Ngāi
1. (personal noun) Prefix for some tribal groups' names with an ancestral name usually beginning with 'T', now written as a separate word, e.g. Ngāi Tahu.
(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 43;)
Heoi, nō taua wā anō ka tae mai te rongo, kua horo a Te Tumu pā i Kaituna, Maketū rā, kua mate a Ngāi Te Rangi i a Te Arawa (JPS 1900:70). / It was about this time that news arrived of the fall of Te Tumu pā, at Kaituna, near Maketū, in which the Ngāi Te Rangi tribe was defeated by Te Arawa.
2. (personal noun) Also used with māua, tāua, kōrua and tātou or a noun to indicate a group of people not necessarily a tribal group, e.g. Ngāi Mātaatua. When used to preface a group other than a recognised iwi or hapū, ngāi is not capitalised. Nor is the accompanying word that completes the expression.
O ngā haka katoa e mahia ana e ngāi tātou koinei anake te haka e mau rākau ai te katoa o ngā kaihaka. / Of all the haka that we perform this is the only kind where all the performers wield weapons.
