First Lessons in Maori

IX. Neuter Verbs

IX. Neuter Verbs.

§ 66.

There is a class of words which, for convenience, may be called participles. These are not regularly derived from verbs, as in European languages, but are of independent origin, though participial in meaning.

page 45

The most important of the participles are the following:—

ea, avenged, paid for.
hemo, consumed.
mahiti, spent, exhausted.
mahu, cicatrized.
mahue, left behind.
mākona, satisfied.
marara, scattered, separated.
marū, bruised, crushed.
matara, untied.
mau, fixed, caught.
mauru, quieted.
motu, severed, broken (as cord).
mutu, ended, cut short.
oti, finished, completed.
pā, struck.
pakaru, broken, shattered.
pau, consumed.
peto, consumed.
poro, cut short, truncated.
poto, all dealt with.
rato, provided, served.
riro, happened, obtained, gone.
rūpeke, all dealt with, completed, assembled.
takoki, sprained.
taui, sprained.
tū, wounded.
ū, established, fixed.
whara, struck.
whati, broken (as a stick).

These Participles are treated as neuter verbs, as also are adjectives, when they do not express the intrinsic or essential quality of a thing. It will be seen by the following example of the adjective ora, well, in health, that the notion of becoming, which is peculiarly characteristic of the inceptive, appears also in some of the other tenses.

The imperfect tense with e..ana is not used with participles, all of which imply a completed condition.

§ 67. The tenses of the Indicative are as follows:—

1. Imperfect.

E ora ana ahau, I am well.
Kahore ahau e ora ana, I am not well.

2. Perfect.

Kua ora ahau, I have become well.
Kahore ahau kia ora, I have not become well.

page 46

3. Past Indefinite.

I ora ahau, I was well, or became well.
Kihai ahau i ora, I was not well.

4. Future.

E ora ahau, I shall be (or become) well.
E kore ahau e ora, I shall not be (or become) well.

5. Inceptive.

Ka ora ahau, I became, or shall become well.
Ka kore ahau e ora, I became, or shall become not well.

For the Subjunctive refer to § 46.

§ 68.

Derivative Nouns are formed from adjectives and participles by adding as a suffix, -nga, or -tanga, to denote the circumstance, time, or place of the condition expressed. Compare § 58.

§ 69.

Construction with Adjectives and Participles. — Adjectives and Participles, and their derivative nouns are followed by the preposition i, by (not e, which belongs only to passive verbs), to denote the agency or instrumentality by which the effect has been or is to be produced.

Examples.

Kua ora ahau i tau rongoa, I have become well by means of your medicine.
Ka pau tana kai i te kuri, his food is consumed by the dog.
Tona mahuetanga i a ratou [the circumstance of] his being left by them.

§ 70. Explanatory Verb.

—Sometimes a verb in the infinitive mood is added to a participle, adjective, or verb by way of explanation. If the explanatory verb is active the preposition indicating the agent will be different according as the agent is placed after the participle, or after the verb. If after the participle, it will be i; if after the verb, it will be e.

page 47