Māori or te reo Māori (pronounced [ˈmaːɔɾi, tɛ ˈɾɛɔ ˈmaːɔɾi]), commonly te reo ("the language"), is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand. Linguists classify it within the Eastern Polynesian languages as being closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of W...
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Māori or te reo Māori (pronounced [ˈmaːɔɾi, tɛ ˈɾɛɔ ˈmaːɔɾi]), commonly te reo ("the language"), is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand. Linguists classify it within the Eastern Polynesian languages as being closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of Western Polynesia, including Samoan, Tokelauan, Niuean and Tongan. According to the Maori Language Commission, the number of fluent adult speakers fell to about 10,000 in 1995.
New Zealand has three official languages – Māori, English and New Zealand Sign Language Māori gained this status with the passing of the Māori Language Act in 1987. Most government departments and agencies have bilingual names; for example, the Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua, and places such as local government offices and public libraries display...
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