Moriori is a Polynesian language that diverged from Māori dialects after centuries of isolation, while still remaining mutually intelligible.
The language has a guttural diction and consistent suppression of terminal vowels, meaning that unlike in Māori words may end in consonants.
[10][11] The death of the Moriori language went unrecorded,[10] but Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Baucke (1848–1931) was the last man who could speak it.
The language was reconstructed for Barry Barclay's 2000 film documentary The Feathers of Peace,[13] in a recreation of Moriori contact with Pākehā and Māori.
[20][21] In 2024, author Kate Preece published a trilingual children's book: Ten Nosey Weka, featuring words in English, Māori and Moriori.
[22] Like Māori, written Moriori uses the Latin script, with macrons to denote lengthened vowels.