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Kia ora e hoa mā! (Hello, my friends!) It's Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori language week) over here in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and I thought this would be a fun excuse to share some kupu (words) and whakahua (pronunciation) for anyone who'd like to incorporate te reo Māori (Māori language) into their RP! (Or impress your friends IRL with your mean as (cool) new language skills!) (That one's not te reo, just a fun bit of kiwi slang 
)
Te reo Māori is spoken more and more widely in Aotearoa by people of all ethnicities as we move towards becoming a fully bilingual country, and all of the examples given below are common knowledge words you'll see in everyday speech all over the country, so it's totally appropriate and accurate to include them in RP any time you like!
Kia ora - Hello/thank you (casual)
(eg; Kia ora, Ainsley!/Oh, kia ora for the present you sent for Christmas!)
Tēnā koe/kōrua/koutou- Hello/thank you (formal) (The suffix indicates how many people you're talking to. Koe means one person, kōrua means two people, and koutou means three or more people.)
(Eg; Tēnā koutou, students!/Tēnā koe Professor for making me Head Boy!)
Haere mai - Welcome
(eg; Haere mai to the first Wild Patch meeting of the year!)
Ka pai - Good/well done
(eg; Ka pai on catching the snitch!)
Kia kaha - Stay strong/keep going
(eg; Kia kaha to everyone studying for their NEWTs!)
Kai - Food
(eg; I'm starving, I hope there's still kai in the Great Hall!)
Mahi - Work
(eg; I hope you all put in plenty of mahi on last week's essay!)
Tautoko - Support
(eg; I made a big banner so we can tautoko Gryffindor in tomorrow's match!)
Aroha - Love
(eg; I'm sending a red rose for aroha this Valentines!)
Kōrero - Talk/conversation/speech
(eg; We need to kōrero about why you had detention last week./Wands away class, today I'm going to give a kōrero about the difference between a hex and a jinx.)
Ka kite anō au i a koe/kōrua/koutou - See you later (Usually shortened to ka kite or ka kite anō in casual speech) (Suffixes are the same as for tēnā depending on how many people you're talking to)
(eg; That was a great practice, ka kite!)
If you want to look up more kupu, Te Aka Māori Dictionary is a fantastic resource, and comes with pronunciation guides! Speaking of whakahua, here's a cool starter guide for how each letter and digraph is pronounced. (Wh may surprise you!) The youtube channel Ako Māori has great pronunciation guides and beginner kupu too!
You also may have noticed a lot of words are spelled with tohutō (macrons) - this is pretty important, as often two words pronounced slightly differently will have very different meanings. For example, kākā is a kind of bird, kakā means spicy, and kaka means clothing. It can go really wrong in some circumstances - tāra means dollar, but if you spell it without the tohutō, you get a word I definitely can't say on HNZ. If you find yourself in a position where you can't type a tohutō for some reason (account usernames for example) the rule is to double the vowel to show the difference in pronunciation. (For example, my character Rāwhiti Te Rangi has Raawhiti in his username instead.)
There's so much exciting stuff happening in the reo revival movement over here, this post is already getting way too long but there are original placenames being brought back into common use, mainstream kiriata (movies) and pukapuka (books) being translated into te reo Māori, and more and more tīwī (TV) is being presented bilingually. There's some pretty amazing puoro (music) being produced in te reo Māori these days too, if metal's your speed I'd recommend Alien Weaponry, if you prefer things more chill Maisey Rika may be up your alley, or if pop's your style Maimoa have some real bops.
Te reo Māori was almost wiped out entirely by European colonialism, and it's amazing seeing a taonga (treasure - though this word has a lot of cultural and legal significance that doesn't translate into English, the link provides a lot more context) being brought back to life. Turanga Edmonds put it best, I think -
I'm still learning myself, so I'd love it if anyone else has any favourite kupu or waiata (songs) or other resources they want to share, let's kōrero and tautoko each other's reo learning journeys! Aroha to everyone and happy wiki o te reo Māori!
Kia kaha te reo Māori!
)Te reo Māori is spoken more and more widely in Aotearoa by people of all ethnicities as we move towards becoming a fully bilingual country, and all of the examples given below are common knowledge words you'll see in everyday speech all over the country, so it's totally appropriate and accurate to include them in RP any time you like!
Kia ora - Hello/thank you (casual)
(eg; Kia ora, Ainsley!/Oh, kia ora for the present you sent for Christmas!)
Tēnā koe/kōrua/koutou- Hello/thank you (formal) (The suffix indicates how many people you're talking to. Koe means one person, kōrua means two people, and koutou means three or more people.)
(Eg; Tēnā koutou, students!/Tēnā koe Professor for making me Head Boy!)
Haere mai - Welcome
(eg; Haere mai to the first Wild Patch meeting of the year!)
Ka pai - Good/well done
(eg; Ka pai on catching the snitch!)
Kia kaha - Stay strong/keep going
(eg; Kia kaha to everyone studying for their NEWTs!)
Kai - Food
(eg; I'm starving, I hope there's still kai in the Great Hall!)
Mahi - Work
(eg; I hope you all put in plenty of mahi on last week's essay!)
Tautoko - Support
(eg; I made a big banner so we can tautoko Gryffindor in tomorrow's match!)
Aroha - Love
(eg; I'm sending a red rose for aroha this Valentines!)
Kōrero - Talk/conversation/speech
(eg; We need to kōrero about why you had detention last week./Wands away class, today I'm going to give a kōrero about the difference between a hex and a jinx.)
Ka kite anō au i a koe/kōrua/koutou - See you later (Usually shortened to ka kite or ka kite anō in casual speech) (Suffixes are the same as for tēnā depending on how many people you're talking to)
(eg; That was a great practice, ka kite!)
If you want to look up more kupu, Te Aka Māori Dictionary is a fantastic resource, and comes with pronunciation guides! Speaking of whakahua, here's a cool starter guide for how each letter and digraph is pronounced. (Wh may surprise you!) The youtube channel Ako Māori has great pronunciation guides and beginner kupu too!
You also may have noticed a lot of words are spelled with tohutō (macrons) - this is pretty important, as often two words pronounced slightly differently will have very different meanings. For example, kākā is a kind of bird, kakā means spicy, and kaka means clothing. It can go really wrong in some circumstances - tāra means dollar, but if you spell it without the tohutō, you get a word I definitely can't say on HNZ. If you find yourself in a position where you can't type a tohutō for some reason (account usernames for example) the rule is to double the vowel to show the difference in pronunciation. (For example, my character Rāwhiti Te Rangi has Raawhiti in his username instead.)
There's so much exciting stuff happening in the reo revival movement over here, this post is already getting way too long but there are original placenames being brought back into common use, mainstream kiriata (movies) and pukapuka (books) being translated into te reo Māori, and more and more tīwī (TV) is being presented bilingually. There's some pretty amazing puoro (music) being produced in te reo Māori these days too, if metal's your speed I'd recommend Alien Weaponry, if you prefer things more chill Maisey Rika may be up your alley, or if pop's your style Maimoa have some real bops.
Te reo Māori was almost wiped out entirely by European colonialism, and it's amazing seeing a taonga (treasure - though this word has a lot of cultural and legal significance that doesn't translate into English, the link provides a lot more context) being brought back to life. Turanga Edmonds put it best, I think -
I'm still learning myself, so I'd love it if anyone else has any favourite kupu or waiata (songs) or other resources they want to share, let's kōrero and tautoko each other's reo learning journeys! Aroha to everyone and happy wiki o te reo Māori!
Kia kaha te reo Māori!
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I'm glad there's a system in place for getting the correct pronunciation!