Māori | |
---|---|
Te Reo | |
Native to | New Zealand |
Region | Polynesia |
Ethnicity | Māori people |
Native speakers
|
60,000 (2009) 150,000 conversant (2013 census) |
Latin (Māori alphabet) Māori Braille |
|
Official status | |
Official language in
|
New Zealand |
Regulated by | Māori Language Commission |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | mi |
ISO 639-2 |
(B) (T)
|
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | maor1246 |
Linguasphere | 39-CAQ-a |
Māori or Maori (/ˈmaʊəri/; Māori pronunciation: i[ˈmaːɔɾi]) is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of New Zealand. Since 1987, it has been one of New Zealand's official languages. It is closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Tahitian.
According to a 2001 survey on the health of the Māori language, the number of very fluent adult speakers was about 9% of the Māori population, or 30,000 adults. A national census undertaken in 2006 says that about 4% of the New Zealand population, or 23.7% of the Māori population, could hold a conversation in Māori about everyday things.
The English word comes from the Māori language, where it is spelled "Māori". In New Zealand, the Māori language is commonly referred to as Te Reo [tɛ ˈɾɛ.ɔ] "the language", short for te reo Māori.