Basque to Māori: distinguish where somebody is from where they are going
A Basque place ending describes a relationship, not just a place name
Goenaga distinguishes Basque spatial adpositions from structural case marking. His examples contrast endings describing location, movement from a place and movement toward one. Recognizing the place name alone therefore does not establish whether somebody is there, leaving it or approaching it. A Māori translation needs that relationship as well as the destination’s identity.
The chapter also discusses attached spatial forms and separate location expressions. This matters when a Basque route description includes a building, its surroundings and somebody’s movement: the relevant unit can be a whole locative phrase rather than the nearest noun. Keep the relationship associated with the correct place before rebuilding the Māori sentence.
Māori locative statements can identify both place and time
Kupu’s locative lesson distinguishes kei for present location, i for past location and hei for future location. Its Hei korā ahau means that I will be there. This is a statement of future location; it does not, by itself, describe the journey used to reach that location.
For a Basque appointment message, a promise to be somewhere at a particular time differs from an update that the writer is travelling there now. A Māori version using a future locative can preserve the promised presence without claiming current movement. Conversely, a present-location formulation would place the writer there already.
The lesson’s Kei hea te waka? asks where the waka is. Its answer places the waka at the beach. The question concerns location, not its destination or point of departure. A Basque question asking for somebody’s current whereabouts should retain that distinction.
A going question asks for the destination of an action
Kupu separately illustrates Kei te haere koe ki hea? as a question about where the addressee is going. Its suggested answers replace the question expression with a destination, including Auckland or a party. This construction includes a going event rather than merely locating the person.
A Basque message asking where a colleague is heading can therefore require a different Māori question from one asking where the colleague currently stands. The colleague might be at the station while going to a party. Treating the two questions as interchangeable would confuse a current location with an intended endpoint.
A route can contain both a location and a destination
Goenaga’s discussion includes spatial sequences expressing movement from one place toward another. Those relations can coexist with a description of where the traveller is at the moment. A Basque sentence may accordingly identify a starting point, a current position and a destination without describing three separate travellers.
In a Māori translation of a meeting arrangement, preserve which place answers each question: where the person is, where the person is heading and where they are expected later. The locative lesson and going example provide different resources for these meanings; neither supports adding movement whenever a future place is mentioned.
This comparison keeps practical travel information intact while allowing the target construction to change. A place marker should follow the relationship expressed by the Basque phrase, rather than a fixed replacement for every ending found near a location name.
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