Blog 7: What are the connections between Māori and Southeast Asian languages?

JOURNEY 1 - SERIES 5 - BLOG 7 - A PART OF 9 BLOGS IN SERIES 5 - Reading time: 5 Mins

---

Māori (te reo Māori) is a Polynesian language within the wider Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family, whose languages stretch from Island Southeast Asia across the Pacific. The connection between Māori and Sanskrit is best understood indirectly: Sanskrit left a deep imprint on many languages of Island Southeast Asia through trade, religion, and literature.  This discussion adds another dimension to New Zealand’s origin story. These migration patterns contribute to broader debates surrounding Southeast Asian migration to New Zealand and are frequently compared with established interpretations of Polynesian migration to New Zealand. Together, these competing perspectives continue to shape ongoing discussions about New Zealand’s first settlers.

Sanskrit originated in South Asia and spread widely beyond India, especially from the early centuries CE, as Indian religions, court culture, and commerce connected with Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.  Across South and Southeast Asia, Sanskrit functioned as a prestige language for learning, religion, and political authority. Inscriptions, royal titles, and literary works across parts of present-day Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and beyond frequently used Sanskrit or drew heavily on Sanskrit models.

Many Southeast Asian languages—particularly in western Indonesia and surrounding regions—contain large layers of Sanskrit-derived vocabulary (often via Hindu-Buddhist texts and court traditions). This process is sometimes called “Sanskritisation,” and it is most clearly visible in loanwords for religion, governance, astronomy, literature, and elite culture. Importantly, this influence is uneven: some Austronesian languages show extensive Sanskrit loans, while others show very little.

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.

Influence of Indian Mythology on Southeast Asia Today

Because Māori sits at the eastern edge of the Austronesian world, discussions of “Sanskrit and Māori” usually focus on two kinds of connections: (1) historical pathways—Sanskrit influence on parts of Island Southeast Asia that were on long-distance trading networks; and (2) word-by-word comparisons that claim Māori preserves very old forms. The first pathway is broadly consistent with what we know about Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian history; the second must be handled carefully, because short sound sequences can resemble each other by chance, and convincing etymologies require systematic sound correspondences and clear intermediary steps.

The Aryan Māori by Edward Tregear

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some writers—including Abraham Fornander (Hawai‘i), Edward Tregear, and John MacMillan Brown (New Zealand)—argued for far-reaching links between Polynesian languages and Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit. Their works (An Account of the Polynesian Race, A Comparative Vocabulary of the Polynesian and Indo-European Languages, Aryan Māori, and Maori and Polynesian: Their Origin, History and Culture) are now best read as early comparative speculation: they noticed resemblances, but they did not have access to modern historical-linguistic methods, Austronesian reconstruction, or later archaeological and genetic evidence that firmly places Māori within Polynesian/Austronesian ancestry.

Claimed lexical parallels

MacMillan Brown suggested that similarities between some Indonesian and Māori words might reflect an older layer of Sanskrit-influenced vocabulary in parts of Island Southeast Asia. This is a hypothesis, and testing it requires showing plausible borrowing routes (e.g., Sanskrit → Old Javanese/Malay → wider Austronesian → Polynesian) rather than relying on resemblance alone.

Tregear and others compared Māori and Sanskrit forms that look and sound similar. The examples below illustrate the type of comparison they made:

Sanskrit (Sk): Pa – to protect

Māori (pronunciation): Pā – a fortified settlement

Other Māori derivations: Papa – father, Para – bravery, Pae – to surround with a border,

Pakuku – to screen from the wind.

Sanskrit (Sk): Var – water

Māori (pronunciation): Wai – water; Awa – a river; Āwhā – storm; Kakawa – sweat; Rewa – to float; Kowa – a neap tide.

Sanskrit (Sk): Ma – to measure

Māori (pronunciation): Māmā – light/easy; Taumaha – heavy; Maro – a fathom; Matakē – to inspect; Mātau – to know/be acquainted with.

Sanskrit (Sk): Ka-s – to shine

Māori (M.pronounciation): Hika – to kindle fire, Ka – to be lighted, Kaka – red-hot, Kanaku – fire, Kanapa – bright, Kanapu – lightning.

These similarities in pronunciation and meaning raise the possibility of shared linguistic roots. However, it’s important to note that Māori was written down by English-speaking settlers who did not natively speak Māori. The English alphabet used to represent Māori words had to match the spoken sounds, but no language is perfectly phonetic, meaning there is always a degree of variability in sound-letter correspondence.

Despite these linguistic similarities, having similar words does not necessarily indicate direct descent. Genetic studies show that Māori, largely originated from Southeast Asia and New Guinea, regions that were melting pots of cultures, influenced by migrants from both the north (China) and the west (India). Indian migrants, including Buddhists, brought the Sanskrit language, which influenced the local languages in the region.

As people migrated from Southeast Asia and New Guinea, they carried their language with them. Over time, as these migrants lost contact with their place of origin, their language evolved into a number of different forms, including today’s Māori. While this language adapted to the new environment, many words from the original language remained.

Once in their new land, the original language underwent further changes as it adapted to new circumstances, leading to regional variations in vocabulary, dialects, and linguistic nuances. These linguistic differences emerged as groups remained geographically isolated.

In conclusion, Māori is securely classified as a Polynesian (Austronesian) language. The most credible “connection” to Sanskrit is therefore indirect: Sanskrit profoundly influenced parts of Island Southeast Asia, and the wider Austronesian world includes languages that absorbed Sanskrit vocabulary long before Polynesian settlement of the far Pacific. Individual Māori–Sanskrit look-alikes can be intriguing, but establishing a real historical link requires rigorous, systematic evidence (regular sound patterns, plausible intermediary languages, and clear historical contact). A careful approach can still be fruitful—especially when it focuses on Southeast Asian pathways rather than direct Sanskrit-to-Māori descent.

To continue reading Series 5 we invite you to join us:

Blog 8: Astronomical Alignments in Southeast Asia and New Zealand: Evidence of Recognising Celestial Events