Possessive Prepositions
A preposition is a word that comes before another word to add grammatical meaning. Two common prepositions in Māori are “a” and “o”. (This “a” is a separate word from the identical proper article 😉😉😉.)
An important and practical distinction in Māori is alienable versus inalienable possession. An alienable possession is typically one that the possessor can throw away. It is generally thought that the possessor has control over alienable possessions. That definition isn’t perfect for Māori; There are exceptions.
“a” is for alienable possession, and “o” is for inalienable possession.
| te niho | o Tama |
| the tooth | of Tama |
| Tama’s tooth | |
| (A tooth from his own mouth that is part of him) | |
| te niho | a Tama |
| the tooth | of Tama |
| Tama’s tooth | |
| (A tooth that he got from somewhere else, which can be thrown away) | |
This distinction can be particularly useful to differentiate the participants of actions, where the alienable possession indicates the one doing the action.
| te whakamārama | a te kaiako | o te marau |
| the explanation | of the teacher | of the subject |
| the teacher’s explanation of the subject | ||
Things in one’s alienable possession might include small items, food, younger family, pets, workers, actions.
Things in one’s inalienable possession might include parts of something, names, emotions, qualities, clothes, large items, transport, buildings, older family, all siblings, friends, water.