Maori | Conversations & Names

Our session's focus with Whaea Odie was understanding what letters and phonics are changed, and what they are changed to in order to write names in Maori properly. Another focus was to translate everyday conversations into english.

The first part of our task was to look at the list of names in Maori and the english translations of those names. The english names were not in the right place, so the Maori names and the english names were incorrect. We applied our knowledge of Maori letters and phonics to translate the names correctly without using the Maori Dictionary. 

Some of the letters that are changed when writing in Maori are J (which is changed to an H), D (which is changed to an a T), D and L (which is changed to an R) and V (Which is changed to a W). To translate a name like June in Maori, we looked at the letters and changed the J to an H. Therefore, June in Maori is Hune.

The second part of our task was to translate everday phrases into english. There were phrases such as 'Tena kotou katoa' and 'Kia ora e hoa'. We used the Maori dictionary to translate these phrases.

I really enjoyed learning about the what letters and phonics are changed to in order to write in Maori. I enjoyed this experience and worked hard to expand my Maori vocabulary. One thing I think I could work on is my Maori pronunciation.

LI: to understand the Maori letters and phonics to translate everday phrases and names.