Where does “Ngāi” come from?

Ngāi (Maori) comes from Maori Ngāti, from Proto-Celtic -āti, from Proto-Indo-European -h₂ti — Forms factitive verbs from adjective stems.

Ancestry of “Ngāi”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1MaoriNgāti—
2Proto-Celtic-ātiForms verbs from nouns and adjectives
3Proto-Indo-European-h₂tiForms factitive verbs from adjective stems
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -h₂ti →Every word from Proto-Celtic -āti →Every word from Maori Ngāti →