ABSTRACT
Maori makes some use of ideophones. However, there were many cases where my consultant was in doubt as to whether particular forms were ideophones or not, notably for bird names. The following list is fairly conservative, and contains only those of which there is reasonable certainty. Other consultants might well have included others, and excluded some of these. Form Gloss amuamu grumble
au howl (of dog)
aue to cry with distress
haruru dull, heavy sound
ihiihi ?kea make a hissing, rushing noise, as the wind N.Z. bird (from call)
keekee quack (duck)
kekee creak
keo screech (as bird)
?kiwi native flightless bird (from call)
kihikihi cicada
kiki(tara) cicada sound
kitaa chirp of cicada
kuuii bird call, call
ngawee ~ ngawii squeal, yelp, howl
ngawiingawii cry of puppy
ngetengete ~ ketekete palatal click for surprise
ngongoro snore
ngunguru rumble (as thunder)
paatiitii splash
pakuu loud sudden sound, pop
piipii young of birds, chick (from call)
?tuuii native song bird (from call)
wawaa make a loud rumble or roar
whio whistle
4.2 INTERJECTIONS
It is not clear to what extent Maori makes use of interjections which do not conform to the regular principles regarding the phonological structure of words. Perhaps the one totally clear example is the use of a palatal click to express surprise or disapproval (the latter use possibly derived from English). However, some interjections expressing disgust appear to have vowels not normally part of the Maori system, and can end with a voiceless glottal (sometimes as far forward as velar) fricative, eg. [næh]~[nεh]
Sometimes the initial consonant in this interjection is a devoiced alveolar or dental stop, neither of which normally occurs in Maori:
However, the vast majority of interjections in Maori conform to the normal phonology of the language.
