Topic: tatau

Topic type:

To count, or recite a series of reference points

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tatau


Kupu:tatau
Tikanga:

To count, to recite a series of reference points in appropriate order. It has often been substituted with an English loan work “kaute”, perhaps because ‘kaute’ is used specifically for counting numbers.

Momo Kupu:vt.
Kaikōrero:KK76
Rerenga Māori:

Ka karanga a Ihenga: “Tataungia tātou”. Kātahi ka kautengia, e rua ngā tāngata kua ngaro i roto i te ope nei.

Rerenga Pākehā:

Ihenga called out “Do a count of ourselves”. So (they) were counted, and two people were found to be missing from their group.

Whakahuahua:common
Rohe:katoa
Checked For Accuracy:yes
 

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Ruakere's Avatar.

Ruakere

 said note

This is a good example of both 'tatau' and 'kaute' being used together.  I would think that the first time 'tatau' was used because Kahui Kararehe (the writer) recognises that this was the traditional term for the time of Ihenga.  But when the story continues without using Ihenga's voice, Kahui returns back to the recently common English loan word 'kaute' thereby reinforcing that there was a head count rather than calling out a sequence of people names (like a roll)  perhaps based on seniority/status of the individuals

Tags: loan word, kaute, passive, example

Posted on May 5th, 2008 at 1:22 PM

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Tags: common, katoa, tatau