Learning Māori Through Reading

I've been reading about language learning via the natural approach, and decided to try writing some simple examples to help learn basic concepts.

An image of a forest scene with birds and rats surround a book spread open with writing in it.

I've been reading about language learning via the natural approach, and decided to try writing some simple examples to help learn basic concepts.

The idea behind the natural approach is to have simple content that is entirely in the target language, but at a level that is just above the level of the reader. Grammar is not explicitly explained, but rather demonstrated through immersion in the content. My first attempt is below, comments welcome.

The images in this post were created with the assistance of AI, interacting with DALL-E 2 to iterate towards a suitable image.

ko ngā manu me te kiore

A cartoon-ish picture of a kererū on a branch.

Kaiako: He manu te kererū. He aha te kererū?

Tauira: He manu.

A cartoonish picture of a tīrairaka sitting on a branch.

Kaiako: He manu te tīrairaka?

Tauira: Āe, he manu.

A cartoonish picture of a kiore.

Kaiako: He manu te kererū me te tīrairaka. He aha te kiore?

Tauira: He kararehe.

Kaiako: He manu te kiore?

Tauira: Kāo, he kararehe te kiore.

A cartoonish picture of a small tīrairaka on the left with a large kererū next to it on the right.

Kaiako: He manu nui te kererū. He manu nui te tīrairaka?

Tauira: Kāo, he manu iti.

Kaiako: He nui ake te kēreru i te tīrairaka?

Tauira: Aē, he nui ake.

Kaiako: He nui ake te tīrairaka i te kererū?

Tauira: Kāo, he iti ake te tīrairaka i te kererū.

Commentary

The reading exercise starts with how to describe what something is. In this case, a kererū, a tīrairaka and a kiore. The grammar for the structure breaks down this way:

Māori English
he <what it is> <object> The <object> is a <what it is>
he manu te kērerū The kererū is a bird.

To ask the question, "what is X", we use the question word "aha":

Māori English
he aha <object>? The <object> is a what?
he aha te kērerū? What is the kererū?

The answer repeats the question, replacing "aha" with the response:

Māori English
he aha te kererū? What is the kererū?
he manu te kererū The kererū is a bird

To list more than one item in the "<object>" part of the statement, we use "me" for the equivalent of "and" in English:

Māori English
he manu te kererū me te tīrairaka The kererū and the tīrairaka are birds

We can add a describing word to the "<what it is>" portion of the statement to further describe it. This appears after the "<what it is>":

Māori English
he manu nui te kererū The kererū is a big bird
he manu iti te tīrairaka The tīrairaka is a small bird

We can compare an object to see if it is more or less of a particular aspect compared to another object. To say something is more of a particular aspect:

Māori English
he <aspect> ake <object1> i <object2> <object1> is greater than <object2> in <aspect>
he nui ake te kēreru i te tīrairaka The kererū is bigger than the tīrairaka
he iti ake te tīrairaka i te kēreru The tīrairaka is smaller than the kererū

To say something is less of a particular aspect:

Māori English
he <aspect> iho <object1> i <object2> <object1> is lesser than <object2> in <aspect>
he nui iho te kēreru i te tīrairaka The kererū is not as big as the tīrairaka
he iti iho te tīrairaka i te kēreru The tīrairaka is not as small as the kererū