Title: First Lessons in Maori

Author: W. L. Williams

Publication details: Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1930, Auckland

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

This text is the subject of: Victoria University of Wellington Library Catalogue

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

Share:

§ 2. Note.

—The Maori alphabet is very restricted. It will be noticed that the voiced consonants b, d, g, are wanting, also the voiced and voiceless pairs, v, f, and z, s, page 6 and the liquid, l. The only consonants are the voiceless p, t, k, the voiced and voiceless pair, w, wh, the three nasals, m, n, ng, the liquid r and the aspirate h. These ten consonants with the five vowels permit the formation of fifty-five open syllables, but four of these, wo, wu, who, whu, do not occur in any genuine Maori word, leaving only fifty-one possible syllables in the language.