Vowel sounds and the te reo alphabet

The focus of most of these columns has been primarily on that branch of grammar known as syntax – the arrangement of words in phrases and sentences. But grammar is considered to have two other main branches: morphology (the different forms some words may take in different contexts) and phonology (the sounds).

Pronunciation, obviously, can really only be learnt by imitating native speakers, and by much practice – but there are several features of the written form, the orthography, of te reo Ma¯ ori which merit comment.

Te reo is written using letters from the same alphabet as English – but only some of those letters. What may be considered the now ‘‘standard’’ alphabet (approved by the Ma¯ ori Language Commission) consists of eight single consonants: h, k, m, n, p, r, t, w; two digraphs (double letter combinations): ng and wh; and five vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

With just fifteen symbols, this is one of the shortest alphabets among world languages. In some regional dialects, this list may be slightly modified. The Kai Tahu dialect, for instance regularly uses just k where others use ng – which is why we have Waitaki in the south, but Waitangi in the north.

Vowels in te reo may be either long or short, and the most widely used manner of showing this in print is by placing a macron over any long vowel.

There are many cases of words with quite different meanings which are distinguished one from the other solely by the length of vowel sound, eg marama (‘‘moon’’) and ma¯ rama (‘‘light’’). An alternative way of showing long vowels, still used in some Tainui publications, is by doubling the letter: maarama (‘‘light’’).

The English names of the five vowels don’t represent the sounds of the Ma¯ ori vowels, which are all pure vowels – sounds that can be prolonged without alteration: a¯ as in ‘‘father’’; e¯ as ‘‘ea’’ in ‘‘wear’’; ı¯ as in ‘‘machine’’; o¯ as the ‘‘oa’’ in ‘‘board’’; and u¯ as the ‘‘oo’’ in ‘‘spoon’’. The short forms of these sounds might be represented (roughly) by the ‘‘a’’ in ‘‘about’’; ‘‘e’’ in ‘‘bet’’; ‘‘i’’ in ‘‘igloo’’; ‘‘o’’ in ‘‘report’’; and ‘‘u’’ in ‘‘put’’.

By contrast, the English names of the vowels, except ‘‘e’’ (ı¯ in te reo) are all double vowels (diphthongs) roughly represented in te reo: ‘‘a’’ by ei; ‘‘i’’ by ai; ‘‘o’’ by ou; and ‘‘u’’ by iu. There is no vowel sound in te reo similar to the ‘‘a’’ in the English word ‘‘hat’’.

David Ka¯ rena-Holmes is a New Zealand-born writer currently living in Nelson. A tutor of grammar since the 1980s, his third book on the subject is Te Reo Ma¯ ori – the Basics Explained (Oratia Books, 2020). He is examining te reo grammar in a series of fortnightly articles.