Māori language

Māori language, a language in the Eastern Polynesian subgroup of the Eastern Austronesian (Oceanic) languages that is spoken in New Zealand and the Cook Islands. It is the language of the indigenous Māori people. The Māori Language Act of 1987 made it one of New Zealand’s official languages. According to 2018 New Zealand census data, more than 185,000 people are speakers of Māori. Other government data, dating to 2021, indicate that 30 percent of New Zealand’s population can speak more than a few Māori words or phrases.

As one of the marginal eastern Polynesian islands, New Zealand was one of the last of the Polynesian islands to be settled (about 800 ce). Since that time the Māori language (te reo Māori) has developed independently of other Polynesian languages. European Christian missionaries developed Māori as a written language, and the first printed material in the Māori language was published in 1815.

The language contains five vowels (each of which can be either short or long) and 10 consonants (h, k, m, n, ng, p, r, t, w, and wh). Reduplication is frequently used, generally as a modification of intensity. Prefixes and suffixes are relatively rare, and the plurality of nouns and verb tenses is usually indicated by the syntax of a statement.