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Boba Fett

Boba Fett is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. First appearing in the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), where he was voiced by Don Francks, he is an armored bounty hunter featured in both the original and prequel film trilogies. In the original trilogy, the character is a supporting antagonist and was mainly portrayed by Jeremy Bulloch and voiced by Jason Wingreen. Notable for his taciturn demeanor and for never removing his helmet, Fett appears in both The Empire Strikes Back (1980), employed by the Galactic Empire, and Return of the Jedi (1983), serving the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. While seemingly killed in Return of the Jedi after falling into a sarlacc, he has since appeared in Star Wars media set after the film, confirming his survival within the new canon, portrayed by Temuera Morrison. Daniel Logan plays a preteen Boba in the prequel film Attack of the Clones (2002), which reveals the character's origins as the genetic clone and adoptive son of Jango Fett, also a famous bounty hunter. Morrison appeared first in Star Wars media playing Jango. The animated series The Bad Batch further reveals Boba to have been born Alpha, and to have a biological twin sister, Omega. The series also reveals that he has another sister named Emerie Karr.

The character also appears in many forms of Star Wars media outside of the films, such as books, comics, television series, and video games, many of which depict him as an antihero rather than a villain, and explore his background, motivations, and morality. Daniel Logan reprised his role as the younger version of Fett in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while Temuera Morrison, who also portrayed Jango in Attack of the Clones, has portrayed an adult Boba in most of his Star Wars appearances since that film, most prominently in the live-action Disney+ series The Mandalorian and its spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, in which he assumes control over Tatooine with his partner Fennec Shand as the planet's new daimyo.

During the development of The Empire Strikes Back, Fett was originally conceived as a member of a group of white-armored Imperial "supercommandos" before the idea was scrapped in favor of a solitary bounty hunter. This concept later evolved into the Mandalorians, a cultural group with strong warrior traditions, who sport armor and helmets similar to Fett's. In several Star Wars works, Fett himself is portrayed as a Mandalorian or at least connected to the Mandalorian culture through his armor, with his father Jango confirmed to have been a Mandalorian foundling and war veteran in The Mandalorian.

The character of Boba Fett quickly became a fan favorite despite his limited presence in the original Star Wars trilogy and is now a widely recognized figure in popular culture. His popularity within the Star Wars fanbase has earned him a cult following.

Concept and development
Star Wars creator George Lucas created Boba Fett in his April 1978 screenplay draft of The Empire Strikes Back, basing the character on Sergio Leone's Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood). The character needed to be designed quickly, as Lucas had agreed for him to be featured in the Star Wars Holiday Special later that year. The character's design stemmed from initial concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally conceived as a rogue bounty hunter. While Vader became less of a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept remained, and Fett became "an equally villainous" but "less conspicuous" character. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie influenced Fett's design, which was finalized by and is credited to Joe Johnston.

Norman Reynolds and the film's art department built the costume. Fett's armor was originally designed for "super troopers", and was adapted for Fett as the script developed. Screen-tested in all-white, Fett's armor eventually garnered a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him between white-armored "rank-and-file" Imperial stormtroopers and Vader, who wears black. This color scheme had the bonus of conveying the "gray morality" of his character. The character's armor was designed to appear to have been scavenged from multiple sources, and it is adorned with trophies. A description of Fett's armor in the mid-1979 Bantha Tracks newsletter catalyzed "rampant speculation" about his origins. By 1979, Fett's backstory included having served in an army of Imperial shock troops which had battled the clone troopers of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars.

Despite two years of widespread publicity about Fett's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, script rewrites significantly reduced the character's presence in the film. Fett's musical theme, composed by John Williams, is "not music, exactly" but "more of a gurgly, viola-and-bassoon thing aurally cross-pollinated with some obscure static sounds." Sound editor Ben Burtt added the sound of jangling spurs, created and performed by the Foley artist team of Robert Rutledge and Edward Steidele, to Fett's appearance in Cloud City, intending to make the character menacing and the scene reminiscent of similar gunfighter appearances in Western films. At one point in Return of the Jedi's development, Fett was conceived as being a main villain, but he was finally replaced with the Emperor when Lucas decided to not make a third trilogy of Star Wars. Lucas also considered having Fett fight Lando Calrissian during the sarlacc sequence.

An official reference book states that Fett charges "famously expensive" fees, and that he undertakes only those missions which meet “his harsh sense of justice". Daniel Keys Moran, who wrote a few stories featuring Boba Fett, cited Westerns as an influence on his development of the character. Moran said: "The difficult thing with Fett was finding a worldview for him that permitted him to proclaim a Code — given the stark Evil that permeated the Empire, Fett pretty much had to be either 1) Evil, or 2) an incredibly unforgiving, harsh, 'greater good' sort of guy. The second approach worked and has resonated with some readers."

Lucas at one point considered depicting Vader and Fett as brothers in the prequel films, but discounted it as too "hokey". In continuing to develop the character in the prequel films, Lucas closed some avenues for expanding the character's story while opening others by establishing that Fett is a clone of a similar bounty hunter, Jango Fett. Lucas considered modifying later editions of Return of the Jedi by adding a shot of Fett escaping the sarlacc, but decided against it because it would have detracted from the story's focus. Lucas also said that, had he known Fett would be so popular, he would have made the character's death "more exciting". In 2014, after Lucas had sold Lucasfilm to Disney, Star Wars historian Jonathan W. Rinzler revealed that Lucas had privately acknowledged that Fett escaped from the sarlacc. This was canonically established with Fett's appearances in The Mandalorian six years later portrayed by Temuera Morrison, which led to a spin-off focused on the character, The Book of Boba Fett, starring Morrison. Joe Johnston and Morrison himself criticized the decision to portray the character without his helmet, Morrison noting it was done to avoid comparisons with the titular character of The Mandalorian.

Film casting and production
Boba Fett is primarily played by Jeremy Bulloch in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Bulloch's half-brother alerted him to the role. He was cast as Fett because the costume happened to fit "as if a Savile Row tailor had come out and made it"; he did not have to do a reading or screen test, and Bulloch never worked from a script for either film.

Filming the role for Empire lasted three weeks. The actor was pleased with the costume and used it to convey the character's menace. Bulloch based his performance on Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars; similar to the Western character, Bulloch cradled the blaster prop, made the character seem ready to shoot, slightly tilted his head, and stood a particular way. Bulloch did not try to construct a backstory for the character, and said later that "the less you do with Boba Fett, the stronger he becomes". Playing Fett in Empire was both the smallest and most physically uncomfortable role Bulloch has played; Bulloch said donning the heavy jetpack was the worst aspect of the role.

Bulloch spent four weeks on Return of the Jedi. He was unaware of Fett's demise before filming began and was "very upset" by the development; he would like to have done more with Fett. Still, Bulloch believed killing Fett made the character stronger, and that his "weak" death makes fans want the character to return. Bulloch thought a scene created for the 1997 Special Edition in which Fett flirts with one of Jabba the Hutt's dancers was not in keeping with the character's nature.

A younger version of the character was played by Daniel Logan in Attack of the Clones, which establishes that Boba is a clone of his father, Jango. Logan had not seen any of the Star Wars films before being cast as Fett, but he watched the original trilogy at Lucas' request. The actor had to rely on his imagination for the bluescreen filming. Both Bulloch and Logan had also expressed interest in reprising their role of Fett in the planned Underworld TV series, but the series remains undeveloped.

Other portrayals
According to the official Star Wars website, Fett was voiced by Don Francks in the Holiday Special. Bulloch wore Fett's costume in Empire and Jedi, but John Morton filled in during one scene for Empire, and Jason Wingreen voiced the character in Empire. His brief appearance in the Special Edition of the original film, Episode IV – A New Hope, was performed by Industrial Light & Magic creature animator Mark Austin. The character's appearance in the Special Edition footage of Jedi was performed by Don Bies and Nelson Hall. For the 2004 rereleases, Temuera Morrison replaced the character's original voice for continuity with Attack of the Clones, in which Morrison portrays Jango Fett.

The character's voice in National Public Radio's Star Wars radio dramas was provided by Alan Rosenberg in The Empire Strikes Back and Ed Begley Jr. in Return of the Jedi, Tim Glovatsky in the audio adaptation of Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, Joe Hacker in an audio adaptation of the Dark Empire comics, Temuera Morrison for Empire at War, Battlefront II and Battlefront: Elite Squadron, Dee Bradley Baker in The Force Unleashed, The Force Unleashed II and Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Chris Cox in Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, Tom Kane in Galactic Battlegrounds, Demolition and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Daniel Logan for The Clone Wars animated TV series and Lego Star Wars: The Video Game.

The first live-action depiction of Fett outside the theatrical films was in the second season of the original Disney+ series The Mandalorian, wherein Morrison reprised the role.

The character also made a cameo appearance in a live-action mockumentary filmed on the set of Return of the Jedi titled Return of the Ewok (1982). Post-production was never completed, and it has never been officially released.

Appearances
The character of Boba Fett made his first public appearance at the San Anselmo Country Fair parade on 24 September 1978. In the parade, the Boba Fett costume was worn by Duwayne Dunham, who was working at the time as an assistant film editor before later becoming a film and television director. The character debuted on television two months later in an animated segment produced by Toronto-based animation firm Nelvana Productions for the Star Wars Holiday Special. Fett appears as a mysterious figure who saves Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 from a giant monster, only to be revealed as a bounty hunter working for Darth Vader. After his image and identity were revealed in the Holiday Special, costumed Fett characters appeared in shopping malls and special events, putting up wanted posters of the character to distinguish him from the franchise's Imperial characters.

Original trilogy
Fett's theatrical film debut was as an unnamed bounty hunter in The Empire Strikes Back as the "next major villain" beside Darth Vader. He is one of six bounty hunters assembled by Darth Vader, who promises a reward to whoever captures the crew of the Millennium Falcon. Fett tracks the starship to Cloud City, where Vader captures its passengers and tortures its captain, Han Solo. Aiming to collect the bounty Jabba the Hutt has placed on Solo (established in the original film), Fett questions Vader regarding the carbon freeze, which Vader intends to use on his true target, Luke Skywalker. Vader promises that the Empire will compensate Fett if Solo dies, but the smuggler survives and Vader turns him over to Fett, who leaves to deliver him to Jabba in his ship, the Slave I.

Return of the Jedi features Boba Fett at Jabba's palace on Tatooine, where Han Solo's friends are captured while trying to save him. Fett aims his weapon at Princess Leia (disguised as bounty hunter Boushh) when she threatens Jabba with a thermal detonator, and he later travels on Jabba's sail barge to the Great Pit of Carkoon (home of a sessile carnivorous creature known as a sarlacc) to witness the prisoners' execution. When the prisoners revolt and fight back, Fett flies over and briefly fights Luke. Chewbacca later warns Solo, who is still blind after being frozen in carbonite, that Fett is near. As Solo turns around, he inadvertently hits Fett's rocket pack, setting it off and propelling Fett into the side of the sail barge, from which he falls into the sarlacc's mouth. The 1997 Special Edition release of the film includes an additional scene of Fett flirting with some of Jabba's female dancers.

In the 1997 Special Edition of A New Hope, Fett briefly appears in a reintroduced cut scene outside the Millennium Falcon while Jabba confronts Han Solo. The character had yet to be created during the filming of the scene and was thus superimposed onto the image.

Prequel trilogy
A preteen Boba Fett (played by Daniel Logan) appears in the 2002 prequel film Episode II – Attack of the Clones, which reveals that he is an unaltered clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), who had him created on Kamino to be raised as his son as part of his price to serve as the template for the Grand Army of the Republic's clone army. Boba helps Jango escape from Obi-Wan Kenobi and accompanies him to Geonosis, where he witnesses Jango's death by beheading at the hands of Mace Windu during the first battle in the Clone Wars. After the battle ends, he is last seen mourning over his father's helmet, which he takes and places in front of his head, foreshadowing his future as a bounty hunter wearing his father's armor.

The Story of the Faithful Wookiee
Boba Fett appeared in the animated segment of the non-canon 1978 Holiday Special, set after the events of A New Hope. This marks his first appearance in the franchise. He is first seen when he rescues Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2-D2 from a Panna dragon. Fett presents himself as an ally to the heroes but it is later revealed that he was working for Darth Vader the whole time - to reveal the location of the Rebels to the Empire. Fett ignites his jetpack before leaving and promising that they will meet again.

Droids
Boba Fett appeared in the now non-canon 1985 animated series, Star Wars: Droids, set before the original trilogy. The series was produced by the same studio that created the animated segment of the 1978 Holiday Special, and Fett was again voiced by Don Francks (who had been uncredited for his original role in the Holiday Special). In the episode "A Race to the Finish", he is hired by the Fromms to help them get revenge on the masters of the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. Fett later turns on them after failing their request, and decides to accept Jabba's bounty on the Fromms as compensation.

The Clone Wars
Logan reprised his role as the voice of Fett in the 2008 animated series The Clone Wars. The final three episodes of the second season of the series, entitled "Death Trap", "R2 Come Home" and "Lethal Trackdown", were aired on April 30, 2010, and attracted an average of 2.756 million viewers during the original broadcast. The finale is significant for ending "with twin fandom bangs, courtesy of Boba Fett and a mammoth beast inspired by Godzilla". Fett's entrance in the series commemorates the 30-year anniversary of the character's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back.

In the story arc, Boba infiltrates Mace Windu's flagship in the guise of a clone trooper cadet, hoping to exact revenge against the Jedi for killing his father. After a failed attempt to bomb Windu in his quarters, he sabotages the ship's engines, causing it to crash on a nearby planet. He and his bounty hunter accomplices then take hostages from the ship's crew, whom they try to use to bait the Jedi Master. Throughout the ordeal, Fett balks at committing violence against his fellow clones, which comes to a head when his mentor Aurra Sing executes Windu's clone trooper second-in-command. Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano eventually track Fett and his compatriots to pirate Hondo Ohnaka's base. Fett is ultimately captured by the Jedi and sentenced to prison on Coruscant; although he expresses regret for the collateral damage he has caused, he vows to never forgive Windu.

Fett escapes prison in the fourth-season episode "Deception". He later forms his bounty hunter syndicate, Krayt's Claw, which includes Bossk and Dengar (both of whom first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back alongside Fett). In the episode "Bounty", Krayt's Claw is hired to deliver a package to a dictator. When the bounty hunters discover that their cargo is a young woman destined for a forced marriage to the despot, Fett is indifferent to her plight and insists the team proceed with their mission. Temporary member Asajj Ventress, enraged, turns on Fett; she strangles him with the Force, binds, and gags him, and shoves him into the container in the captive's place, whereupon he is delivered to the nonplussed client.

The Mandalorian
Boba Fett's presence in the original Disney+ series The Mandalorian was first hinted at in the first-season episode "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger", which ends with a mysterious figure wearing boots and seemingly a cape approaching the body of assassin Fennec Shand on Tatooine.

In June 2020, it was reported that Temuera Morrison would appear as Fett in the second season of The Mandalorian. As the series takes place five years following Return of the Jedi, this would confirm the character's survival after his fall into the sarlacc's mouth and retcon his apparent death. In the second season's premiere, "Chapter 9: The Marshal", it is explained that Fett's armor was salvaged by Jawas after his supposed death, and then bought by Cobb Vanth, a character first introduced in the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy of novels, who used it to protect the Tatooinian village of Mos Pelgo from various threats. In the episode, the armor is eventually obtained by the Mandalorian after Vanth relinquishes it so that it could be returned to its rightful owners: the Mandalorian people. As he leaves with the armor, the Mandalorian is watched from the distance by a heavily scarred Fett.

Fett's first full appearance in the series occurred in the episode "Chapter 14: The Tragedy", in which it is explained that he saved Fennec's life after she was mortally wounded, leaving her in his debt and that he is looking to retrieve his armor from the Mandalorian. Fett and Fennec follow him in the Slave I to the planet Tython, where the former explains that his armor belonged to his late father Jango, a Mandalorian foundling, and is, thus, Fett's birthright. In exchange for the armor's return, Fett and Fennec ensure the safety of Grogu, an alien infant the Mandalorian has adopted. When Moff Gideon's Imperial forces attack the group, Fett dons his old armor and kills most of the stormtroopers deployed to capture Grogu with a gaffi stick. Despite this, the child is ultimately taken by Gideon's Dark Troopers. Fett insists that he and Fennec shall remain indebted to the Mandalorian until Grogu is safe, and they subsequently aid his efforts to rescue the child in "Chapter 15: The Believer" and  Chapter 16: The Rescue , which show Fett in a now clean and repainted armor.

In the latter episode, Fett is initially at odds with Bo-Katan Kryze, the former ruler of Mandalore and one of the allies that the Mandalorian tries to recruit to help save Grogu because she calls him a disgrace to his Mandalorian armor due to his origins as a clone. Despite this, the two reluctantly work together to rescue the child from Moff Gideon, with Fett creating a distraction that allows the rest of the crew to board Gideon's ship. After this, Fett flies into hyperspace and is not seen again until a post-credits scene, in which he and Fennec return to Tatooine after their debt is paid off. Fett kills Bib Fortuna, who has been in charge of Jabba's palace since his death, and then sits on the throne that once belonged to Jabba, with Fennec at his side.

The Bad Batch
Boba Fett is mentioned in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, a CGI-animated sequel and spin-off from The Clone Wars which premiered in 2021. The episode "Bounty Lost" reveals that Boba's original code name is Alpha, and that Omega, an enhanced female clone who joined Clone Force 99 after the rise of the Empire, is a second unaltered replication of Jango and, therefore, Boba's sister. The episode "Plan 99" reveals that Emerie Karr is another female clone, therefore, another sister of his.

Visions
Boba Fett appears in the 2021 anime series Star Wars: Visions, voiced by Temuera Morrison in English and by Akio Kaneda in Japanese. He appears in the second episode, "Tatooine Rhapsody".

The Book of Boba Fett
The Book of Boba Fett is a spin-off of The Mandalorian focused on Boba Fett, which premiered on Disney+ on December 29, 2021. Morrison and Ming-Na Wen reprised their roles as Fett and Fennec Shand, respectively, with Finnegan Garay portraying a young Fett with Daniel Logan's likeness superimposed over his own. The first trailer was released November 1, 2021. In The Book of Boba Fett, Boba Fett and his partner, Fennec Shand, begin rebuilding the old criminal empire of Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine.

Other media
In the first issue of Marvel Comics' Darth Vader (2015), the title character hires Boba Fett to capture the pilot who destroyed the Death Star. In the concurrent Star Wars comic (2015), Fett tracks the pilot, Luke Skywalker, to Tatooine, although the latter escapes after a brief fight. Fett then tells Vader the pilot's surname, unknowingly informing the Sith lord (formerly Anakin Skywalker) that he has a son. Fett also features in Marvel's Bounty Hunters (2020), which is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The comic miniseries War of the Bounty Hunters (2021) is set in the same era, and will be preceded by standalone comics including tie-ins with Star Wars, Bounty Hunters, Darth Vader, and Doctor Aphra.

Fett appears as a playable character in Star Wars Battlefront (2015) and Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), as well as several Star Wars video games for mobile devices.

On December 24, 2021, Fett was added as a wearable cosmetic for Fortnite Battle Royale.

On February 4, 2022, Indy Stevenson posted a The Book of Boba Fett comic entitled "This Place Was Home" on Twitter to a universally positive critical reception. Later posted on Substack, the comic focusing on "Boba's childhood relationship with [Zam] Wesell", a mother figure to him.

Fett makes a cameo appearance in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023), with Temuera Morrison reprising his role. He appears as part of a side quest in which Cal Kestis fights and defeats bounty hunter Caij Vanda. Fett appears at the end of the fight to collect the bounty on Vanda, with Cal allowing it to happen.

Legends
The character appears extensively in the Star Wars Expanded Universe of novels, comic books, and video games, dating to as early as the newspaper comic strip and Marvel's Star Wars series (produced concurrently to the original film trilogy). In April 2014, such works were rebranded by Lucasfilm as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the rest of the franchise to create a blank slate for the sequel trilogy.

Boba Fett appears in many other works set during the original trilogy, including the choose-your-own-adventure book The Bounty Hunter (1994), the 1996 Shadows of the Empire multimedia project, Dark Horse's short comic Boba Fett: Salvage (1997), volumes of the young-reader series Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998), The Bounty Hunter Wars book trilogy (1998–1999), issues of Empire (2002–2005) and Star Wars (2013–14), and the one-shot comic Boba Fett: Overkill (2006). Fett appears in the years leading up to A New Hope in the comic Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire (1999), in which Vader hires Fett before trying to kill him, as well as Agent of the Empire (2012–2013), Blood Ties (2010–2012), and Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika (2000–2001).

A 1983 issue of the original Marvel Star Wars comic book set just after Return of the Jedi depicts Fett temporarily escaping the sarlacc pit. Works such as Dark Horse's Dark Empire series (1991–1992) further utilized Fett's survival. A 1995 anthology story by Daniel Keys Moran narrates some of his time in the sarlacc, and a 1996 story by Dave Wolverton narrates how Dengar finds him and restores him to health. In the comic Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction (1997), while Fett recovers after being freed from the sarlaac, he is impersonated by a bounty hunter named Jodo Kast, whom Fett then hunts. Four Boba Fett comics set several years after Return of the Jedi were released between 1995 and 2000. Fett encounters Han Solo in the short story The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett (1996), set 15 years after the events of the same film, and fights side by side with him in The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force (2003), set a decade later. He also appears in the e-novella Boba Fett: A Practical Man, set 20 years after Jedi. In the Legacy of the Force series (2006–2008), set some 35 years after Jedi, Han and Leia's daughter, Jaina, asks Fett to train her to help her defeat her corrupted brother, Jacen.

In The Last One Standing, Daniel Keys Moran developed a backstory for Fett in which he was once named Jaster Mereel, a "Journeyman Protector" lawman who was convicted of treason. His backstory was depicted differently in Attack of the Clones, leading to the Dark Horse comic Jango Fett: Open Seasons (2003) retconning Mereel to Jango's mentor. A young-adult book series called Boba Fett (2002–2004) depicts Fett's roots as a bounty hunter during the Clone Wars. He is guided by a book left to him by his father, whose ship and armor he has inherited, and begins working for Jabba the Hutt.

The Bounty Hunter Wars
The Bounty Hunter Wars is a trilogy of novels by K. W. Jeter set during the events of the original trilogy. The books were published by Bantam Spectra in July 1998, November 1998, and July 1999, respectively. The trilogy depicts Fett as being more communicative than in the films because its plot requires Fett to show "an ability to convince people as well as kill them".

The first book, The Mandalorian Armor, starts during the events of Return of the Jedi, shortly after Jabba's sail barge is destroyed. Dengar stays with Fett after the latter's near-death experience and encounters Neelah, a dancer in Jabba's palace who has lost her memory, and thinks Fett can help her. Kuat of Kuat, an Imperial executive, reviews footage from the Great Pit of Carkoon, leading him to suspect that Fett is still alive. It is related in flashbacks set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back that Fett stole a bounty Bossk and Zuckuss was hunting on behalf of the Bounty Hunters Guild. After delivering the bounty, Fett accepted a contract to join the Bounty Hunters Guild to break it up. The Emperor met with Darth Vader and Prince Xizor, where the latter revealed that it was he who planned for Fett to join the guild to eliminate its weakest members, leaving only the best for the Empire to exploit.

In the second book, , Fett abandons Slave I to avoid dispelling rumors of his death, and instead steals Bossk's ship. Riding along, Dengar tells Neelah about the split of the Bounty Hunters Guild. After Bossk killed his father, the guild split into two factions: one composed of the older members, and another composed of Bossk and other younger members. Prince Xizor placed an enormous bounty on a renegade stormtrooper who slaughtered his entire ship's crew. Fett, Bossk, and Zuckuss captured the trooper, but Fett jettisoned his partners in an escape pod.

In the third and final book, , it is related that Fett tried to claim his bounty, but found Xizor waiting to kill him to tie up loose ends related to his plot. In an attack on the megalomaniacal prince, Kuat of Kuat had falsified some evidence implicating him in the murder of Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle. This information was on the renegade stormtrooper's ship (which is why Kuat wanted to make sure the bounty hunter was dead) but is retrieved by Fett in the present, as Neelah realizes she is from an elite Kuat family and stops her sinister sister from taking over the now-suicidal Imperial executive's shipyard.

Boba Fett: A Practical Man
Boba Fett: A Practical Man is an e-novella by Karen Traviss, which was published online in August 2006 by Del Rey Books. Set 20 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, it focuses on what led Boba Fett and the Mandalorians to fend off the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong invaders in The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force (set a few months later). A Yuuzhan Vong named Nom Anor meets Fett on Mandalore and begins giving him and the Mandalorians directions to help their invasion. Fett plans to do as much damage to the invaders as possible, even as he pretends to help them. He instructs a pilot to deliver his plea for help to the New Republic, but with the Vong's next target still unwarned, the world falls without a fight. A Vong warrior asks Fett to assist in killing a Jedi; instead, Fett convinces the Jedi to deliver his message. The Jedi returns and confirms that Fett has a deal: the Mandalorians will continue to masquerade as Vong mercenaries while passing intel to the Republic. Fett agrees to have a few of his best commandos train planetary militias to fight the Vong.

Unproduced works
A planned live-action TV series developed by Star Wars creator George Lucas before the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, under the working title Star Wars: Underworld, would have featured Fett.

Star Wars 1313
The canceled LucasArts video game Star Wars 1313, announced at E3 2012, would have told the story of Boba Fett's career as a young adult bounty hunter between the prequel and original trilogies. Fett would have navigated past the scum of civilization in an underground area of Coruscant known as Level 1313. In 2013, as a result of Disney's acquisition of the franchise, all LucasArts projects then in production were shelved. In a December 2015 interview, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated that the concept art for the game was "unbelievable" and that, along with Underworld, it was "something we're spending a lot of time looking at, poring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further".

Level 1313 appears in Star Wars media such as The Clone Wars, in which it is visited by Ahsoka Tano, and Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle.

The Clone Wars episodes
Fett was to have appeared in more episodes of The Clone Wars before its cancellation. A series of Western-inspired episodes would have featured Fett teaming up with Cad Bane to rescue a child kidnapped by Tusken Raiders on Tatooine; Aurra Sing would have appeared as well. The story arc would have depicted Fett donning his Mandalorian armor for the first time, and ended with Bane blasting Fett in the head, creating the iconic dent in his helmet (an idea which came from George Lucas). Animatic footage of the climactic scene was shown at Star Wars Celebration.

Standalone film
In early 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the development of a Star Wars spin-off film written by Simon Kinberg, which Entertainment Weekly reported would focus on Boba Fett during the original trilogy. In mid-2014, Josh Trank was officially announced as the director of an undisclosed spin-off film, but had left the project a year later due to creative differences with Kinberg, causing a teaser for the Fett film to be scrapped from Star Wars Celebration. In May 2018, it was reported that James Mangold had signed on to write and direct a Fett film, with Kinberg attached as producer and co-writer, but both Mangold and Kathleen Kennedy subsequently denied Mangold's involvement. In July, Daniel Keys Moran stated that Lucasfilm had considered adapting The Last One Standing into a film. By October, the Fett film was reportedly dead, with the studio instead focusing on The Mandalorian. The Fett film was afterwards reported to have also featured the other bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back.

Reception
Boba Fett is a "cult figure" and one of the most popular Star Wars characters. In 2008, Boba Fett was selected by Empire magazine as the 79th greatest movie character of all time, and he is included on Fandomania's list of The 100 Greatest Fictional Characters. IGN ranked Boba Fett as the eighth top Star Wars character, due to his status as a fan-favourite and cult following. He personifies "danger and mystery", and Susan Mayse calls Fett "the unknowable Star Wars character" who "delivers mythic presence." Although Tom Bissell asserts that no one knows why Boba Fett has become so popular, nor cares why, both Lucas and Bulloch cite Fett's mysterious nature as reasons for his popularity. Bulloch, who has never fully understood the character's popularity, attributes it to the costume and the respect Fett garners from Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt. Fett's addition to the Special Edition of A New Hope was criticized by Screen Rant, which called it "pointless fan service".

The initial Boba Fett toy, more than Fett's actual film appearance, might be responsible for the character's popularity; Henry Jenkins suggests children's play helped the character "take on a life of its own". Moran said Vader's admonition specifically to Fett in The Empire Strikes Back—"No disintegrations"—gives Fett credibility; he was interested in Fett because the character is "strong, silent, [and] brutal". Jeter says that even when Fett appears passive, he conveys "capability and ruthlessness". Bissell credits Bulloch for giving Fett "effortless authority" in his first scene in The Empire Strikes Back, using such nuances as cradling his blaster and slightly cocking his head. Fett's small role in the film may have made the character seem more intriguing. Logan, who was a Young Artist Award nominee for his portrayal of Fett, compares Fett to "that boy in school who never talks" and who attracts others' curiosity.

Bissell adds that Boba Fett, along with other minor characters like Darth Maul and Kyle Katarn, appeals to adolescent boys' "images of themselves: essentially bad-ass but ... honorable about it." This tension and the absence of a clear "evil nature" (distinct from evil actions) offer Fett dramatic appeal. Furthermore, Fett "is cool because he was designed to be cool", presenting a "wicked ambiguity" akin to John Milton's portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost and Iago in William Shakespeare's Othello. Bissell compares Fett to Beowulf, Ahab, and Huckleberry Finn: characters "too big" for their original presentation, and apt for continued development in other stories. Moran finds Fett reminiscent of the Man with No Name.

Fett has been featured extensively in pop culture and parodies. Breckin Meyer provides his voice in various Robot Chicken sketches. Nerdcore rapper MC Chris included a Star Wars-themed song titled "Fett's Vette" on his 2001 debut album. The creator of the Spartan helmets for the 2006 film 300 painted one of them to look like Fett's helmet. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Boba Fett fans as "among the most passionate", and the character is important to Star Wars fan culture. Boba Fett's popular following before the character even appeared in The Empire Strikes Back influenced Damon Lindelof's interest in developing Lost across multiple media. Between filming The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Mark Hamill pitched the idea that Fett was Luke Skywalker's mother to George Lucas, which "he didn't like". In about 2000, a feminist campaigned online to have the character unmasked as a woman. Fan parodies include Boba Phat, a cosplay "intergalactic booty hunter" created by David James.

In The Clone Wars
IGN reviewer Eric Goldman rated the first episode 8.2/10 and the second 8.8/10, stating "this was a very layered, exciting episode to end Season 2 on", though he did not appreciate Boba Fett's limited dialogue. Bryan Young, a writer for The Huffington Post and Examiner.com, also disliked Fett's responses at the end of the episode when confronting Mace Windu: "He says something incredibly whiny." Young does state, however, that "[o]verall, this pair of episodes was a satisfying conclusion to season two, which really upped the game in this series in terms of animation, storytelling, and suspense." GalacticBinder.com's reviewer Chris Smith wrote, "Lucasfilm delivers another exciting episode to finish off a tremendous second season." Adam Rosenberg writing in MTV Movies Blog discusses Boba Fett's return: "He's going to have to be put through a lot more hell before he embraces his inner badass. I'll say though... he's off to a mighty good start with the dual blasters he wears on his belt. Sure, they're almost the size of his thighs, but hey... he's still just a kid."

In The Book of Boba Fett
Boba Fett's character in the series has received mixed reviews, while Morrison's portrayal of Fett has been praised. Some have said that, without Morrison portraying Boba Fett, the series might have been a total disaster and that he is the only face that could have brought Fett back to life. Decider's Megan O'Keefe wrote, "Boba Fett is the least interesting character in The Book of Boba Fett." Rich Knight from CinemaBlend stated that he used to not like Fett, but became interested in his character as he was the only one in the series who "seems like an actual human being". Chris Edwards of The Guardian said that Disney+ ruined one of the "coolest and most mysterious characters" in Star Wars.

Merchandising
Fett is one of the top five best-selling Star Wars action figures, and Boba Fett-related products are "among the most expensive" Star Wars merchandise. Fett was the first new mail-away action figure created for The Empire Strikes Back; although advertised as having a rocket-firing backpack, safety concerns led Kenner to sell his rocket attached. Gray called the early toy "a rare and precious commodity", and one of the rocket-firing prototypes sold at auction for $16,000 in 2003. In 2018 and 2019, two of the prototypes were sold at auction, for £69,000 ($USD92,000) and £90,000 ($USD120,000), respectively—each setting the world record for the highest auction price of a Star Wars toy at that time. A fully painted figure with a rare variant on the firing mechanism is planned to be auctioned and estimated to be worth $200,000.

In August 2009, Hasbro released a Fett action figure based on McQuarrie's white-armored concept, and Boba Fett as both a child and bounty hunter have been made into Lego minifigures and a helmet statue of Fett in his armor. Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Trading Card Game includes several Boba Fett cards. Hallmark Cards created a Boba Fett Christmas tree ornament. In January 2015, an unopened Boba Fett figure sold for £18,000 at auction in the UK, the figure was in factory-fresh condition and did not have the packaging punched for hanging in a shop.

In mid-2021, Lego released a Slave I set, replacing the ship's name with "Boba Fett's Starship". According to the design director of Lego Star Wars, the Slave I name "is just something that Disney doesn't want to use anymore". This prompted some backlash from fans, including Mark Austin, who portrays Fett in the Special Edition of A New Hope. While the ship was not canonically renamed, Disney is likely merely avoiding slavery-related terms in merchandise. In a press release for variant covers for Marvel's War of the Bounty Hunters, the ship is referred to as "Firespray", a reference to the ship's fictional class.

title: Boba Fett


text:
Māori language

Māori, or te reo Māori ('the Māori language'), commonly shortened to te reo, is an Eastern Polynesian language and the language of the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. A member of the Austronesian language family, it is related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Tahitian. The Maori Language Act 1987 gave the language recognition as one of New Zealand's official languages. There are regional dialects. Prior to contact with Europeans, Māori lacked a written language or script. Written Māori now uses the Latin script, which was adopted and the spelling standardised by Northern Māori in collaboration with English Protestant clergy in the 19th century.

In the second half of the 19th century European children in rural areas spoke Māori with Māori children. It was common for prominent parents of these children, such as government officials, to use Māori in the community. Māori declined due to the increase of the European population and linguistic discrimination, including the Native Schools Act 1867, which barred the speaking of Māori in schools. The number of speakers fell sharply after 1945, but a Māori language revival movement began in the late 20th century and slowed the decline. The Māori protest movement and the Māori renaissance of the 1970s caused greater social awareness of and support for the language. The spread of kōhanga reo, or Māori-language kindergartens, has increased native speakers.

The 2018 New Zealand census reported that about 190,000 people, or 4% of the population, could hold an everyday conversation in Māori. , 55% of Māori adults reported some knowledge of the language; of these, 64% use Māori at home and around 50,000 people can speak the language "well". Ideological support for the language remains high among Māori, relatives and other New Zealanders in general, with the number of second language students increasing by 76% from 2013 to 2022.

In Māori culture, the language is considered to be among the greatest of all taonga, or cultural treasures. Māori is known for its metaphorical poetry and prose, often in the form of karakia, whaikōrero, whakapapa and karanga, and in performing arts such as mōteatea, waiata, and haka.

Name
The English word Maori is a borrowing from the Māori language, where it is spelled Māori. In New Zealand, the Māori language is often referred to as te reo ("the language"), short for te reo Māori ("the Māori language").

The Māori-language spelling $⟨Māori⟩$ (with a macron) has become common in New Zealand English in recent years, particularly in Māori-specific cultural contexts, although the traditional macron-less English spelling is still sometimes seen in general media and government use.

Preferred and alternative pronunciations in English vary by dictionary, with being most frequent today, and, , and  also given, while the 'r' is always a voiced alveolar flap.

Official status

New Zealand has two de jure official languages: Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, whereas New Zealand English acts as a de facto official language. Te reo Māori gained its official status with the passing of the Māori Language Act 1987.

Most government departments and agencies have bilingual names—for example, the Department of Internal Affairs is alternatively Te Tari Taiwhenua—and places such as local government offices and public libraries display bilingual signs and use bilingual stationery; some government services now even use the Māori version solely as the official name. Personal dealings with government agencies may be conducted in Māori, but in practice, this almost always requires interpreters, restricting its everyday use to the limited geographical areas of high Māori fluency, and to more formal occasions, such as during public consultation. An interpreter is on hand at sessions of the New Zealand Parliament for instances when a member wishes to speak in Māori. Māori may be spoken in judicial proceedings, but any party wishing to do so must notify the court in advance to ensure an interpreter is available. Failure to notify in advance does not preclude the party speaking in Māori, but the court must be adjourned until an interpreter is available and the party may be held liable for the costs of the delay.

A 1994 ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (then New Zealand's highest court) held the Government responsible under the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) for the preservation of the language. Accordingly, since March 2004, the state has funded Māori Television, broadcast partly in Māori. On 28 March 2008, Māori Television launched its second channel, Te Reo, broadcast entirely in the Māori language, with no advertising or subtitles. The first Māori TV channel, Aotearoa Television Network (ATN) was available to viewers in the Auckland region from 1996 but lasted for only one year.

In 2008, Land Information New Zealand published the first list of official place names with macrons. Previous place name lists were derived from computer systems (usually mapping and geographic information systems) that could not handle macrons.

Political dimensions
The official status of Māori, and especially its use in official names and titles, is a political issue in New Zealand. In 2022 a 70,000 strong petition from Te Pāti Māori went to Parliament calling for New Zealand to be officially renamed Aotearoa, and was accepted for debate by the Māori Affairs select committee. During New Zealand First's successful campaign to return to Parliament in 2023, party leader Winston Peters ridiculed the proposal as "ideological mumbo jumbo" and criticised the use of the name in government reports. Peters promised his party would remove Māori names from government departments, saying "Te Whatu Ora, excuse me, I don't want to speak the Māori language when I go to hospital." As part of its coalition agreement with New Zealand First, the National-led government agreed to ensure all public service departments had their primary name in English except for those specifically related to Māori.

Origins
According to legend, Māori came to New Zealand from Hawaiki. Current anthropological thinking places their origin in eastern Polynesia, mostly likely from the Southern Cook or Society Islands region (see ), and says that they arrived by deliberate voyages in seagoing canoes, possibly double-hulled, and probably sail-rigged. These settlers probably arrived by AD 1350 at the latest.

Māori evolved in isolation from other Polynesian languages. Six dialectal variations emerged among iwi due to geographical separation. The language had no written form, but historian Sarah J. K. Gallagher has argued that tā moko, the indigenous art of tattooing, is arguably "a pre-European textual culture in New Zealand... as the Moko can be read, it can be accepted as a form of communication". The idea that tā moko is a written language of sorts has been discussed before.

Since its origin, the Māori language has been rich in metaphorical poetry and prose. Forms of this include karakia, whaikōrero, whakapapa and karanga, and in performing arts such as mōteatea, waiata and haka. Karakia are Māori incantations used to invoke spiritual guidance and protection, and are used before eating or gathering, to increase spiritual goodwill and to declare things officially open. Whaikōrero is the term given to traditional oratory given on marae, and whakapapa is the story of one's ancestry. According to historian Atholl Anderson, whakapapa utilised "mnemonic devices, repetitive patterns [and] rhyme" in order to leave a lasting impression. "Casting knowledge in formulaic or other standarised story forms.. helped to fix the information in the minds of speakers and listeners".

European contact
Through the nineteenth century, the Māori language had a tumultuous history. It started this period as the predominant language of New Zealand, and it was adopted by European traders and missionaries for their purposes. In the 1860s, it became a minority language in the shadow of the English spoken by many settlers, missionaries, gold-seekers, and traders. In the late 19th century, the colonial governments of New Zealand and its provinces introduced an English-style school system for all New Zealanders. From the mid-19th century, due to the Native Schools Act and later the Native Schools Code, the use of Māori in schools was slowly filtered out of the curriculum. Increasing numbers of Māori people learned English.

Decline
Until the Second World War (1939–1945), most Māori people spoke Māori as their first language. Worship took place in Māori; it functioned as the language of Māori homes; Māori politicians conducted political meetings in Māori; and some literature appeared in Māori, along with many newspapers.

Before 1880, some Māori parliamentarians suffered disadvantages because parliamentary proceedings took place in English. However, by 1900, all Māori members of parliament, such as Āpirana Ngata, were university graduates who spoke fluent English. From this period greater emphasis was placed on Māori learning English, but it was not until the migration of Māori to urban areas after the Second World War (the Urban Māori) that the number of speakers of Māori began to decline rapidly. During this period, Māori was forbidden at many schools, and any use of the language was met with corporal punishment. In recent years, prominent Māori have spoken with sadness about their experiences or experiences of their family members being caned, strapped or beaten in school.

By the 1980s, fewer than 20 per cent of Māori spoke the language well enough to be classed as native speakers. Even many of those people no longer spoke Māori in their homes. As a result, many Māori children failed to learn their ancestral language, and generations of non-Māori-speaking Māori emerged.

In 1984, Naida Glavish, a tolls operator, was demoted for using the Māori greeting "kia ora" with customers. The "Kia Ora Incident" was the subject of public and political scrutiny before having her job reinstated by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, and became a major symbol of long-standing linguicism in New Zealand.

Revitalisation efforts
By the 1950s some Māori leaders had begun to recognise the dangers of the loss of te reo Māori. By the 1970s there were many strategies used to save the language. This included Māori-language revitalization programs such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, which from 1982 immersed infants in Māori from infancy to school age. There followed in 1985 the founding of the first Kura Kaupapa Māori (Years 1 to 8 Māori-medium education programme) and later the first Wharekura (Years 9 to 13 Māori-medium education programme). In 2011 it was reported that although "there was a true revival of te reo in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s ... spurred on by the realisation of how few speakers were left, and by the relative abundance of older fluent speakers in both urban neighbourhoods and rural communities", the language has continued to decline." The decline is believed "to have several underlying causes". These include:

 * the ongoing loss of older native speakers who have spearheaded the Māori-language revival movement
 * complacency brought about by the very existence of the institutions which drove the revival
 * concerns about quality, with the supply of good teachers never matching demand (even while that demand has been shrinking)
 * excessive regulation and centralised control, which has alienated some of those involved in the movement
 * an ongoing lack of educational resources needed to teach the full curriculum in te reo Māori
 * natural language attrition caused by the overwhelming increase of spoken English.

Based on the principles of partnership, Māori-speaking government, general revitalisation and dialectal protective policy, and adequate resourcing, the Waitangi Tribunal has recommended "four fundamental changes":

The changes set forth by the Tribunal are merely recommendations; they are not binding upon government. There is, however, evidence that the revitalisation efforts are taking hold, as can be seen in the teaching of te reo in the school curriculum, the use of Māori as an instructional language, and the supportive ideologies surrounding these efforts. In 2014, a survey of students ranging in age from 18 to 24 was conducted; the students were of mixed ethnic backgrounds, ranging from Pākehā to Māori who lived in New Zealand. This survey showed a 62% response saying that te reo Māori was at risk. Albury argues that these results come from the language either not being used enough in common discourse, or from the fact that the number of speakers was inadequate for future language development.
 * 1) Te Taura Whiri (the Māori Language Commission) should become the lead Māori language sector agency. This will address the problems caused by the lack of ownership and leadership identified by the Office of the Auditor-General.
 * 2) Te Taura Whiri should function as a Crown–Māori partnership through the equal appointment of Crown and Māori appointees to its board. This reflects [the Tribunal's] concern that te reo revival will not work if responsibility for setting the direction is not shared with Māori.
 * 3) Te Taura Whiri will also need increased powers. This will ensure that public bodies are compelled to contribute to te reo's revival and that key agencies are held properly accountable for the strategies they adopt. For instance, targets for the training of te reo teachers must be met, education curricula involving te reo must be approved, and public bodies in districts with a sufficient number and/or proportion of te reo speakers and schools with a certain proportion of Māori students must submit Māori language plans for approval.
 * 4) These regional public bodies and schools must also consult iwi (Māori tribes or tribal confederations) in the preparation of their plans. In this way, iwi will come to have a central role in the revitalisation of te reo in their own areas. This should encourage efforts to promote the language at the grassroots.

The policies for language revitalisation have been changing in attempts to improve Māori language use and have been working with suggestions from the Waitangi Tribunal on the best ways to implement the revitalisation. The Waitangi Tribunal in 2011 identified a suggestion for language revitalisation that would shift indigenous policies from the central government to the preferences and ideologies of the Māori people. This change recognises the issue of Māori revitalisation as one of indigenous self-determination, instead of the job of the government to identify what would be best for the language and Māori people of New Zealand.

Revival since 2015
Beginning in about 2015, the Māori language underwent a revival as it became increasingly popular, as a common national heritage and shared cultural identity, even among New Zealanders without Māori roots. Surveys from 2018 indicated that "the Māori language currently enjoys a high status in Māori society and also positive acceptance by the majority of non-Māori New Zealanders".

As the status and prestige of the language rose, so did the demand for language classes. Businesses, including Google, Microsoft, Vodafone NZ and Fletcher Building, were quick to adopt the trend as it became apparent that using te reo made customers think of a company as "committed to New Zealand". The language became increasingly heard in the media and in politics. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern—who gave her daughter a Māori middle name, and said she would learn both Māori and English—made headlines when she toasted Commonwealth leaders in 2018 with a Māori proverb, and the success of Māori musical groups such as Alien Weaponry and Maimoa further increased the language's presence in social media. Disney has dubbed its animated films in Māori since Moana (2017).

In August 2017, Rotorua became the first city in New Zealand to declare itself as bilingual in the Māori and English languages, meaning that both languages would be promoted. In 2019, the New Zealand government launched the Maihi Karauna Māori language revitalisation strategy with a goal of 1 million people speaking te reo Māori by 2040. Also in 2019, Kotahi Rau Pukapuka Trust and Auckland University Press began work on publishing a sizeable library of local and international literature in the language, including the Harry Potter books.

Some New Zealanders have pushed against the revival, debating the replacement of English-language place names with original Māori names, criticising a police car having Māori language and graphics, and complaining about te reo Māori being used by broadcasters. In March 2021, the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) said it would no longer entertain complaints regarding the use of the Māori language in broadcasts. This followed a fivefold increase in complaints to the BSA. The use of Māori in itself does not breach any broadcasting standards.

Linguistic classification
Comparative linguists classify Māori as a Polynesian language, specifically as an Eastern Polynesian language belonging to the Tahitic subgroup, which includes Cook Islands Māori, spoken in the southern Cook Islands, and Tahitian, spoken in Tahiti and the Society Islands. Other major Eastern Polynesian languages include Hawaiian, Marquesan (languages in the Marquesic subgroup), and the Rapa Nui language of Easter Island.

While the preceding are all distinct languages, they remain similar enough that Tupaia, a Tahitian travelling with Captain James Cook in 1769–1770, communicated effectively with Māori. Māori actors, travelling to Easter Island for production of the film Rapa-Nui noticed a marked similarity between the native tongues, as did arts curator Reuben Friend, who noted that it took only a short time to pick up any different vocabulary and the different nuances to recognisable words. Speakers of modern Māori generally report that they find the languages of the Cook Islands, including Rarotongan, the easiest amongst the other Polynesian languages to understand and converse in.

Geographic distribution
Nearly all speakers are ethnic Māori residents of New Zealand. Estimates of the number of speakers vary: the 1996 census reported 160,000, while a 1995 national survey reported about 10,000 “very fluent” adult speakers. As reported in the 2013 national census, only 21.3% of self-identified Māori had a conversational knowledge of the language, and only around 6.5% of those speakers, 1.4% of the total Māori population, spoke the Māori language only. This percentage has been in decline in recent years, from around a quarter of the population to 21%. In the same census, Māori speakers were 3.7% of the total population.

The level of competence of self-professed Māori speakers varies from minimal to total. Statistics have not been gathered for the prevalence of different levels of competence. Only a minority of self-professed speakers use Māori as their main language at home. The rest use only a few words or phrases (passive bilingualism).

Māori is a community language in some predominantly Māori settlements in the Northland, Urewera and East Cape areas. Kohanga reo Māori-immersion kindergartens throughout New Zealand use Māori exclusively. Increasing numbers of Māori raise their children bilingually.

Urbanisation after the Second World War led to widespread language shift from Māori predominance (with Māori the primary language of the rural whānau) to English predominance (English serving as the primary language in the Pākehā cities). Therefore, Māori speakers almost always communicate bilingually, with New Zealand English as either their first or second language. Only around 9,000 people speak only in Māori.

The use of the Māori language in the Māori diaspora is far lower than in New Zealand itself. Census data from Australia show it as the home language of 11,747, just 8.2% of the total Australian Māori population in 2016.

Orthography
The modern Māori alphabet has 15 letters, two of which are digraphs (character pairs). The five vowels have both short and long forms, with the long forms denoted by macrons marked above them.

The order of the alphabet is as follows: A, E, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, R, T, U, W, Ng, Wh.

This standard orthography may be tweaked to represent certain dialects of Māori:
 * An underlined " k " sometimes appears when writing the Southern dialect, to indicate that the /k/ in question corresponds to the ng of the standard language.
 * Both L and G are also encountered in the Southern dialect, though not in standard Māori.
 * Various methods are used to indicate glottal stops when writing the Whanganui dialect.

History
There was originally no native writing system for Māori. It has been suggested that the petroglyphs once used by the Māori developed into a script similar to the Rongorongo of Easter Island. However, there is no evidence that these petroglyphs ever evolved into a true system of writing. Some distinctive markings among the kōwhaiwhai (rafter paintings) of meeting houses were used as mnemonics in reciting whakapapa (genealogy) but again, there was no systematic relation between marks and meanings.

Attempts to write Māori words using the Latin script began with Captain James Cook and other early explorers, with varying degrees of success. Consonants seem to have caused the most difficulty, but medial and final vowels are often missing in early sources. Anne Salmond records aghee for aki (in the year 1773, from the North Island East Coast, p. 98), Toogee and E tanga roak for Tuki and Tangaroa (1793, Northland, p. 216), Kokramea, Kakramea for Kakaramea (1801, Hauraki, p. 261), toges for tokis, Wannugu for Uenuku and gumera for kumara (1801, Hauraki, pp. 261, 266 and 269), Weygate for Waikato (1801, Hauraki, p. 277), Bunga Bunga for pungapunga, for tupua and gure for kurī (1801, Hauraki, p. 279), as well as Tabooha for Te Puhi (1823, Northern Northland, p. 385).

From 1814, missionaries tried to define the sounds of the language. Thomas Kendall published a book in 1815 entitled A korao no New Zealand, which in modern orthography and usage would be He Kōrero nō Aotearoa. Beginning in 1817, professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University worked with the Ngāpuhi chief Tītore and his junior relative Tui (also known as Tuhi or Tupaea), and then with chief Hongi Hika and his junior relative Waikato; they established a definitive orthography based on Northern usage, published as the First Grammar and Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language (1820). The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) did not have a high regard for this book. By 1830 the CMS missionaries had revised the orthography for writing the Māori language; for example, 'Kiddeekiddee' was changed to the modern spelling, 'Kerikeri'. This orthography continues to be used, with only two major changes: the addition of wh to distinguish the voiceless bilabial fricative phoneme from the labio-velar phoneme ; and the consistent marking of long vowels.

The Māori embraced literacy enthusiastically, and missionaries reported in the 1820s that Māori all over the country taught each other to read and write, using sometimes quite innovative materials in the absence of paper, such as leaves and charcoal, and flax. Missionary James West Stack recorded the scarcity of slates and writing materials at the native schools and the use sometimes of "pieces of board on which sand was sprinkled, and the letters traced upon the sand with a pointed stick".

Long vowels
The alphabet devised at Cambridge University does not mark vowel length. The examples in the following table show that vowel length is phonemic in Māori.

Māori devised ways to mark vowel length, sporadically at first. Occasional and inconsistent vowel-length markings occur in 19th-century manuscripts and newspapers written by Māori, including macron-like diacritics and doubling of letters. Māori writer Hare Hongi (Henry Stowell) used macrons in his Maori-English Tutor and Vade Mecum of 1911, as does Sir Āpirana Ngata (albeit inconsistently) in his Maori Grammar and Conversation (7th printing 1953). Once the Māori language was taught in universities in the 1960s, vowel-length marking was made systematic. Bruce Biggs, of Ngāti Maniapoto descent and professor at the University of Auckland, promoted the use of double vowels (e.g. waahine); this style was standard at the university until Biggs died in 2000.

Macrons (tohutō) are now the standard means of indicating long vowels, after becoming the favoured option of the Māori Language Commission—set up by the Māori Language Act 1987 to act as the authority for Māori spelling and orthography. Most news media now use macrons; Stuff websites and newspapers since 2017, TVNZ and NZME websites and newspapers since 2018.

Technical limitations in producing macronised vowels on typewriters and older computer systems are sometimes resolved by using a diaeresis or circumflex instead of a macron (e.g., wähine or wâhine).

Double vowels continue to be used in a few exceptional cases, including:
 * The Waikato-Tainui iwi preference is for using doubled vowels; hence in the Waikato region, double vowels are used by the Hamilton City Council, Waikato District Council and Waikato Museum.
 * Inland Revenue continues to spell its Māori name Te Tari Taake instead of Te Tari Tāke, mainly to reduce the resemblance of tāke to the English word 'take'.
 * A considerable number of governmental and non-governmental organisations continue to use the older spelling of $⟨roopu⟩$ ('association') in their names rather than the more modern form $⟨rōpū⟩$. Examples include Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa ('the national Māori weavers' collective') and Te Roopu Pounamu (a Māori-specific organisation within the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand).
 * Double vowels are also used instead of macrons in long vowels resultant from compounding (e.g. Mātaatua) or reduplication.

Phonology
Māori has five phonemically distinct vowel articulations, and ten consonant phonemes.

Vowels
Although it is commonly claimed that vowel realisations (pronunciations) in Māori show little variation, linguistic research has shown this not to be the case.

Vowel length is phonemic, but four of the five long vowels occur in only a handful of word roots, the exception being. As noted above, it has recently become standard in Māori spelling to indicate a long vowel with a macron. For older speakers, long vowels tend to be more peripheral and short vowels more centralised, especially with the low vowel, which is long but short. For younger speakers, they are both. For older speakers, is only fronted after ; elsewhere it is. For younger speakers, it is fronted everywhere, as with the corresponding phoneme in New Zealand English. Due to the influence of New Zealand English, the vowel [e] is raised to be near [i], so that pī and kē (or piki and kete) now largely share the very same vowel space.

Beside monophthongs Māori has many diphthong vowel phonemes. Although any short vowel combinations are possible, researchers disagree on which combinations constitute diphthongs. Formant frequency analysis distinguish as diphthongs. As in many other Polynesian languages, diphthongs in Māori vary only slightly from sequences of adjacent vowels, except that they belong to the same syllable, and all or nearly all sequences of nonidentical vowels are possible. All sequences of nonidentical short vowels occur and are phonemically distinct.

Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Māori are listed in the following table. Seven of the ten Māori consonant letters have the same pronunciation as they do in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For those that do not, the IPA phonetic transcription is included, enclosed in square brackets per IPA convention.

The pronunciation of $⟨wh⟩$ is extremely variable, but its most common pronunciation (its canonical allophone) is the labiodental fricative, IPA (as in the English word fill). Another allophone is the voiceless bilabial fricative, IPA, which is usually supposed to be the sole pre-European pronunciation, although linguists are not sure of the truth of this supposition. At least until the 1930s, the bilabial fricative was considered to be the correct pronunciation. The fact that English $⟨f⟩$ gets substituted by $⟨p⟩$ and not $⟨wh⟩$ in borrowings (for example, English February becomes Pēpuere instead of Whēpuere) would strongly hint that the Māori did not perceive English to be the same sound as their $⟨wh⟩$.

Because English stops primarily have aspiration, speakers of English often hear the Māori nonaspirated stops as English. However, younger Māori speakers tend to aspirate as in English. English speakers also tend to hear Māori as English  in certain positions (cf. Japanese r).

can come at the beginning of a word (like 'sing-along' without the "si"), which may be difficult for English speakers outside of New Zealand to manage.

In some western areas of the North Island, $⟨h⟩$ is pronounced as a glottal stop instead of, and the digraph $⟨wh⟩$ is pronounced as  instead of  or.

is typically a flap, especially before. However, elsewhere it is sometimes trilled.

In borrowings from English, many consonants are substituted by the nearest available Māori consonant. For example, the English affricates and, and the fricative  are replaced by ,  becomes /, and  becomes  (the  is sometimes retained in the southern dialect, as noted below).

Syllables and phonotactics
Syllables in Māori have one of the following forms: V, VV, CV, CVV. This set of four can be summarised by the notation, , in which the segments in parentheses may or may not be present. A syllable cannot begin with two consonant sounds (the digraphs ng and wh represent single consonant sounds), and cannot end in a consonant, although some speakers may occasionally devoice a final vowel. All possible CV combinations are grammatical, though wo, who, wu, and whu occur only in a few loanwords from English such as wuru, "wool" and whutuporo, "football".

As in many other Polynesian languages, e.g., Hawaiian, the rendering of loanwords from English includes representing every English consonant of the loanword (using the native consonant inventory; English has 24 consonants to 10 for Māori) and breaking up consonant clusters. For example, "Presbyterian" has been borrowed as Perehipeteriana; no consonant position in the loanword has been deleted, but and  have been replaced with  and, respectively.

Stress is typically within the last four vowels of a word, with long vowels and diphthongs counting double. That is, on the last four moras. However, stressed moras are longer than unstressed moras, so the word does not have the precision in Māori that it does in some other languages. It falls preferentially on the first long vowel, on the first diphthong if there is no long vowel (though for some speakers never a final diphthong), and on the first syllable otherwise. Compound words (such as names) may have a stressed syllable in each component word. In long sentences, the final syllable before a pause may have a stress in preference to the normal stressed syllable.

Dialects
Biggs proposed that historically there were two major dialect groups, North Island and South Island, and that South Island Māori is extinct. Biggs has analysed North Island Māori as comprising a western group and an eastern group with the boundary between them running pretty much along the island's north–south axis.

Within these broad divisions regional variations occur, and individual regions show tribal variations. The major differences occur in the pronunciation of words, variation of vocabulary, and idiom. A fluent speaker of Māori has no problem understanding other dialects.

There is no significant variation in grammar between dialects. "Most of the tribal variation in grammar is a matter of preferences: speakers of one area might prefer one grammatical form to another, but are likely on occasion to use the non-preferred form, and at least to recognise and understand it." Vocabulary and pronunciation vary to a greater extent, but this does not pose barriers to communication.

North Island dialects
In the southwest of the island, in the Whanganui and Taranaki regions, the phoneme $⟨h⟩$ is a glottal stop and the phoneme $⟨wh⟩$ is. This difference was the subject of considerable debate during the 1990s and 2000s over the then-proposed change of the name of the city Wanganui to Whanganui.

In Tūhoe and the Eastern Bay of Plenty (northeastern North Island) $⟨ng⟩$ has merged with $⟨n⟩$. In parts of the Far North, $⟨wh⟩$ has merged with $⟨w⟩$.

South Island dialects
In South Island dialects, ng merged with k in many regions. Thus Kāi Tahu and Ngāi Tahu are variations in the name of the same iwi (the latter form is the one used in acts of Parliament). Since 2000, the government has altered the official names of several southern place names to the southern dialect forms by replacing ng with k. New Zealand's highest mountain, known for centuries as Aoraki in southern Māori dialects that merge ng with k, and as Aorangi by other Māori, was later named "Mount Cook". Now its sole official name is Aoraki / Mount Cook, which favours the local dialect form. Similarly, the Māori name for Stewart Island, Rakiura, is cognate with the name of the Canterbury town of Rangiora. Likewise, Dunedin's main research library, the Hocken Collections, has the name Uare Taoka o Hākena rather than the northern (standard) Te Whare Taonga o Hākena. Maarire Goodall and George Griffiths say there is also a voicing of k to g, which explains why the region of Otago (southern dialect) and the settlement it is named after – Otakou (standard Māori) – vary in spelling (the pronunciation of the latter having changed over time to accommodate the northern spelling).

The standard Māori r is also found occasionally changed to an l in these southern dialects and the wh to w. These changes are most commonly found in place names, such as Lake Waihola, and the nearby coastal settlement of Wangaloa (which would, in standard Māori, be rendered Whangaroa), and Little Akaloa, on Banks Peninsula. Goodall and Griffiths suggest that final vowels are given a centralised pronunciation as schwa or that they are elided (pronounced indistinctly or not at all), resulting in such seemingly bastardised place names as The Kilmog, which in standard Māori would have been rendered Kirimoko, but which in southern dialect would have been pronounced very much as the current name suggests. This same elision is found in numerous other southern placenames, such as the two small settlements called The Kaik (from the term for a fishing village, kainga in standard Māori), near Palmerston and Akaroa, and the early spelling of Lake Wakatipu as Wagadib. In standard Māori, Wakatipu would have been rendered Whakatipua, showing further the elision of a final vowel.

Despite the dialect being officially regarded as extinct, its use in signage and official documentation is encouraged by many government and educational agencies in Otago and Southland.

Grammar and syntax
Māori has mostly a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order. It is also analytical, featuring almost no inflection, and makes extensive use of grammatical particles to indicate grammatical categories of tense, mood, aspect, case, topicalization, among others. The personal pronouns have a distinction in clusivity, singular, dual and plural numbers, and the genitive pronouns have different classes (a class, o class and neutral) according to whether the possession is alienable or the possessor has control of the relationship (a category), or the possession is inalienable or the possessor has no control over the relationship (o category), and a third neutral class that only occurs for singular pronouns and must be followed by a noun. There is also subject-object-verb (SOV) word order used in passive sentences. Examples of this include Nāku te ngohi i tunu ("I cooked the fish"; literally I the fish cooked) and Mā wai te haka e kaea? ("Who will lead the haka?").

Bases
Biggs (1998) developed an analysis that the basic unit of Māori speech is the phrase rather than the word. The lexical word forms the "base" of the phrase. Biggs identifies five types of bases.

Noun bases include those bases that can take a definite article, but cannot occur as the nucleus of a verbal phrase; for example: ika (fish) or rākau (tree). Plurality is marked by various means, including the definite article (singular te, plural ngā), deictic particles tērā rākau (that tree), ērā rākau (those trees), possessives taku whare (my house), aku whare (my houses). A few nouns lengthen a vowel in the plural, such as wahine (woman); wāhine (women). In general, bases used as qualifiers follow the base they qualify, e.g. "matua wahine" (mother, female elder) from "matua" (parent, elder) "wahine" (woman).

Universal bases are verbs which can be used passively. When used passively, these verbs take a passive form. Biggs gives three examples of universals in their passive form: (drunk),  (wept for), and kīa (said).

Stative bases serve as bases usable as verbs but not available for passive use, such as ora, alive or tika, correct. Grammars generally refer to them as "stative verbs". When used in sentences, statives require different syntax than other verb-like bases.

Locative bases can follow the locative particle ki (to, towards) directly, such as runga, above, waho, outside, and placenames (ki Tamaki, to Auckland).

Personal bases take the personal article a after ki, such as names of people (ki a Hohepa, to Joseph), personified houses, personal pronouns, wai? who? and mea, so-and-so.

Particles
Like all other Polynesian languages, Māori has a rich array of particles, which include verbal particles, pronouns, locative particles, articles and possessives.

Verbal particles indicate aspectual, tense-related or modal properties of the verb which they relate to. They include:

 * i (past)
 * e (non-past)
 * i te (past continuous)
 * kei te (present continuous)
 * kua (perfect)
 * e ... ana (imperfect, continuous)
 * ka (inceptive, future)
 * kia (desiderative)
 * me (prescriptive)
 * kei (warning, "lest")
 * ina or ana (punctative-conditional, "if and when")
 * kāti (cessative)
 * ai (habitual)

Locative particles (prepositions) refer to position in time and/or space, and include:

 * ki (to, towards)
 * kei (at)
 * i (past position)
 * hei (future position)

Possessives fall into one of two classes of prepositions marked by a and o, depending on the dominant versus subordinate relationship between possessor and possessed: ngā tamariki a te matua, the children of the parent but te matua o ngā tamariki, the parent of the children.

Articles
The definite articles are te (singular) and ngā (plural). Several other determiners termed definitives are related to the singular definite article te, such as the definitive possessive constructions with tā and tō and the demonstrative determiners.

The Māori definite articles are frequently used where the equivalent, the, is not used in English, such as when referring generically to an entire class. In these cases, the singular te can even be used with a morphologically plural noun, as in te tamariki

DEF.SG child.PL

"children (in general)" as opposed to ngā tamariki

DEF.PL child.PL

"the (specific group of) children"

In other syntactic environments, the definite article may be used to introduce a noun-phrase which is pragmatically indefinite due to the restrictions on the use of he as discussed below.

The indefinite article he is used most frequently in the predicate and occasionally in the subject of the sentence, although it is not allowed in subject position in all sentence types. In the predicate, the indefinite article he can introduce either nouns or adjectives. The article either can be translated to the English 'a' or 'some', but the number will not be indicated by he. With nouns that show morphological number, he may be used either with singular or plural forms. The indefinite article he when used with mass nouns like water and sand will always mean 'some'.

The indefinite article he is highly restricted in its use and is incompatible with a preceding preposition. For this reason, it cannot be used in the grammatical object of the sentence as these are marked prepositionally, either with i or ki. In many cases, speakers simply use the definite articles te and ngā in positions where he is disallowed, however the indefinite articles tētahi and ētahi may be used in these situations to emphasise the indefiniteness.

I kite ahau i te kurī.

PST see 1S ACC DEF.SG dog

"I saw the dog." ("I saw a dog.")

I kite ahau i tētahi kurī.

PST see 1S ACC INDEF.SG dog

"I saw a dog."

In positions where both he and tētahi/ētahi may occur, there are sometimes differences of meaning between them as the following examples indicate.

Kāore tētahi tangata i haere mai.

NEG SG.INDEF person.SG PST go towards.speaker

(1) "Someone didn't come." / "A particular person didn't come." (2) "Nobody came."

Kāore he tangata i haere mai.

NEG INDEF person.SG PST go towards.speaker

"Nobody came."

The proper article a is used before personal and locative nouns acting as the subject of the sentence or before personal nouns and pronouns within prepositional phrases headed by prepositions ending in i (namely i, ki, kei and hei).

Kei hea a Pita?

PRES.LOC where ART Peter

"Where is Peter?"

Kei hea ia?

PRES.LOC where 3S

"Where is he?"

Kei {Tāmaki Makaurau} a Pita

PRES.LOC Auckland ART Peter

"Peter is in Auckland."

Kei {Tāmaki Makaurau} ia

PRES.LOC Auckland 3S

"He is in Auckland."

I kite ahau i a Pita

PST see 1S ACC ART Peter

"I saw Peter."

I kite ahau i a ia

PST see 1S ACC ART 3S

"I saw him."

The personal nouns are not accompanied by definite or indefinite articles unless they are an intrinsic part of the name, as in Te Rauparaha.

Kei hea a Te Rauparaha?

PRES.LOC where ART Te Rauparaha

"Where is Te Rauparaha?"

Kei t-ō-ku kāinga a Te Rauparaha.

PRES.LOC DEF.SG-INAL-1s home ART Te Rauparaha

"Te Rauparaha is at my home."

Proper nouns are not preceded by the proper article when they are neither acting as the subject of the sentence nor in a prepositional phrase headed by i, ki, kei or hei. For example, after the focusing particle ko, the proper article is not used.

Ko Rāwiri t-ō-ku ingoa.

FOC Rāwiri DEF.SG-INAL-1S name

"My name is Rāwiri."

Ko Te Rauparaha tērā tangata.

FOC Te Rauparaha DEM.SG.DIST person.SG

"That person (over there) is Te Rauparaha."

Demonstrative determiners and adverbs
Demonstratives occur after the noun and have a deictic function, and include tēnei, this (near me), tēnā, that (near you), tērā, that (far from us both), and taua, the aforementioned (anaphoric). These demonstratives, having a connection to the definite article te are termed definitives. Other definitives include tēhea? (which?), and tētahi, (a certain). The plural is formed just by dropping the t: tēnei (this), ēnei (these). The related adverbs are nei (here), nā (there, near you), rā (over there, near him).

Phrases introduced by demonstratives can also be expressed using the definite article te or ngā preceding a noun followed by one of the deictic particles nei, nā or rā. The t of the singular definite article appears in the singular demonstratives but is replaced by ∅ in the plural, having no connection with ngā in the majority of dialects.

"this house"

"these houses"

However, in dialects of the Waikato area, plural forms of demonstratives beginning with ng- are found, such as ngēnei 'these' instead of the more widespread ēnei (as well as and possessives such as ng(e)ōku 'my (plural, inalienable)' instead of ōku).

The following table shows the most common forms of demonstratives across dialects.

Personal pronouns
Pronouns have singular, dual and plural number. Different first-person forms in both the dual and the plural are used for groups inclusive or exclusive of the person(s) addressed.

Like other Polynesian languages, Māori has three numbers for pronouns and possessives: singular, dual and plural. For example: ia (he/she), rāua (those two), rātou (they, three or more). Māori pronouns and possessives further distinguish exclusive "we" from inclusive "we", second and third. It has the plural pronouns: mātou (we, exc), tātou (we, inc), koutou (you), rātou (they). The language features the dual pronouns: māua (me and another), tāua (me and you), kōrua (you two), rāua (those two). The difference between exclusive and inclusive lies in the treatment of the person addressed. Mātou refers to the speaker and others but not the person or persons spoken to ("I and some others but not you"), and tātou refers to the speaker, the person or persons spoken to and everyone else ("you, I and others"):

 * Tēnā koe: hello (to one person)
 * Tēnā kōrua: hello (to two people)
 * Tēnā koutou: hello (to more than two people)

Possessive pronouns
The possessive pronouns vary according to person, number, clusivity, and possessive class (a class or o class). Example: tāku pene (my pen), āku pene (my pens). For dual and plural subject pronouns, the possessive form is analytical, by just putting the possessive particle (tā/tō for singular objects or ā/ō for plural objects) before the personal pronouns, e.g. tā tātou karaihe (our class), tō rāua whare (their [dual] house); ā tātou karaihe (our classes). The neuter one must be followed by a noun and only occur for singular first, second and third persons. Taku is my, aku is my (plural, for many possessed items). The plural is made by deleting the initial [t].

Interrogative pronouns

 * wai ('who')
 * aha ('what')
 * hea ('where')
 * nō hea ('whence')
 * āhea ('when')
 * e hia ('how many [things]')
 * tokohia ('how many [people]')
 * pēhea ('how')
 * tēhea ('which'), ēhea ('which [pl.]')
 * he aha ... ai ('why [reason]')
 * nā te aha ... ai ('why [cause]')

Phrase grammar
A phrase spoken in Māori can be broken up into two parts: the "nucleus" or "head" and "periphery" (modifiers, determiners). The nucleus can be thought of as the meaning and is the centre of the phrase, whereas the periphery is where the grammatical meaning is conveyed and occurs before and/or after the nucleus.

The nucleus whare can be translated as "house", the periphery te is similar to an article "the" and the periphery nei indicates proximity to the speaker. The whole phrase, te whare nei, can then be translated as "this house".

Phrasal particles
A definite and declarative sentence (may be a copulative sentence) begins with the declarative particle ko. If the sentence is topicalized (agent topic, only in non-present sentences) the sentence begins with the particle nā (past tense) or the particle mā (future, imperfective) followed by the agent/subject. In these cases the word order changes to subject-verb-object. These agent topicalizing particles can contract with singular personal pronouns and vary according to the possessive classes: nāku can be thought of as meaning "as for me" and behave like an emphatic or dative pronoun.

Case particles

 * Nominative: ko
 * Accusative: i
 * Dative/directional locative: ki
 * Genitive: a/o

Negation
Forming negative phrases in Māori is quite grammatically complex. There are several different negators which are used under various specific circumstances. The main negators are as follows:

Kīhai and tē are two negators which may be seen in specific dialects or older texts, but are not widely used. The most common negator is kāhore, which may occur in one of four forms, with the kāo form only being used in response to a question. Negative phrases, besides using kāore, also affect the form of verbal particles, as illustrated below.

The general usage of kāhore can be seen in the following examples. The subject is usually raised in negative phrases, although this is not obligatory. Each example of a negative phrase is presented with its analogue positive phrase for comparison.

E haere ana tātou āpōpō

T/A move T/A 1PL.INCL tomorrow

'We are going tomorrow' Kua tae mai he tāngata

T/A arrive hither a people

'Some people have arrived'

Kāhore tātou e haere ana āpōpō

NEG 1PL.INCL T/A move T/A tomorrow

'We are not going tomorrow' Kāhore anō he tāngata kia tae mai

NEG yet a people SUBJ arrive hither

'Nobody has arrived yet'

Passive sentences
The passive voice of verbs is made by a suffix to the verb. For example, -ia (or just -a if the verb ends in [i]). The other passive suffixes, some of which are very rare, are: -hanga/-hia/-hina/-ina/-kia/-kina/-mia/-na/-nga/-ngia/-ria/-rina/-tia/-whia/-whina/. The use of the passive suffix -ia is given in this sentence: Kua hangaia te marae e ngā tohunga (The marae has been built by the experts). The active form of this sentence is rendered as: Kua hanga ngā tohunga i te marae (The experts have built the marae). It can be seen that the active sentence contains the object marker 'i', that is not present in the passive sentence, while the passive sentence has the agent marker 'e', which is not present in the active sentence.

Polar questions
Polar questions (yes/no questions) can be made by changing the intonation of the sentence. The answers may be āe (yes) or kāo (no).

Derivational morphology
Although Māori is mostly analytical there are several derivational affixes:

 * -anga, -hanga, -ranga, -tanga (-ness, -ity) (the suffix depends on whether the verb takes, respectively, the -ia, -hia, -ria or -tia passive suffixes) (e.g. pōti 'vote', pōtitanga 'election')
 * -nga (nominalizer)
 * kai- (agentive noun) (e.g. mahi 'work', kaimahi 'worker/employee')
 * ma- (adjectives)
 * tua- (ordinal numerals) (e.g. tahi 'one', tuatahi 'first/primary')
 * whaka- (causative prefix)

Influence on New Zealand English
New Zealand English has gained many loanwords from Māori, mainly the names of birds, plants, fishes and places. For example, the kiwi, the national bird, takes its name from te reo. "Kia ora" (literally "be healthy") is a widely adopted greeting of Māori origin, with the intended meaning of "hello". It can also mean "thank you", or signify agreement with a speaker at a meeting. The Māori greetings tēnā koe (to one person), tēnā kōrua (to two people) or tēnā koutou (to three or more people) are also widely used, as are farewells such as haere rā. The Māori phrase kia kaha, "be strong", is frequently encountered as an indication of moral support for someone starting a stressful undertaking or otherwise in a difficult situation. Many other words such as whānau (meaning "family") and kai (meaning "food") are also widely understood and used by New Zealanders. The Māori phrase Ka kite anō means 'until I see you again' is quite commonly used.

In 2023, 47 words or expressions from New Zealand English, mostly from te reo Māori were added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Online translators
Māori is available on Google Translate, Microsoft Translator and Yandex Translate. Another popular online dictionary is Te Aka Māori Dictionary.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Māori language