Dialectual Differences in the Maori Language

General Rules
Consonants
Kai Tahu ‘ng’ = ’k’ (e.g E rua ka karu instead of E rua nga ngaru)
Tuhoe‘ng’ = ’n’ (e.g Na tanata instead of Nga tangata)
Waikato prefer ‘wh’ to ‘h’ (e.g kowhete instead of kohete)
Northland prefer ‘h’ to ‘wh’ (Some pronounce ‘wh’ as "h" or "hw")
Taranaki do not pronounce ‘h’, rather they use a catch in the throat ( a glottal stop)
 
Vowels
East Coast prefer ‘i’ over ’u’(tipuna over tupuna)
prefer ‘a’ over ‘e’ (taina over teina)
prefer ‘-au’ over ‘-ou’ (maatau over maatou)
 
Northland/ West Coast prefer ‘u’ over ‘i’
prefer ‘e’ over ‘a’
prefer ‘-ou’ over ‘-au’
 
Some Exceptions: Te Aupouri taimaha over taumaha (heavy)
tipa over tupa (schallop)
Waikato toimaha over taumaha
Tuhoe unu = inu (drink)
 
Passive Endings
East Coast prefer ‘-a’ and ‘-ia’
Northland prefer ‘-ngia’ and ‘-tia’ and add ‘-ngia’ if they cannot remember ending.
 
Sentence Structures
East Coast prefer kei te…. / kai te…. For present continuous tense (e.g Kai te haere ia = He is going)
prefer I te…. For past continuous tense (e.g I te haere ia = He was going)
Northland/ West Coast prefer e….ana For past or present continuous tense (e.g E haere ana ia = He is / was going)
 
Some of Northland use Ko te…. For future tense (e.g Ko te haere koe ki hea aapoopoo? = Where are you going tomorrow?)
Te Arawa use Kua…. For future tense
 
Tuhoe use Kua…. ana / Ka ….ana for while rather than kei…. ana
 
Some of Taranaki use e….ai for non-past habitual actions rather than just ….ai
Some of Northland use e…ana for non-past habitual
 
Grammar
East Coast particle for future position is ‘hei’
Northland‘ko’
Other Dialects‘kei’ (uncommon)
 
Northland Kiihai i…./ Kiihei i …. Is used for negative past tense (e.g Kiihai ia I haere = He did not go)
Other Dialects Kaaore/ Kaare/ Kaahore replace Kiihai/ Kiihei
 
Some of Northland use the particle ‘tee’ which is placed before a verb to create a negative (e.g He aha koe tee wawahi he wahie maa taatou? = Why did you not cut some firewood for us?)
  Variances in common words and particles
-nei = - nekei, konei = koneki, teenei = teeneki etc.
-na = -naka
-raka = -ra
 
Waikato often
change peenei, peenaa, peeraa = wheenei, wheenaa, wheeraa
add‘ ng’ to some plurals e.g eenei = ngeenei, aana = ngaana
teetahi = teetehi
eetahi = ngeetehi
 
Te Arawa
teetahi = teetehi
eetahi = eetehi
 
Northland often
add ‘w’ to pluralse.g eetahi = weetahi, eenei = weenei
(especially when they follow ‘u’ or ‘o’)
taaua = taao, maaua = maao, raaua = raao (i.e Do not pronounce)
koorua = kourua
Use ‘Hore kau’ (and Kaahore) instead of ‘Kaaore’
kore = hore
piirangi = hiahia
 
East Coast often
add ‘h’ to possessivese.g taaku = tahaku, maana = mahana
Kaaore = Kaare
hei, kei = hai, kai (stated in General Rules)
koutou = kootou
hiahia = piirangi