Cook Islands Maori
| Cook Islands Māori | |
|---|---|
| Māori, Māori Kuki Airani | |
| Native to | Cook Islands, New Zealand |
| Region | Polynesia |
| Ethnicity | Cook Island Māori |
|
Native speakers
|
14,000 in Cook Islands (2011 census) 7,725 in New Zealand (2013) |
|
Austronesian
|
|
| Official status | |
|
Official language in
|
Cook Islands |
| Regulated by | Kopapa Reo |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: rar – Rarotonga pnh – Tongareva (Penrhyn) rkh – Rakahanga-Manihiki |
| Glottolog |
raro1241 (Rarotongan)penr1237 (Penrhyn)raka1237 (Rakahanga-Manihiki)
|
Cook Islands Māori is an East Polynesian language. It is the official language of the Cook Islands and is an indigenous language of the Realm of New Zealand. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori but is a distinct language. Cook Islands Māori is simply called Māori when there is no need to disambiguate it from New Zealand Māori, but it is also known as Māori Kuki Airani, or, controversially, Rarotongan. Many Cook Islanders also call it Te reo Ipukarea, literally "the language of the Ancestral Homeland".
Cook Islands Māori became an official language of the Cook Islands in 2003, but has no official status in New Zealand, despite the fact that New Zealand is signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Te Reo Maori Act states that Māori:
Pukapukan is considered by scholars and speakers alike to be a distinct language more closely related to Sāmoan and Tokelauan than Cook Islands Māori. It belongs to the Samoic subgroup of the Polynesian language family. The intention behind including Pukapukan in the definition of Te Reo Maori was to ensure its protection.
The dialects of the East Polynesian varieties of the Cook Islands (collectively referred to as Cook Islands Māori) are:
Cook Islands Māori is closely related to Tahitian and New Zealand Māori, and there is a degree of mutual intelligibility with both of these languages.
The language is theoretically regulated by the Kopapa Reo created in 2003, but this organisation is currently dormant.
There is a debate about the standardisation of the writing system. Although the usage of the macron (־) te makarona and the glottal stop amata (ꞌ) (/ʔ/) is recommended, most speakers do not use the two diacritics in everyday writing. The Cook Islands Māori Revised New Testament uses a standardised orthography (spelling system) that includes the diacritics when they are phonemic but not elsewhere.
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Wikipedia