Cleve Barlow was born in Te Puke on the East Coast, and was educated at Whirinaki Māori School, Rawene High School and Church College in Hamilton, New Zealand. He attended Auckland Teachers College and graduated with a Teaching Diploma in 1977. In 1978 he went to Brigham Young University in Hawaii and Provo and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1978, M.A. in Linguistics in 1981 and PhD in Psychology in 1983. Barlow returned to New Zealand in 1983 and was appointed Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Auckland; he also lectured in the Māori Studies Department and later lectured in the Psychology Department at Auckland University. Barlow published a number of papers in linguistics, cognitive psychology, and computing. He published the first grammar of Māori language to be written in Māori and was assistant editor of volumes three and four of Ngā Mōteatea. He wrote Tikanga Whakaaro in 1982, published a translation of Bruce Bigg’s Let’s Learn Māori in 1990, and in 1991 produced the Māori concordance of the Bible. In 1991 he published a Diglot version of the New Testament in Māori and English, and in 1992 published the whole King James version of the Bible in Diglot format in Māori and English.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation with Cleve Barlow, 7 August 1998.
- Tikanga Whakaaro: Key Concepts in Māori Culture. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1991.
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Email correspondence from Lei-Anne Warren, 24 May 2024.
Non-fiction
- "The Scope of Māori Genealogy." New Zealand Genealogist 18.172 (1987): 34-36.
- In this introduction to whakapapa, Barlow states he intends "to give a broad preview of whakapapa and to indicate the importance and relevance of whakapapa in Māori social life and custom." He discusses whakapapa in three sections: "Cosmic Genealogies" dealing with the Māori origins of life and matter; "Primal genealogies" dealing with the offspring of Rangi and Papa; and "Human Genealogies".
- "An Alternative Format for Māori Archival Materials." Archifacts: Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (Apr. 1990): 22-28.
- In this paper Barlow presents a case for the reformatting of manuscript material onto computers in order to preserve the original manuscripts. This, he argues, will facilitate inexpensive reproduction of multiple copies; and promote speedy categorisation, indexing and accessibility. He outlines the steps involved in transcribing handwriting into computer format and provides examples in three appendices at the conclusion of his paper.
- He Pukapuka Whakataki Kupu o te Paipera Tapu/A Concordance of the Holy Bible. Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit, 1990.
- The first concordance of the Māori Bible with every word listed with references to book, chapter and verse.
- An Introduction to Junction Grammar Analysis of Māori Syntax. Auckland, N.Z.: Department of Anthropology, U of Auckland. No. 84, March, 1990.
- Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics, Māori Studies. Barlow states that this paper was written to acquaint students with the use of junction grammar in the analysis of syntax. Junction grammar is a tool for understanding language structure; Barlow applies it to te reo Māori.
- Tikanga Whakaaro: Key Concepts in Māori Culture. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1991.
- A bilingual publication in Māori and English in which Barlow provides explanatory notes of seventy Māori concepts which he contends are "important for understanding Māori culture as it is practised today, and concepts which are likely to be relevant in the future."
- Bible. Ko te Kawenata Hou/The New Testament/Panuitanga Reorua/Bilingual Edition. Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit, 1991.
- The King James Version of the New Testament of the Bible in English with the 1952 Māori translation by Ngata and others, with revisions by Barlow.
- Paipera Tapu. Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit, 1992.
- A publication of the Bible in diglot form with the King James Version of the Bible in English and the 1952 Māori translation by Ngata and others, with revisions by Barlow.
- Ko te Paipera Tapu : Ara, Ko Te Kawenata Tawhito Me Te Kawenata Hou = The Holy Bible : Containing The Old And The New Testaments. Rotorua, N.Z : Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa, 1992.
- Tiriti o Waitangi. Auckland, N.Z. : Oxford University Press, 1994
- Maramataka. Tikanga whakaaro : Key concepts in Maori culture. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press, (1994): 75-78.
- Essential Dimensions of Knowing and Living. Auckland, N.Z.: Random, 1998.
Poetry
- "Foreword to the 1990 edition: He Whakamihi." Ngā mōteatea : he maramara rere nō ngā waka maha. Auckland, N.Z : Auckland University Press, 2004-2007.
- Collected by Sir Apirana Ngata.
Theses
- Polynesian Pronominal Systems: Reconstruction and Analysis. MA thesis, Brigham Young U Provo, Utah. 1981.
- The Effects of Manipulating Several Linguistic Parameters on Judge Ratings of Answers. PhD thesis. Brigham Young U Provo, Utah. 1983.