THE MAORI LANGUAGE – CONNECTION TO SANSKRIT

One of the leading scholars of the Maori Language of New Zealand was Adele Schaefer. She traced the origins of Maori (spoken by the aborigines of New Zealand) and other Polynesian languages to Sanskrit. Here is the famous list of words that she had compiled as an example to show the Sanskrit words from where some of these Maori words were derived:

English       Maori        Sanskrit        Sanskrit 

                                                          (in Devanagri Script) 

I/Me            auaha        aham             अहम्
Outside      waho         bahiye           बाह्ये
Woman      wahine      bhaginīM       भग्नी
Monster     taniwha     danaváA        दानव
to dig        ko               khan              खन्
to look      titiro           drishyate       दृश्यते
tree           rakau          vruksha          वृक्ष
see           kite              cit                  चित्
throat       korokoro     karukar         करूकर
run            tawhiti        dhavate         द्रवते

Information Compiled from:

1. The Relationship between Maori and Sanskrit

2. Maori and Sanskrit

3. Vedic Maori

4. Some Hindustani Cognates of Maori :F. W. Christian, The Journal of Polynesian Society, Volume 2(86), June 1913