§ 2. Note

Previous Section | Table of Contents | Up | Next Section

§ 2. Note.

—The Maori alphabet is very restricted. It will be noticed that the voiced consonants b, d, g, are wanting, also the voiced and voiceless pairs, v, f, and z, s,

6

and the liquid, l. The only consonants are the voiceless p, t, k, the voiced and voiceless pair, w, wh, the three nasals, m, n, ng, the liquid r and the aspirate h. These ten consonants with the five vowels permit the formation of fifty-five open syllables, but four of these, wo, wu, who, whu, do not occur in any genuine Maori word, leaving only fifty-one possible syllables in the language.

Previous Section | Table of Contents | Up | Next Section

About this page...

Title: First Lessons in Maori

Author: W. L. Williams

Publication details: Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1930

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

This text is the subject of: Victoria University of Wellington Library Catalogue

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence