If this is the first time that you have looked at this dictionary, please take the time to read these introductory files:

STAGES OF EDITING

Collecting the material is one thing, but preparing it for an audience is quite another. All the material collected in the initial stages of the research was entered in a DOS--based computer database. More recent entries are being entered using a much more modern and flexible program which has been configured with the help of some overseas colleagues. Eventually all entries will be "migrated" to the new database, but in the mean time they have all been exported to a text file from which they can be reformatted for transfer to web files -- eventually, they will be able to be exported directly from the database to the web files with the proper formatting attended to automatically. Each individual entry needs to be checked for accuracy and completeness. As well as that, the entries need to be checked against other dictionaries and word lists to ensure that there is adequate coverage of the words and ideas that people learning the language are likely to need. Many of the words needed have buried in the examples in the dictionary but overlooked as headwords, so the contents of the dictionary itself have to checked in this regard.

In their final form, it is planned that entries will consist of

• (1) a headword (in bold type);
• (2) a number in square brackets to distinguish entries for words with the same form but expressing different ideas (e.g. hau [1] "wind", hau [2] "chop", hau [3] "I, me");
• (3) Spelling variants -- we are going to use the macron consistently in all entries, but to make it easier to find headwords, those which are written with macrons will also be followed by the "double vowel" and unmarked variants, inside angle brackets. (At present, all three variants are scattered through the data, as everything was originally transcribed exactly as it was written by each of our 200 plus contributors.)
• (4) Information about passive and nominal suffixes (where appropriate -- for example, in the entry for inu, below) and also reduplicated forms when these have very similar meanings to the base form;
• (5) Where applicable, the list or file from which the word was incorporated in the original database (a three-character abbreviation in braces);
• (6) Part of speech (in square brackets);
• (7) An explanation and/or English equivalents. (Eventually, we want to have explanations in English and Maori, but to start with most of these are in English;
• (8) Examples of how the word is used, contributed by our native-speaker advisors and from writings and recordings of Taitokerau Maori speakers;
• (9) An English translation of each example (in italic type -- this is a formatting detail which still has to be completed for most entries), followed by the source of the example (a three or four character abbreviation enclosed in square brackets);
• (10) Notes on idiomatic expressions incorporating the word, and/or special uses of derived forms;
• (11) Notes (in parentheses) on the history or origin of the word, where this is known;
• (12) Cross-references to related words and ideas.

Even when the editing is completed, not all these components will be in every entry -- the essentials are items 1, 2,6,7,8 and 9. Most of these, except (4), which does not apply to the word hapü, and (12), cross-references, are present in the first example, the second is more basic, but it does include a cross-reference, and the third (just a portion of which is reproduced here) includes the information about affixes (4) since this word does have passive and nominalized forms.

hapü [1] < hapuu, hapu > {CL1} [Stative] pregnant Ko te wahine nei kua hapü. This woman is pregnant . [TWK] Kua hapü taku hunaonga. My daughter-in-law is pregnant . [TTU] Tuatahi he tokorua kia hapü, ka whänau, ka tokotoru, puta ake he iwi. Firstly when two people are going to have a child, they give birth to a third person, a new generation . [TTU] (Nuclear Polynesian *sapuu “pregnant”).

hapü [2] < hapuu, hapu > {CL1} [Noun] The basic traditional political grouping, a small tribe, or an autonomous division of a larger tribal grouping. Ko ngä kaarangaranga hapü o Ngäti Whätua he maha. There are many hapü in Ngati Whatua [NWH]. (Probably derived from hapü [1].) Cf. iwi, waka .

inu [1] ~mia, ~manga [Universal] drink, absorb E tamariki ma, ma koutou nga hoiho e whiu atu ki te inu wai i te awa. Children, you can take the horses for a drink at the river. [TTU] ...

There is more information about the editing process in the General Background Information file. Towards the end of 2004 all the existing entries were sorted in alphabetical order in a master file, and formatting of individual entries had commenced, although details like bolding and italics had been included only in a few hundred entries.

As editing progresses, an increasing number of entries will have an "encyclopaedic" quality. That is, either the definition will include a very full description of the object, place, state or activity that the word refers to, as in the example below, or else there will be similar information included in a note at the end of the entry.

punawaru [2] {HWW} [Noun]. A woody herb with small sticky flowers and fruit which most people regard as a weed (botanical name Siegesbeckia orientalis ), but which has become an important source of ingredients in some cosmetics and anti-aging preparations because of the aspirin-like chemicals in its sap; it is a member of the daisy family, native to Southeast Asia, Aotearoa and Chile; it is used in China to treat rheumatic pain; in England it is called the holy herb . [040105]

Headwords in the current version of Te Papakupu o te Taitokerau

Notes on the number of entries included in each file and progress made from then on are included here for each letter of the Maori alphabet:

Stage reached November 26, 2004 [with notes on some subsequent developments]

A 194 basic entries and 19 derived forms. Still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made. [Further work done in 2005 increased the basic entries to 222, excluding derived words with whaka- and kai-]

E 30 basic entries and 9 derived forms. A bit more advanced than "A", but still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made

H 269 basic entries and 30 derived forms. Still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made.

I 53 basic entries and 11 derived forms. Still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made.

K 620 basic entries and 25 derived forms, plus 49 words prefixed by kai- and kaiwhaka- which are also included in the same files as the base words to which the prefixes are attached. Still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made.

M 405 basic entries and 49 derived forms. Still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made.

N 96 basic entries and 4 derived forms. Still plenty of editing needed and additions to be made.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES