PART I.

PART I. I. ON READING 3 II. NOUNS AND PERSONAL PRONOUNS 5 III. DEFINITIVES 12 IV. ADJECTIVES 18 V. NUMERALS 20 VI. SENTENCES WITHOUT VERBS 23 VII. VERBS 30 VIII. ADJECTIVES AND PARTICIPLES 40 IX. RELATIVE CLAUSES 44 X. ADVERBS 48 XI. PREPOSITIONS 49 XII. HAVE, HAD &c. 52

PART II. VOCABULARY 54

PART I.

I. ON READING.

§ 1. THE ALPHABET consists of the following fifteen letters:

FORM. NAME. SOUND.

A a a f_a_ther E e e s_e_nd H h ha I i i h_i_t K k ka M m ma N n na Ng ng nga si_ng_ing O o o _o_bey, without the _w_ sound P p pa generally connected with R r ra it in English. T t ta U u u b_oo_t W w wa Wh wh wha

§ 2. PRONUNCIATION. Those letters which have not the pronunciation marked in the above table may be pronounced as in English: _t_ and _r_, however are articulated farther forward in the mouth in Maori than they are in English; and _wh_ is not, as it is written, a letter compounded of _w_ and _h_, but a simple consonant, the effect of breath emitted smartly between the lips; the same sound, in short, as is made in blowing from the mouth.

_Ng_, as used in Maori to begin a syllable, is found difficult by some people; but the difficulty may soon be overcome by bearing in mind that the position of the organs of speech is the same for this letter as for _g_ and _k_, to which it stands in the same relation that _m_ does to _b_ and _p_, and _n_ to _d_ and _t_. Pronounce the three letters successively with the Maori vowel _a_, thus; _ka_, _ga_, _nga_, and practise this till the letter is mastered.

The vowels have each but one sound, though they may all vary in length in different words. When two stand together in a word, the first of the two is generally pronounced more strongly than the other. The doubling of a vowel amounts simply to a lengthening of it.

The consonants always stand singly, and every syllable ends with a vowel.

§ 3. CAUTION. Be careful always to give each vowel its own sound, and so to avoid confusion between _ae_ and _ai_, as in the words waewae and wai; between _ao_ and _au_, as in the words tao and tau; between _ou_ and _u_, as in the words koutou and mutu.