Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DO YOU HAVE TO
speak
HAWAIIAN IN HAWAII?
Almost everyone here speaks English. But many folks in Hawaii now speak Hawaiian as well.
All visitors will hear the words aloha and mahalo (thank you). If you've just arrived, you're a ma-
lihini. Someone who's been here a long time is a kamaaina. When you finish a job or your
meal, you are pau (finished). On Friday it's pau hana, work finished. You eat pupu (Hawaii's
version of hors d'oeuvres) when you go pau hana.
The Hawaiian alphabet, created by the New England missionaries, has only 12 letters: the five
regular vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, and w). The vowels are
pronounced in the Roman fashion: that is, ah, ay, ee, oh, and oo (as in “too”)—not ay, ee, eye,
oh, and you, as in English. For example, huhu is pronounced who-who. Most vowels are soun-
ded separately, though some are pronounced together, as in Kalakaua: Kah-lah-cow-ah.
Below are some basic Hawaiian words that you'll often hear in Hawaii and see throughout this
book. For a more complete list of Hawaiian words, go to
www.wehewehe.org
or
ht-
alii
Hawaiian royalty
aloha
greeting or farewell
halau
school
hale
house or building
heiau
Hawaiian temple or place of worship
kahuna
priest or expert
kamaaina
old-timer
kapa
tapa, bark cloth
kapu
taboo, forbidden
keiki
child
kupuna
respected elder
lanai
porch or veranda
lomilomi
massage
mahalo
thank you
makai
a direction, toward the sea
mana
spirit power
mauka
a direction, toward the mountains
muumuu
loose-fitting gown or dress
ono
delicious
pali
clif
paniolo
Hawaiian cowboy(s)
wiki
quick
World War II & Its Aftermath
On December 7, 1941, Japanese Zero fighter planes came out of the rising sun to bomb Amer-
ican warships based at Pearl Harbor. This was the “day of infamy” that plunged the United
States into World War II.
