Understanding the finer points of possession
In the last column, reference was made to the ‘‘world view’’ embedded in the structure of te reo Ma¯ ori – with reference to what are commonly termed ‘‘the a and o categories of possession or ownership’’.
In te reo, the single-letter word a has at least two main functions. One is as the personal article found in such a sentence as Ka haere/a Hata (‘‘Hata will go’’), where it has no English translation; the other use is as a preposition, where it will frequently be translated as ‘‘of’’, denoting ‘‘belonging to’’.
But in this latter function, there is an alternative word – o – which may be similarly translated.
The following sentences illustrate the use of the two words: te tama/a Hata (‘‘the son of Hata’’) and te whaea/o Hata (‘‘the mother of Hata’’). This distinction is an important feature in te reo.
In addition to a and o (where both mean ‘‘of’’), all words and word combinations which denote the concept of ‘‘belonging to’’, and are translated by what are called possessives or possessive pronouns in English (words such as ‘‘my’’, ‘‘mine’’, ‘‘our’’, ‘‘yours’’, ‘‘their’’ and several others), have two parallel forms in te reo. One form features the vowel a, and the other the vowel o.
In Let’s Learn Maori, Bruce Biggs describes the a-words as referring to ‘‘dominant possession’’ (where the owner has control over the possession, or is in a senior position), whilst the o-words denote ‘‘subordinate possession’’ (where the owner is in a subordinate position). Thus, in the sentences above, Hata is senior to his son but junior to his mother.
When, however, we come across such expressions as te wahine/a Hata (‘‘the wife of Hata’’) or ta¯ ku wahine (‘‘my wife’’), which would seem to place the husband in a dominant position, perhaps it should hastily be added that the same a-categorisation is used for te tane/a Mere (‘‘the husband of Mary’’) or ta¯ ku tane (‘‘my husband’’).
The word hoa (‘‘friend’’), however, is an o-category word – and some people prefer to call their spouse or partner to¯ ku hoa rangatira (‘‘my esteemed partner’’). Whichever expression is used, the gender balance remains constant!
It’s true that when the ‘‘owner’’ is only one person, it’s now common for so-called ‘‘neutral’’ forms to be used: taku, for instance (with a short vowel) may substitute for either ta¯ ku or to¯ ku.
More on this next time.
David Ka¯ rena-Holmes is a New Zealand-born writer currently living in Nelson. A tutor of grammar since the 1980s, his third book on the subject is Te Reo Ma¯ ori – the Basics Explained (Oratia Books, 2020). He is examining te reo grammar in a series of fortnightly articles.