Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix B:
The Hawaiian Language
A
lmost everyone here speaks English, so except for pronouncing the names of
places, you should have no trouble communicating in Hawaii.
But many folks in Hawaii now speak Hawaiian as well because the ancient
language is making a comeback. All visitors will hear the words
aloha
and
mahalo
(thank you). If you've just arrived, you're a
malihini.
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,
eh, 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 sounded separately,
though some are pronounced together, as in Kalakaua:
Kah-lah-cow-ah.
WHAT
HAOLE
MEANS
When Hawaiians first saw Western visitors, they
called the pale-skinned, frail men
haole
because they looked so out of breath. In
Hawaiian,
ha
means
breath,
and
ole
means an absence of what precedes it. In
other words,
haole
literally means “a lifeless-looking person.” Today, the term
haole
is generally a synonym for Caucasian or foreigner and is used casually
without any intended disrespect. However, if uttered by an angry stranger who
adds certain adjectives (like “stupid”), the term can be construed as a racial slur.
SOME HAWAIIAN WORDS
Here are some basic Hawaiian words that
you'll often hear in Hawaii and see throughout this topic. For a more complete
list of Hawaiian words, go to www.geocities.com/~olelo/hltableofcontents.html
or www.hisurf.com/hawaiian/dictionary.html.
akamai
smart
alii
Hawaiian royalty
aloha
greeting or farewell
halau
school
hale
house or building
heiau
Hawaiian temple or place of worship
hui
club, assembly
kahuna
priest or expert
kamaaina
old-timer
kapa
tapa, bark cloth
kapu
taboo, forbidden
keiki
child
lanai
porch or veranda
lomilomi
massage
mahalo
thank you
makai
a direction, toward the sea
malihini
stranger, newcomer
