Ko te wiki o te reo Māori. It’s Māori Language Week and in the interests of keeping with the kaupapa and adding a bit of te reo to the library blog I thought I’d clue you up on some new and not-so-new but interesting te reo resources.
Launched this week is the first completely te reo online dictionary Pataka Kupu (meaning “word storehouse”). This internet tool has been produced by Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Māori, The Māori Language Commission. It is the first of it’s kind in Aotearoa and is leading the way in terms of indigenous language tools online internationally. For those of you with not quite enough te reo skill to wade into the “English free zone” you might want to check out the very user-friendly Ngata-base dictionary.
Other online te reo news comes in the form of Google Māori. Eagle-eyed Google.co.nz users may have noticed the addition of “Google.co.nz offered in : Maori” below the usual search box. If you click through here you’ll find it’s the same Google but different as all the text and searching options are in te reo. So if you’ve ever wondered what the Māori for “I’m feeling lucky” was this is the perfect way to find out. Google Māori works and looks exactly like Google “ordinary” so if you’re familar with the ubiquitous searching tool (and who isn’t?) you’ll be able to use Google Māori irrespective of your level of te reo experience or expertise.
And I’d just like to plug my own personal little favourite gem of a te reo resource for Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. It’s Nga waiata aroha a Hekepia = Love sonnets by Shakespeare and I’m kicking myself for having forgotten about this when we were selecting verses for the Poet Tree. Anyway, it’s Shakespeare, folks, but not as we know it as various sonnets get the te reo Māori treatment, for example -
Na hoki rātou ka tangi mo nga āhua ra,
Tā te kupu iā koia anō te humārie.
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so.
Each sonnet is given in English and Māori so it might not not be “every tongue” but you’ll have the two main Kiwi ones covered!
