BLOG 10A: What are the connections between Māori and Southeast Asian languages? Does this provide more clues to who were New Zealand’s first settlers?

Māori is a subgroup of the family of Malayo-Polynesian languages. They are spoken across a vast area, including Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Many languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family in insular Southeast Asia show the strong influence of Sanskrit (originally from Aryan people who entered India), Tamil and Arabic.

The Sanskrit-speaking Aryans became the dominant group in India. Some Aryans moved through India into the Southeast Asian archipelago, and eventually to the Pacific.

Sanskrit, originating in ancient India, became a powerful cultural and intellectual force across South and Southeast Asia. Sanskrit gradually became the language of choice for inscriptions and political expression in much of Southeast Asia.

Many Southeast Asian languages, especially those in the Malayo-Polynesian family, show strong Sanskrit influence in vocabulary and grammatical structures. This process, known as “Sanskritisation,” involved the adoption of Sanskrit words and forms into local languages, often through religious and literary texts. Languages such as Javanese, Khmer, Thai, and Balinese have thousands of words derived from Sanskrit, especially in domains related to religion, governance, and literature.

Many place names in South-East Asian countries are based on celebrated places from Indian mythology. For instance, the national airline of Indonesia is Garuda, named after the god Vishnu’s horse. The rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia, the name is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, rupyakam. The national airport of Thailand is named Suvarnabhumi, which means “golden land” in Sanskrit. The ancient capital of Thailand is named Ayutthaya, after Ayodhya, a capital city in an ancient Indian poem. The name of Java Island is derived from the Sanskrit Yavad, meaning “island shaped like a yava”, or grain of barley.

The Māori language in New Zealand is part of the Malayo-Polynesian family, which spans Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and shares deep linguistic roots with languages influenced by Sanskrit, Tamil, and Arabic through ancient migration and cultural exchange. This shared heritage is reflected in Māori vocabulary and place names, revealing clues about the origins of New Zealand’s first settlers and their connections to Southeast Asian societies.

Influence of Indian Mythology on South-east Asia Today