Language History

Te Reo o konei – local dialect

A timeline:

Firstly, the origins of te reo Māori are from the Proto Polynesian Family of languages. This aligns Māori language with Tahitian, Rarotongan, Tuamotuan languages. In your classroom or school, the Māori language origins could be looked at on a map of Polynesia. There were various migrations from Polynesia to New Zealand and with it came a language of Polynesia.

The Māori language of the South Island is a different dialect to that of the North Island. There are early Polynesian layers of te reo Māori that began with people such as Hāwea, Rapuwai and Waitaha. The southern Kāi Tahu language was a unique dialect with its own sound, nuances, and idiom. Following this were the dialects from the North Island when tribes migrated south.

There are many dialects within the Māori language. These different dialects can also be referred to as tribal differences. Within the study of reo, dialects of a particular language are generally considered to have 81% to 100% shared cognancy. Anything outside this would be considered close but a separate language. Ray Harlow assessed that the Kāi Tahu reo differs to other dialects but there is significant correlation to the East Coast of the North Island. Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Porou share a similar dialect because of the whakapapa links with Kāi Tahu. Today there are a few unique words that are shared across these east coast tribes and Kāi Tahu, for example:

Hākui/Hākoro – Mother/Father

Huanui – road

Pōhatu – rock

Tātau – us/ours

Records of the Kāi Tahu language:

The written record of Kāi Tahu reo is extensive and extends back as far as Cook’s early visits to the South Island. Missionaries were eager to learn and record the Māori language of the South Island. Reverend James Watkins wrote a word list in 1840. He was the first missionary in the South Island having lived in Tonga and studied Māori in the North Island, probably at Kororāreka where there was a missionary school. He arrived at Karitāne which was originally known as Waikouaiti in February 1840. Believing he had been condemned to a hell on earth that was to live among the Māori. At his first sermon Māori did not understand a word of his te reo Māori. He wrote

“I soon found out that the dialect spoken here differs materially form that of the North Island”

Kāi Tahu told him as he tried to preach to them from his North Island biblical publications -

“Kāhore e mātau” (we do not understand)

John Boultbee was a fascinating character. He came to New Zealand as an educated sealer. He came from Cornwell and went to Tasmania, eventually arriving in New Zealand. He lived in Colac Bay around 1820. He recorded a unique dialect. His diary was found in an attic in New South Wales in 1960. Two books have been written on him “The Journey of a Rambler” and the “Diary of John Boultbee”.

Reverend J. Wohlers, became the resident missionary on Ruapuke Island from 1844 to 1885. He collected and published many Southern traditions. He commented on the nature of the Southern Dialect and the close proximity between the l and r and the p and b (as sounds in the language).

Edward Shortland, Protector of Aborigines, walked from Karitāne to Akaroa and travelled as far South as Ruapuke Island by boat conducting a Native Census. He kept a diary that formed the basis of the book called “The Southern Districts of New Zealand”. He also published his on vocabulary of the “Kāi Tahu Dialect”. Shortland was a fluent speaker of Māori when he moved South. His word lists are excellent. There were many Kāī Tahu who learnt to read and write Māori and English on the arrival of pākehā to our shores. Matiaha Tiramorehu (see biography) in 1849 wrote a long diary extract about his wife’s death in the Kāi Tahu dialect. These writers spoke with “k” but were taught with the “ng”. Tiramorehu was a student of Reverend Watkins and Watkins successor was Reverend Creed. He taught Tiramorehu how to write and he wrote a great deal.

Timoti Karetai the son of Karetai who signed the Te Tiriti o Waitangi wrote a letter in 1854. A letter pleading with the government to return Pukekura (Taiaroa Heads). In 1906 Taare Wetere Te Kaahu of Ōtākou published an account of the Kāi Tahu wars against Te Rauparaha in the Journal of the Polynesian Society

This was entirely in Kāi Tahu Dialect. Herries Beattie did some comparison work on the dialects within Kāi Tahu. From this it is evident that dialects were certainly different even within our own iwi.

Unique aspects of the Kāi Tahu Dialect:

The “k” replaces the “ng” and there are many examples of this particularly in place names. The Kāi Tahu language is evident in our place names.

Here is an example of some place names, the “k” is underlined:

Kaik (a common name for all villages within the Kāi Tahu tribal area, meaning home /village) This is the name Moeraki and Ōtākou use for their villages.

Aoraki – once known as Mt Cook

Waitaki

Maukatere

Akaroa

Puketeraki

Moeraki

Rakiura

Rakipipikao

There are many more place names. This would be a great activity in schools, looking at local place names, what they tell you and where they come from. There are many examples of names within the Dunedin area alone e.g. Kaikorai (which should be written as Kaikarae), Taieri (which should be written as Taiari), Wakari (which should be written as Whakaari), Waihola (which is recorded as Waihora by H.K. Taiaroa in the1880 mahika kai lists).

In your class you could research these names, and take the students through these steps:

1. What is the name now?

2. What was the original name?

3. What was its meaning? The places you can find this detail is in books referenced in the Biography. The Hocken Library is also a particularly valuable resource for your school. Newspapers past67 is another very useful site.

4. Utilising these names as classroom names or places in your school brings them to life and allows the students to take some ownership of the names and their meanings.

Utilise the Kai Tahu mapping resource: http://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/

Kīwaha/Idiom

There are idiom and phrases that are particular to any language and te reo Māori is no exception. Here are some useful phrases that are particular to our Kāi Tahu language. This information is attributed to Tahu Potiki’s tireless work that spans 30 years, researching Kāi Tahu language manuscripts.

Kātia! - Check that out!

Kia kurapa! - Hurry up!

Maniori! - Be quiet!

Auatu rā! - Never mind

Hauata! - It’s just an accident!

Naia - Here it is

Nau mai, haere! - Go!

Nā wai kī?? - Who said??

Wananei! - Choice

He konohi kainukere - An eye for detail

Aukaha, kia kaha - Unite together

Huaparaunoa - Lies/its lies!

Kāhore ia! Kāhore ia! - Never

Kai-a-tua - Greedy

Kātahi rā ia! - Cheeky fellow!

E aha tāhau? - What’s up with you?/What is your problem?

Whakataukī/Proverbs

There are also whakataukī and whakatauākī that come from within our Kāi Tahu tribe. These are proverbs that recall a particular incident or are metaphorical in the way they reflect on a likeness between a natural landscape and a person. Here are a few examples:

Kanohi kai nukere

The eye to see the seal in the dark/An eye for detail

According to Herries Beattie the nukere was a southern word for a seal rookery and may have been a transliteration. Apparently, the old time sealing gangs would sometimes head into these sheltered bays while it was still dark. In those times they were working in pitch black and the above whakataukī refers to someone who could still make out the seals in a darkened rookery.

Further to that it was a proverb applied specifically to Topi Patuki. Patuki was one of the party that surprised the Ngāti Tama invader Te Pūoho at Tuturau in early 1836. Just before the sun rose, as Te Pūoho left the whare he was staying in, Patuki lined him up with his musket and killed him in one shot. His sight was so good this proverb become associated with this attribute. After the first shot was fired Taiaroa raced in crying, “Ko au, ko au. Ko Taiaroa.” This effectively ended the battle and Kāi Tahu took the surviving members as prisoners. This whakataukī could be applied to anyone that has shown great skill or aptitude physically although obviously with a particular emphasis on extraordinary vision.

Nā te tia te kōkō i mahiti, nā te tangata te kōkō kīhai i mahiti

The tui bird will be totally consumed by the slave, but not by the well-bred person

This whakataukī can be used to refer to the reserved nature of a wellbred person as opposed to the greed or lack of manners of a low born person. The qualities of a rangatira are well respected and it was considered good behaviour to leave a little food aside, either for a later time or for a possible visitation of manuhiri. The lowly born would scoff their food greedily with no thought about anything but their immediate appetite. The modern applications are obvious.

Ko heia te kōpaka whakarākau

A mighty frost has struck

This is more a colloquial saying than a proverb and refers to a very heavy frost. The word kōpaka itself is not that well known but is used in Kāi Tahu dialect. Below is an extract from the Green MS recording the Kāti Kurī Migration. It tells of one chief, Te Huataki, explaining the treasures to be found on the slopes of a mountain so that another chief, Tiotio, could claim it for his descendants

He kōkō, he kūkū he kākā me te tini o kā manu. Ka taka ki te makariri ka hui katoa kā manu ki reira ki tēnā mauka. Ka mōmona kā manu. Ka tūtaki kā kanōhi i te kako (te mōmona). Ka tae ki kā pō kōpaka, heoi, tā te takata he rūrū i te rama; i te awatea, i te pō ka tīkina kā rama ina ko reira ka kite te takata i te manu ka ruia ko horo ki te whenua, heoi, tā te takata he kohi ki roto ki te kete.

“Tui, pigeon, parakeet and all birds you could possibly imagine. When it descends to winter all the birds gather there at that mountain. They are fat birds and your eyes will be greeted with plump, ripe birds. When the frosty nights arrive then men bind their torches and at dawn and in the night, they will collect their torch. If a bird is seen, they will shake the tree and the birds will fall to the ground and be gathered into baskets.”

Heia is the passive form of hei. It means to hang or to drape as in a hei-tiki. Hei in this sense means it is a tiki hung around the neck. Hei in the sense of the frost means it is hanging like little icicles from a tree or a shrub. Whakarākau means to turn it hard like wood. So, if you remember the washing on the line and a big frost striking the clothes would be stiff as a board. That is what this refers to. A frost that is so great it turns everything hard like wood and causes icicles to form everywhere. It is a uniquely Kāi Tahu saying.

Kai raro i te tui o te kaka

Hidden under the fold of the mat

In the old times if a man was asked where he learned information, he would lift his mat, tap his heart and quote this proverb as if to say “Wouldn’t you like to know?” or “A little bird told me.” Kaka is a type of matting and is the stitching.

Kāi Tahu language today

It is important for schools to understand that Kāi Tahu have been on an extensive journey of revitalisation. The loss of our language was incremental. However, it crept up on us very quickly. In some hapū like that of Ōtākou, the intergenerational transmission came to a halt within one generation. Parents stopped speaking Māori to their children as they felt that te reo Māori would be a hindrance in their lives. In-fact Kāi Tahu, eventually lost all native speakers, with the passing of the last native speaker in December 2011, an elder from the Kāi Tahu village of Temuka.

Kāi Tahu have spent over 20 years running wānaka and working towards revitalising the language. In 2000, the Kāi Tahu Māori language strategy, Kotahi Mano Kāika, Kotahi Mano Wawata was launched, providing a number of resources, initiatives and events to support whānau members to restore te reo Māori as an intergenerational language of transmission in the home. (Kotahi Mano Kāika, Kotahi Mano Wawata means ‘One Thousand Homes, One Thousand Aspirations’.)

Kāi Tahu continue to provide support for our own whānau to learn te reo Māori. This support is primarily for those who whakapapa to Kāi Tahu. Kotahi Mano Kāika (KMK) is the vehicle by which Kāi Tahu whānau can reconnect to te reo o Kāi Tahu.

How can teachers support the iwi?

• Encourage Kāi Tahu whānau to enrol with their iwi, Kāi Tahu if they haven’t already.

• Encourage whānau to explore what te reo Māori development support is available and register their interest via the Kotahi Mano Kāika website, www.kmk.maori.nz

• Promote the use of the Kāi Tahu dialect, starting with the use of the “k” versus the “ng”

• Be careful with your sources. The Kāi Tahu language is not so unusual today that it cannot be understood by other iwi. If you are unsure you can ask the local Ministry of Education or Kotahi Mano Kāika.

• Encourage the use of Kāi Tahu kīwaha and whakataukī/ whakatauākī (proverbial sayings) in your classroom.

If you would like to learn more, you can access the Ngāi Tahu language initiative by clicking here.

 Place names

This is not a comprehensive list and this includes some of the main place names in the Dunedin area. There are not necessarily specific names for each school however there are names for particular land features that may be near your school and could be used. These names could be used for the names of classrooms or a translation of the school name

Schools and centres have the options of using traditional names but can also use names that have a literal translation eg. Big Rock Primary – Te Kura Tuatahi o te Tokanui.

SCHOOl NAMES MEANINGS/INTERPRETATION (if any)

For more information on Te Reo Māori, click the link below to be taken to our Te Reo Māori page:

Te Reo Māori