OF THE ARTICLE.
§ 1. The articles in Maori are as follows:--
(a.) The definite article _te_ and its plural _nga_; e. g.
_te_ tangata, _the man_.
_nga_ tangata, _the men_.
(b.) The indefinite articles _he_, _tetahi_, and its plural _etahi_;
e. g.
_Sing._ _he_ maripi, _a knife_.
_Plur._ _he_ maripi ena? _are those knives_?
_te tahi_ maripi, _a knife_.
_e tahi_ maripi, _knives_.
(c.) The arthritic particles _a_ and _ko_; e. g.
a Hone, _John_.
ko koe, _you_.
§ 2. _Te_ is not so uniformly definite as the English _the_; being
sometimes used;
(a.) Where no article would be employed in English, i. e., in cases
where the noun is taken in its widest sense; e. g.
I ma _te_ kaipuke, _went by ship_.
He kino _te_ tutu, _disobedience is sinful_.
Ko _te_ rangi me _te_ wenua e pahemo, _Heaven and earth shall pass
away_.
(b.) Sometimes it is employed instead of the English _a_; e. g.
He mea kaha _te_ hoiho, _a horse is a strong thing_.
E kore _te_ tangata tika e wehi i _te_ mate, _a virtuous man fears
not death_.
(c.) Sometimes it is used instead of the pronoun _some_; e. g.
Kei tahaetia e _te_ tangata, _lest it should be stolen by some
person_; na _te_ tangata noa atu, _by some person or other_.
(d.) It is employed for many other purposes which the English
_the_ does not recognize. We shall only mention the following;
_Te_ tini o te kaipuke, _How many ships there are_!
NOTE.--It has been asserted that _te_ is sometimes used in the plural
number, as in the preceding example, "_te_ kaipuke," and in the
following; _te_ tini o te tangata, _many men_; ka reka _te_ pititi,
_peaches are sweet_.
We are more inclined to think that we have, in these examples, the
operation of a figure of frequent occurrence in Maori, viz.,
synecdoche, and that one of a class is made to represent a whole class.
Expressions of this kind are common in English, without involving the
plural number of the article; e. g., _the fruit of the tree_, _a
great many_, _a few men_, _&c._ Bishop Lowth's remarks on these
instances are quite to the point.
"The reason of it, he says, is manifest from the effect which the
article has in these phrases; it means a small or great number,
collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a whole, that is,
of unity. Thus likewise, _a hundred_, _a thousand_ is one whole
number, an aggregate of many collectively taken; and therefore still
retains the article _a_, though joined as an adjective to a plural
substantive; as, _a hundred years_."
(e.) Lastly, _te_ is sometimes employed before proper names; e. g.
_Te Puriri_, _Te Uira_
NOTE 1.--To define the rule by which the article is prefixed or
omitted before proper names is a work of some difficulty, usage
being very irregular.
NOTE 2.--Sometimes _te_ is blended with _o_ into one word; as in the
following example: ki _to_ Hone ware, to the house of John, instead
of ki _te_ whare _o_ Hone.
NOTE 3.--The student should be careful, in speaking, to distinguish
between the article _te_, and the negative particle _te_. The latter
should always be pronounced more distinctly and forcibly than the
article.
§ 3. _Nga_ may with strict propriety be called the plural of the
definite article. There are a few exceptions, or rather slight
variations, which we do not think it necessary to mention.
§ 4. _He_ varies in some respects in its uses from the English _a_.
(a.) It is used sometimes where no article would be employed in
English; e. g.
A, ho atu ana e ratou _he_ moni ki a ia, _and they gave him money_.
(b.) It is occasionally used in the same sense as _some_ in English,
e. g.,
kawea he wai, _fetch some water_.
(c.) It is used in the plural number, e. g.
He uwha kau aku poaka, _my pigs are all females_.
_He_ tini oku kainga, _my farms are many_.
§ 5. A great many uses of the indefinite article are shared by _he_
with _te tahi_. We shall mention here a few of them.
Ho mai _te tahi_ maripi, _give me a knife_.
Tahuna mai _te tahi_ rama, _kindle a light_.
N.B.--_Te tahi_ exactly corresponds with the definition given by
Bishop Lowth of the English article _a_. "It determines it (the thing
spoken of) to be one single thing of the kind, leaving it still
uncertain which." A similar use of the numeral _one_ we find in
French, sometimes in Hebrew, and more than once in the New Testament;
(vid. Mat. xxi. 19, and Mark xiv. 51.)
We need not look abroad for parallel instances; our indefinite
article _an_ being, as every etymologist is aware, the Saxon article,
which signifies _one_.
(b.) _Etahi_ may be considered as corresponding to the partitive
article _des_ of the French. It determines the things spoken of to be
any number of things of the kind, leaving it uncertain how many, or
which, of the things they are. It closely resembles the adjective
_some_ of English, and we enumerate it here among the articles because
it only differs from _te tahi_ (which is clearly an article) in being
its plural; e. g.
Maku e tahi ika, _give me some fish_.
§ 6. _A_[4] is a regular attendant on the personal pronouns; e. g.
a koe, _you_; ki a ia, _to him_.
(b.) It is also the article by which the names of individuals and
tribes are always preceded; e. g.
a Hone, kei _a_ Hone _with John_; i _a_ Ngapuhi.
NOTE 1.--When the particle _ko_ is prefixed to either the proper
name, or the pronoun, _a_ is omitted; e. g.
_ko_ Hone, _ko_ ia.
(2) It is also omitted after the prepositions _e_, _ma_, _mo_, _no_,
_na_, _o_, _a_. The prepositions with which it is retained are _i_,
_ki_, _kei_, and their compounds--i runga i, &c.; e. g.
i runga i a Hone, _above John_.
NOTE 2.--Europeans who have not made the language a study, often very
incorrectly substitute _e_ for _a_ before a proper name; e. g., they
will say, _kei hea e_ te Waru, where is _te Waru_, and again kua tae
mai _e Nanaia_, _Nanaia has arrived_. _E_, as we shall show hereafter,
is the sign of the vocative case. A is omitted before such words as
the following, kei nga _Pakeha_, kei nga _Maori_, &c.
NOTE 3.--_A_ is sometimes in Waikato prefixed to appellatives; e. g.
ki _a_ tuahangata, _a_ papa, _a_ kara.
(c.) A is also prefixed to the _names of places_, and to _prepositions_,
and _adverbs_ which have assumed the form of substantives, when in the
nominative case; e. g.
Kua horo _a_ Pukerangiora, _Pukerangiora_ (the fort) _has been
stormed_. Kua tukua atu e ahau _a_ Whangarei mo Hone, I _have
given Whangarei to John_. Kua kainga _a_ runga o nga puka nei,
_the tops of the cabbage have been eaten off_.
A hea? _what place?_ A Rangitoto.
NOTE.--Sometimes _a_ is prefixed to the name of the place when the
people of the place, and not the place itself, are intended; e. g. ka
mate i a Waikato, _will be killed by Waikato_.
Some speakers are often guilty of solecisms from not remembering that
_a_ is not prefixed to any of the _oblique_ cases of the names of
places. Thus we heard some old residents in the land say, Haere ki
_a_ Pokuru, _Go to Pokuru_. Haere ki _a_ Waitemata, _Go to
Waitemata_. According to this form _Pokuru_, and _Waitemata_ are not
places, but persons.
(d.) A is always prefixed to any _inanimate thing_ to which a name has
been given; i. e. to _trees_, _canoes_, _ships_, _boats_, _meres_,[5]
_guns_, &c.; e. g.
Kei te tua i _a_ Ruhaia, _he is cutting down (the tree) Ruhaia_. E
waihape ana a Karapaina, _Columbine is tacking_. Mo to tahaetanga
i a Pahikoura, _for your having stolen (the mere[5]) Pahikoura_.
I toa ai a Hongi i whakawirinaki ia ki tana pu ki _a_ Tanumia,
_Hongi was brave because he trusted in his gun Tanumia_.
NOTE.--Stars also come under the operation of this rule, e. g.
Ko wai tena whetu i runga i _a_ Tawera, _what star is that above
Tawera_?[6]
Kua ara _a_ Matariki,[7] _Matariki has made his appearance_.
Houses, Caves, and such like, are regulated by rule (c), e. g.
Heoi ano nga tangata _kei_ a Puru o Waikato, _all the people have
mustered off to Puruowaikato--Wherowhero's house on the Waikato
river_.
If the above rules be correct--and we are persuaded that the candid
inquirer will assent to them, the following remarks may, perhaps, be
worthy the consideration of our Missionary brethren.
1st. We think that we are distinctly warranted by the analogy of the
language to treat the books of the Old and New Testaments as proper
names, and prefix _a_ to them; as in the following examples, kei a
Kenehi, kei a Roma. Such portions however, as the Psalms, the Law,
the Acts, the Revelations, &c., might, we think, be most safely
considered as appellatives. Such an usage has obtained in English,
and will not, we believe, be thought a novelty in Maori, by any one
who attends to such sentences as the following:
Kowai hei whakahua i ta tatou whangai hau?
I a wai? i _a_ Tu.
Ko hea te haua mai na? ko Puhimatarenga, &c.
2. The following sentences are incorrect:
E haere mai _ana te Mihaia_.
Kua mate te Karaiti.
N.B.--The speaker should distinguish between the article, and the
preposition _a_; as in the following sentence:
Ekore ahau e kai i _a_ nga taurekareka, _I will not eat (the
food) of the slaves_.
The preposition _a_ in these elliptical sentences should always be
pronounced peculiarly strong.
He should also note the following;
kiă mea (with _short a_) is, "_to do_."
ki ā mea (with _long a_) is, _to such an one_, _to our friend_,
or in common parlance, (give it) _to what do ye call him_.
[4] Some perhaps may object to our regarding _a_ as an article, and
may remind us of the definition that an article is "a word prefixed to
substantives to point them out, and show how far their signification
extends." This however is to make rules precede investigation, and our
reply is, that if Bishop Lowth, from whom this definition is derived,
had been writing on the Greek article, he would, most probably, have
never given such a definition. Every scholar is aware of the disputes
that have been agitated among the learned respecting the uses of this
article, and that some have even maintained "that its use is guided by
no rule at all." The fact is, every language has its peculiarities,
and it would be absurd to maintain that because any given part of
speech has certain powers in one language, it must have the same in
another.
We denominate this article _arthritic_, because it is, as the Greeks
would say, an _arthron_, a _limb_ of the word to which it is prefixed,
though it in no way defines the extent of its signification; unless
perhaps we consider that, by its denoting the word to be either a
pronoun, a proper name, &c., it thus, in a certain measure, restricts
its application, and thus accords with the definition which some
writers would give of the article; viz., "an index to the noun."
[5] The mere is a native weapon for war made of the axe stone. It is
an article of great value, and descends from father as an _oha_, an
heirloom in the tribe.
[6] Tawera is the morning star.
[7] This star makes his appearance about the month of June, in the
first month of the New Zealander, and creates an important epoch in
his agricultural operations.