Plural forms for Maori

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

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On May 31, 2006, at 11:09 PM, Ian Beardslee wrote:
> ...
> My understanding is that the word 'te' is the singular 'the' and 'nga'
> is the plural 'the'.
> ...

Yes, but when Rosetta is asking for plural forms, it is interested in 
which forms are used for which numbers. For example, if zero files were 
copied, is that horekau te kōnae, horekau nga kōnae, or something else?

There's also the problem of the word "e" in counting-type sentences:
*   1 ōu mineti.
*   E 7 ōu mineti.
*   11 ōu mineti.
*   E 64 ōu mineti.
*   1000 ōu mineti.
*   E 9000 ōu mineti.

Where are those "E"s coming from? According to my copy of /Making Māori 
sentences/, there are two forms involved:
*   the one without "e", used for the numbers 1, 10~19, 30~99, and any
     number greater than 100 that starts with 1
*   the one with "e", used for the numbers 2~9, 20~29, and any number
     greater than 100 that doesn't start with 1.

Combine that with "te" for 1 and "nga" for any number greater than one, 
and you have three possible ways a sentence should be translated 
depending on what number is in it (because the "te" way is a subset of 
the "no e" way).

Perhaps someone who speaks Māori could check that the above is correct, 
and also tell us what form is used for zero?

- -- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/
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