I've been confused for a while about kia. It shows up in our most common phrase kia ora but then essentially nowhere else (that I've found).

But I'm learning things. Here's two places I now know kia belongs in Te Reo Māori.

Commands using statives.
Basically this is when you are giving a command or instruction where you want the listener to achieve a particular state e.g. Kia ora (Be well) Kia tere (Be fast).
As a negative form of the verbal sentence that starts with kua.
Kua usually indicates that something has begun, but may not be finished, and the examples make more sense as questions and answers like this:
- Kua moea koe? - Have I begun sleeping?
- Kāo. Kāore anō au kia moe. - No. I have not begun sleeping.

The Reo Project | Day 207

Welcome to my little corner of the internet.

I believe that place matters.

Our connection to whatever little corner of the planet we find ourselves in, or choose to place ourselves on, matters.

I'm relentlessly curious and continually learning.

My interests are scattered across topics including property, strategy, acoustics, psychology, theology, systems theory, quantum physics and leadership. I read, listen, watch, and learn about whatever grabs my attention in the moment.

This is a learning experiment.

I come here to try to make sense of something I’ve come across, by writing about it.

I’m immersing myself in a new language.

I’m learning to speak Te Reo Māori, the language of the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand and one of our official languages. After spending 2020 studying, I’m figuring out how to keep the journey going outside the classroom.

You’re welcome to follow along.