Interesting facts about Māori grammar

In the previous post, I have told the story of my never ending struggle to learn a Polynesian language and why after more then 2 years, I have finally made my decision and stopped on Māori.

Here is something that I find captivating about it.

First of all, there are only fifteen letters in the alphabet! Fifteen! Ten consonants and five vowels, which can be both long and short. Anyway, there

Except singular and plural, Māori language has also a dual number, which refers to the quantity of two, as it is easy to guess. For example, if you want to greet someone, there are three ways to do it depending on the amount of people. If you refer to one person, it is Tēnā koe; to two people – Tēnā kōrua, and to three and more – Tēnā koutou. This is something, what I met for the first time in the language. Additionally, the informal way to say “Hi” is Kia ora, which so reminds me Spanish “¿Que hora es?”.

Additionaly to that, the totally new grammar specifics is hidden in the personal pronouns. The first person, singular, dual and plural, can be inclusive or exclusive of the listener. What does it mean? Imagine, there are 4 people chatting, and you want to say “we” meaning “we all 4 people”, you use inclusive tātou. If you tell of the people that “we” meaning “three of us, but without you”, you use exclusive mātou! This is one of the most exciting features of the languages that I have ever seen in any languages that I have learned.

Let’s see, what will come next 🙂 Ka kite anō!