Every year since 1975 New Zealand has marked Māori Language Week.
This is a time for all New Zealanders to celebrate te reo Māori (the Māori language) and to use more Māori phrases in everyday life.
In 2011 Māori Language Week is from 4–10 July, the theme is 'Manaakitanga – how we make people feel welcome when they are in our company, and how we give regard to and care for others when hosting visitors'
NZ History Online has done '100 Maori words every New Zealander should know' which includes an audio of each word - http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/tereo-100words,
THE 100 LIST
The marae
Hui a meeting of any kind, conference, gathering
Marae the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house or applied to a whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc.
Haere mai! Welcome! Enter!
Nau mai! Welcome!
Tangihanga funeral ceremonies, when body is mourned on a marae
Tangi short (verbal version) for the above (gerund) or to cry, to mourn
Karanga the ceremony of calling to the guests to welcome them to enter the marae
Manuhiri guests, visitors
Tangata whenua original people belonging to a place, local people, hosts
Whaikōrero the art and practise of speech making
Kaikōrero or kaiwhai kōrero speaker (there are many other terms)
Haka chant with dance for the purpose of challenge; (see other references to haka on this site)
Waiata song or chant which follows speech
Koha gift, present (usually money, can be food or precious items, given by guest to hosts)
Whare nui meeting house; in writing this is sometimes run together as one word wharenui
Whare whakairo carved meeting house
Whare kai dining hall
Whare paku lavatory, toilet
Whare horoi ablution block, bathroom
Concepts
Aroha compassion, tenderness, sustaining love
Ihi power, authority, essential force
Mana authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence
Manaakitanga respect for hosts or kindness to guests, to entertain, to look after
Mauri hidden essential life force or a symbol of this
Noa safe from tapu (see below), non-sacred, not tabooed
Raupatu confiscate, take by force
Rohe boundary, a territory (either geographical or spiritual) of an iwi or hapū
Taihoa to delay, to wait, to hold off to allow maturation of plans, etc.
Tapu sacred, not to be touched, to be avoided because sacred, taboo
Tiaki to care for, look after, guard (kaitiaki guardian, trustee)
Taonga treasured possessions or cultural items, anything precious
Tino rangatiratanga the highest possible independent chiefly authority, paramount authority, sometimes used for sovereignty
Tūrangawaewae a place to stand, a place to belong to, a seat or location of identity
Wehi to be held in awe
Whakapapa genealogy, to recite genealogy, to establish kin connections
Whenua land, homeland, country; also afterbirth, placenta
People and their groups
Ariki person of high inherited rank from senior lines of descent, male or female
Hapū clan, tribe, independent section of a people; modern usage sub-tribe; to be born
Iwi people, nation; modern usage tribe; bones
Kaumātua elder or elders, senior people in a kin group
Ngāi Tātou a way of referring to everyone present we all
Pākehā this word is not an insult; its derivation is obscure; it is the Māori word for people living in New Zealand of British/European origin; originally it would not have included, for example, Dalmatians, Italians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese, etc.
Rangatira person of chiefly rank, boss, owner
Tama son, young man, youth
Tamāhine daughter
Tamaiti one child
Tamariki children
Tāne man, husband, men, husbands
Teina/taina junior relative, younger brother of a brother, younger sister of a sister
Tipuna/tupuna ancestor
Tuahine sister of a man
Tuakana senior relative, older brother of a brother, older sister of a sister
Tungāne brother of a sister
Wahine woman, wife (wāhine women, wives)
Waka canoe, canoe group (all the iwi and hapū descended from the crew of a founding waka)
Whāngai fostered or adopted child, young person
Whānau extended or non-nuclear family
Whanaunga kin, relatives
Components of place names
Ordinary geographical features such as hills, rivers, cliffs, streams, mountains, the coast and adjectives describing them, such as small, big, little and long, are to be found in many place names. Here is a list so you can recognise them:
Au current
Awa river
Iti small, little
Kai one of the meanings of kai is food; in a place name it signifies a place where a particular food source was plentiful, e.g., Kaikōura, the place where crayfish (kōura) abounded and were eaten
Mānia plain
Manga stream
Maunga mountain
Moana sea, or large inland 'sea', e.g., Taupō
Motu island
Nui large, big
ō or o means 'of' (so does a, ā); many names begin with ō, meaning the place of so-and-so, e.g., ōkahukura, ōkiwi, ōhau, etc.
One sand, earth
Pae ridge, range
Papa flat
Poto short
Puke hill
Roa long
Roto lake; inside
Tai coast, tide
Wai water
Whanga harbour, bay
Greetings
E noho rā Goodbye (from a person leaving)
E haere rā Goodbye (from a person staying)
Haere mai Welcome!, Come!
Hei konā rā Goodbye (less formal)
Kia ora Hi!, G'day! (general informal greeting)
Mōrena (Good) morning!
Nau mai Welcome! Come!
Tēnā koe formal greeting to one person
Tēnā kōrua formal greeting to two people
Tēnā koutou formal greeting to many people
Tēnā tātou katoa formal inclusive greeting to everybody present, including oneself
Body parts
Arero tongue
Ihu nose
Kakī neck
Kauae, kauwae chin
Kōpū womb
Māhunga hair (when used for hair must always be used in plural, indicated by ngā [the, plural]), head
Manawa heart
Niho teeth
Poho chest (also called uma)
Puku belly, stomach
Raho testicles
Ringa hand, arm
Toto blood
Tou anus
Turi knee (also known as pona)
Tūtae excrement, ordure
ū breast (breast-milk is wai-ū)
Upoko head
Ure penis
Waewae foot, feet, leg, legs
A note on pronunciation
The following English equivalents are a rough guide to pronouncing vowels in Māori:
a as in far
e as in desk and the first 'e' in where; it should be short and sharp
i as in fee, me, see
o as in awe (not 'oh!')
u as in sue, boot
There are fewer consonants, and only a few are different from English:
r should not be rolled. It is pronounced quite close to the sound of 'l' in English. The tongue is near the front of the mouth.
t is pronounced more like 'd' than 't', with the tip of the tongue slightly further back from the teeth
wh counts as a consonant; the standard modern pronunciation is close to the 'f' sound; in some districts it is more like an 'h'; in others more like a 'w' without the 'h'; in others again more like the old aspirated English pronunciation of 'wh' (huence for whence)
ng counts as one consonant and is pronounced like the 'ng' in the word 'singer'. It is not pronounced like the 'ng' in 'finger', i.e., Whāngārei is pronounced Far-n(g)ah-ray (not Fong-gah-ray); Tauranga is pronounced Tow- (to rhyme with sew) rah-n(g)ah (not Tow-rang-gah).
The macron a little line above some vowels indicates vowel length. Some words that look the same have different meanings according to their vowel length. For example, anā means 'here is' or 'behold': Anā te tangata! (Here is the man!) But ana, with no macron, means a cave. Some writers of modern Māori double the vowel instead of using macrons when indicating a long vowel, so the first example would be Anaa te tangata!
'100 Maori words every New Zealander should know', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/tereo-100words
