; and, as far as this writer is aware, it isn’t used for verb phrases (although it may be used in noun phrases) in Ko te Paipera Tapu (the Māori version of The Holy Bible) – presumably because both books were first developed in the north.
It’s worth noting that among Ngāti Porou the form is commonly kai te – and that Kai te aha / koe? (“What are you doing?”) is a way of asking “How are you?”.