New book helps fill shortfall as demand for te reo Māori classes and resources continues to surge
The welcome upsurge in learning and speaking of Māori language continues to gather pace across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Along with the growing use of te reo in daily life, demand is such that places in night classes are hard to secure and
there’s a shortfall in resources to make learning the language efficient and enjoyable.
In Te Reo Māori: The Basics Explained, published this week, seasoned author and language teacher David Kārena-Holmes helps answer that demand. With his
simple and methodical approach, David explains in simple terms the building blocks of grammar in te reo, showing how to
create phrases, sentences and paragraphs.
After an introductory chapter on pronunciation and written forms of the language, 17 chapters introduce the main base
words, particles and determiners that guide their use. The book employs real-life examples to illustrate how Māori
grammar works day to day.
Te Reo Māori: The Basics Explained draws on David’s previous books and decades of experience teaching and writing about Māori language to provide an
essential companion for speakers at any level.
About the author
David Karena-Holmes has been a tutor of Māori grammar at schools and institutions in New Zealand since the 1980s. This
is his third book on the subject. He contributes a fortnightly newspaper column on te reo, and his poetry and other
writings have been widely published. David lives in Whakatū/Nelson.
Te Reo Māori: The Basics Explained by David Kārena-Holmes
RRP $34.99, paperback, 210 x 148 mm, 168 pages b