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Māori language
| Māori | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Māori | ||||
| Native to | New Zealand | |||
| Region | Polynesia | |||
| Ethnicity | Māori people | |||
| Native speakers | (60,000 cited 1991) 157,000 New Zealand residents claim they can converse in Māori about everyday things (2006 census)[1] | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Writing system | 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 | mao (B) mri (T) | |||
| ISO 639-3 | mri | |||
| ||||
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Māori language edition. |
The Māori language (Māori: Te Reo Māori, shortened to Te Reo) is the language of the Māori and an official language of New Zealand. It is an Austronesian language.
Although it's an official language, not many people speak it fluently. In the 2013 census, about 149,000 people, (3.7% of the population) said that they could have a conversation in Māori about a lot of everyday things.
The language can be seen everywhere throughout New Zealand, as many of the placenames are Māori, such as Whangarei, Rotorua, and Timaru. Lots of government or city buildings use te reo on their signs as well as English, and most of the public schools have a Māori name as well as an English one.[2][3]
Te Reo Māori did not have a writing system until the Europeans arrived. In 1817, a Ngāpuhi chief, Tītori, and his relative Tui worked with Professor Samuel Lee and prepared a writing system for te reo.
