Index to Proto-Polynesian, Māori and Botanical Names

Introductory Note
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The table on this page lists the plant names known to have been brought to Aotearoa from Polynesia by the first explorers and settlers. The modern standard [Māori Language Commission] orthography is used for the Māori words - see the Introduction to the language page in the "origins" set for more information about how modern words in other Polynesian languages and reconstructed words are written.

The number in square brackets indicates the ultimate origin of the name, from Proto-Austronesian ([1]) to Proto-Rarotongan/Maori ([12]) - these stages in the development of Māori are also outlined in the introduction to this set of pages. They are, briefly (and of course skipping a lot of intermediate stages in the first few thousand years):

[1] Proto-Austronesian (At least 5,000 years ago)
[2] Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (Centred on the Philippines & Sulawesi)
[3] Proto-Oceanic (Dispersal along the New Guinea coast into the Pacific - "Near Oceania")
[4] Proto-Eastern Oceanic (Entry into "Remote Oceania")
[5] Proto-Central Pacific (Common source of Rotuman, some Micronesian, Fijian and Polynesian languages)
[6] Proto-Western Fijiic / Polynesian (Common source of Eastern Fijian and Polynesian languages)
[7] Proto-Polynesian (Centred on Tonga & Samoa & Tuvalu jointly)
[8] Proto-Nuclear Polynesian (Centred on Samoa & Tuvalu)
[9] Proto-Eastern Polynesian ("Remote Polynesia", including Rapanui)
[10] Proto-Central Eastern Polynesian (Centred on Tahiti and the Marquesas)
[11] Proto-Tahitic (Centred on Tahiti, effectively the last stage, except for)
[12] Proto-Rarotongan-Maori (The ancestral language of Rarotonga, also carried to Aotearoa)

Any arrangement of the words would create difficulties, so we just settled on "oldest" to ÿoungest" for this list (the original sequence is revised from time to time in the light of new evidence, such as the material in The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic, Volume 3) -- use the ^F (find) command on your browser if you are searching for a particular word (including the botanical binomials [scientific names]). Also note that the Proto-Polynesian name (or the equivalent from the earliest stage after that, for more recent words) is the one listed in the first column; this is actually stage 7 in our scheme, so the original form of words in stages 1-6 might have been different; you will find information about that in the entry for the Proto-Polynesian reconstruction.

Names that seem to have been inherited in a modified form incorporating an older element have been listed separately at the level the new form seems to have appeared, so, for example, pōhutukawa, which incorporates the ancient element *futu (Stage 1), seems to have originated as a separate name in Rarotonga, so in the list below it is included with the words from the final stage (12) before Aotearoa's linguistic isolation.

As the pages are written, the corresponding words in the list will be hyperlinked to them. Those which are written in bold type have entries on line; some of these hyperlinked pages with have only basic information at present, others will be quite substantial. Species which are currently growing in the language garden are also listed in bold type. For kumara and taro varieties, the species name will be in italics -- this means that although some plants of this species are in the garden, that particular variety (as far as we know) is not. As the relevant pages are written, more Maori names containing elements inherited from earlier Polynesian plant names will be added to the list (we often come across previously overlooked examples!). Botanical names also require revision, as new research in genetics causes results in the way plants are grouped in genera and families, and sometimes in new names for species as well.

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[Page updated 21 February 2011]