174 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VI. 
been preferable to baptize them by native names, if they 
would not teach them the English language. I also 
observed this straining of a point in order to preserve 
the native language in the missionary translations of 
the Bible. The Maori language is essentially a poor 
one, and possesses in particular but few words which 
express abstract ideas. The translators have overcome 
the difficulty by coining words, written according to the 
Maori pronunciation which nearest approaches to the 
word sought to be represented. All proper names, 
too, are transformed in the native Bible like those 
given to the natives. 
It must be remembered that the Maori, as made a 
written language, is pronounced in the same way as 
German or Spanish ; that is to say, each vowel has a 
distinct and unalterable sound. No diphthongs, mute 
vowels, or sounds ending with a consonant, occur in 
Maori: many of our sounds, such as^, s, v,j, I, g, ch, 
sh, th, are not in the native language, and offer consider- 
able difficulty to a Maori ; and others which do exist, 
such as d and b, have been banished by the missionaries, 
and included under r and p. The Maori for " angry," 
for instance, is distinctly pronounced " ridi " by most 
natives : the missionaries, however, disclaim the d, and 
write it riri. " A hill " is as certainly buke ; the mis- 
sionaries write it puke. With the exception of 7ig, a 
nasal sound peculiar to the language, the natives find 
it difficult to pronounce two consonants without a 
vowel between them. 
With these explanations, the following table of 
manufactured words in the Maori Bibles and Prayer- 
books may perhaps be understood : — 
glory kororia 
victory wikitoria 
amen amine 
