Hawaiian language

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Hawaiian
?Olelo Hawai?i
Region Hawai?i, concentrated on Ni?ihau and Hawai?i
Ethnicity
Native Hawaiians
Native speakers
2,000 (1997)[1] to 24,000+ (2006 2008)[2]
Language family
Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Oceanic
Polynesian
Eastern Polynesian
Marquesic
Hawaiian
Writing system
Latin (Hawaiian alphabet)
Hawaiian Braille
Official status
Official language in
Hawai?i
Recognised minority
language in
United States
Language codes
ISO 639-2
haw
ISO 639-3
haw
Glottolog
hawa1245[3]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, yo
u may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian: ?Olelo Hawai?i)[4] is a Polynesian language tha
t takes its name from Hawai?i, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific
archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official lan
guage of the state of Hawaii. King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian
-language constitution in 1839 and 1840.
For various reasons, including territorial legislation establishing English as t
he official language in schools, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradu
ally decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. Hawaiian was essen
tially displaced by English on six of seven inhabited islands. In 2001, native s
peakers of Hawaiian amounted to under 0.1% of the statewide population. Linguist
s are worried about the fate of this and other endangered languages.[5][6]
Nevertheless, from circa 1949 to the present day, there has been a gradual incre
ase in attention to and promotion of the language. Public Hawaiian-language imme
rsion preschools called Punana Leo were started in 1984; other immersion schools
followed soon after. The first students to start in immersion preschool have no
w graduated from college and many are fluent Hawaiian speakers. The federal gove
rnment has acknowledged this development. For example, the Hawaiian National Par
k Language Correction Act of 2000 changed the names of several national parks in
Hawai?i, observing the Hawaiian spelling.[7]
A pidgin or creole language spoken in Hawai?i is Hawaiian Pidgin (or Hawaii Creo
le English, HCE). It should not be mistaken for the Hawaiian language nor for a
dialect of English.
The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters: five vowels (long and short) and eight con
sonants, one of them being a glottal stop (called ?okina in Hawaiian).
Contents [hide]
1 Name
2 Family and origin
2.1 Methods of proving Hawaiian's family relationships
3 History

3.1 First European contact

3.2 Written Hawaiian
3.3 Kaona or hidden meaning
3.4 "Banning" of Hawaiian
3.5 1949 to present
3.6 Niihau
4 Orthography
4.1 Origin
4.2 Glottal stop
4.2.1 History
4.2.2 Electronic encoding
4.3 Macron
4.4 Pronunciation
5 Phonology
5.1 Consonants
5.2 Vowels
5.2.1 Monophthongs
5.2.2 Diphthongs
5.3 Phonotactics
6 Grammar
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
Name[edit]
The Hawaiian language takes its name from the largest island, Hawaii (Hawai?i in
the Hawaiian language), in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it deve
loped, originally from a Polynesian language of the South Pacific, most likely M
arquesan or Tahitian. The island name was first written in English in 1778 by Br
itish explorer James Cook and his crew members. They wrote it as "Owhyhee" or "O
whyee". Explorers Mortimer (1791) and Otto von Kotzebue (1821) used that spellin
g.[8]
The initial "O" in the name is a reflection of the fact that unique identity is
predicated in Hawaiian by using a copula form, o, immediately before a proper no
un.[9] Thus, in Hawaiian, the name of the island is expressed by saying O Hawai?
i, which means "[This] is Hawai?i."[10] The Cook expedition also wrote "Otaheite
" rather than "Tahiti."[11]
The spelling "why" in the name reflects the [hw] pronunciation of wh in 18th cen
tury English (still in active use in parts of the English-speaking world). Why w
as pronounced [hwai]. The spelling "hee" or "ee" in the name represents the soun
ds [hi], or [i].[12]
Putting the parts together, O-why-(h)ee reflects [o-hwai-i], a reasonable approx
imation of the native pronunciation, [o h?w?i?i].
American missionaries bound for Hawai?i used the phrases "Owhihe Language" and "
Owhyhee language" in Boston prior to their departure in October 1819 and during
their five-month voyage to Hawai'i.[13] They still used such phrases as late as
March 1822.[14] However, by July 1823, they had begun using the phrase "Hawaiian
Language."[15]
In Hawaiian, ?Olelo Hawai?i means "Hawaiian language", as adjectives follow noun
s.[16]
Family and origin[edit]
Hawaiian is a Polynesian member of the Austronesian language family.[17] It is c
losely related to other Polynesian languages, such as Marquesan, Tahitian, Maori
, Rapa Nui (the language of Easter Island), and less closely to Samoan and Tonga
n.
According to Schtz (1994), the Marquesans colonized the archipelago in roughly 30
0 AD[18] followed by later waves of immigration from the Society Islands and Sam
oa-Tonga. Their languages, over time, became the Hawaiian language within the Ha
waiian Islands.[19] Kimura and Wilson (1983) also state, "Linguists agree that H
awaiian is closely related to Eastern Polynesian, with a particularly strong lin

k in the Southern Marquesas, and a secondary link in Tahiti, which may be explai
ned by voyaging between the Hawaiian and Society Islands."[20]
Methods of proving Hawaiian's family relationships[edit]
The genetic history of the Hawaiian language is demonstrated primarily through t
he application of lexicostatistics, which involves quantitative comparison of le
xical cognates, and the comparative method.[21][22]
Lexicostatistics is a way of quantifying the degree to which any given languages
are genetically related to one another.[23][24] It is mainly based on determini
ng the number of cognates (genetically shared words) that the languages have in
a fixed set of vocabulary items which are nearly universal among all languages.[
23] The so-called "basic vocabulary" (or Swadesh list) amounts to about 200 word
s,[25] having meanings such as "eye", "hair", "blood", "water", and "and."[26] T
he measurement of a genetic relationship is expressed as a percentage.[23][27] F
or example, Hawaiian and English have 0 cognates in the 200-word list, so they a
re 0% genetically related. By contrast, Hawaiian and Tahitian have about 152 cog
nates in the list, so they are estimated as being 76% genetically related.[28]
The comparative method is a technique developed by linguists to determine if two
or more languages are genetically related, and if they are, the historical natu
re of the relationships.[21][29] For a given meaning, the words of the languages
are compared.[30] Linguists observe:[31]
identical sounds,
similar sounds, and
dissimilar sounds, in corresponding positions in the words
In this method, the definition of "identical" is reasonably clear, but those of
"similar" and "dissimilar" are based on phonological criteria which may require
professional training to fully understand and which can vary in the contexts of
different languages. Basically, a sound's manner and place of articulation, and
its phonological features, are the main factors considered in investigating its
status as "similar" or "dissimilar" to other sounds in a particular context. For
example, /b/ and /m/ are both voiced labial sounds, but one is a stop and the o
ther a nasal. When linguists find in compared languages that compared words of t
he same or similar meaning contain sounds which correspond to one another, and f
ind that these same sound correspondences recur regularly in most, or in many, o
f the comparable words of the languages, then the usual conclusion is that the l
anguages are genetically related.[32][33]
The following table provides a limited data set for ten numbers.[34] The asteris
k (*) is used to show that these are hypothetical, reconstructed forms. In the t
able, the year date of the modern forms is rounded off to CE 2000 to emphasize t
he 6000-year time lapse since the PAN era.
Numbers in Austronesian languages
Language
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PAN, c.?4000 BC *isa
*DuSa *telu *Sepat *lima *enem *pitu *walu
*Siwa *puluq
Amis
cecay tusa
tulu
sepat lima
enem
pitu
falu
siwa
pulu'
Tagalog is
dalaw tatl pat
lim
nim
pit
wal
siym
sampu
Ilocano mays dua
tall uppt lim
innm pit
wal
siam
sangaplo
Cebuano us
duh
tul
upat
lim
unom
pit
wal
siym
napulu
Chamorro
maisa/hcha
hugua tulu
fatfat lima
gunum fiti
gulu sigua mnot/fulu
Malagasy
isa
roa
telo
efatra dimy
enina fito
valo
sivy
folo
Malay satu
dua
tiga
empat lima
enam
tujuh lapan sembilan
sepuluh
Javanese
siji
loro
telu
papat limo
nem
pitu
wolu
songo sepuluh

Fijian dua
rua
tolu
va
lima
ono
vitu
walu
ciwa
tini
Kiribati
teuana uoua
teniua aua
nimaua onoua itiua waniua
ruaiua tebuina
Tongan taha
ua
tolu
fa
nima
ono
fitu
valu
hiva
-fulu
Samoan tasi
lua
tolu
fa
lima
ono
fitu
valu
iva
sefulu
Maori tahi
rua
toru
wha
rima
ono
whitu waru
iwa
tekau (archaic: ngahuru)
Tahitian
ho'e
piti
toru
maha
pae
ono
hitu
va'u
iva
'ahuru
Marquesan
e tahi e 'ua e to'u e fa
e 'ima e ono e fitu e va'u
e iva 'onohu'u
Hawaiian
kahi
lua
kolu
ha
lima
ono
hiku
walu
iwa
-'umi
Note: For the number "10", the Tongan form in the table is part of the word /ho?
o-fulu/ ('ten'). The Hawaiian cognate is part of the word /ana-hulu/ ('ten days'
), however the more common word for "10" used in counting and quantifying is /?u
mi/, a different root.
Application of the lexicostatistical method to the data in the table will show t
he four languages to be related to one another, with Tagalog having 100% cognacy
with PAN, while Hawaiian and Tongan have 100% cognacy with each other, but 90%
with Tagalog and PAN. This is because the forms for each number are cognates, ex
cept the Hawaiian and Tongan words for the number "1", which are cognate with ea
ch other, but not with Tagalog and PAN. When the full set of 200 meanings is use
d, the percentages will be much lower. For example, Elbert found Hawaiian and To
ngan to have 49% (98 200) shared cognacy.[35] This points out the importance of
less data, cruder result; more data, better result
data-set size for this method
.
Application of the comparative method will show partly different genetic relatio
nships. It will point out sound changes,[36] such as:
the loss of all PAN word-final consonants in Tongan and Hawaiian;
lowering of PAN *u to Tagalog [o] in word-final syllables;
retention of PAN *t in word-initial and word-medial position in Tagalog and Tong
an, but shift to /k/ in Hawaiian;
retention of PAN *p in Tagalog, but shift to /f/ in Tongan and /h/ in Hawaiian.
This method will recognize sound change #1 as a shared innovation of Hawaiian an
d Tongan. It will also take the Hawaiian and Tongan cognates for "1" as another
shared innovation. Due to these exclusively shared features, Hawaiian and Tongan
are found to be more closely related to one another than either is to Tagalog o
r PAN.
The forms in the table show that the Austronesian vowels tend to be relatively s
table, while the consonants are relatively volatile. It is also apparent that th
e Hawaiian words for "3", "5" and "8" have remained essentially unchanged for 60
00 years.
History[edit]
For Hawaiian language history before 1778, see #Family and origin.
First European contact[edit]
In 1778, British explorer James Cook made the first reported European contact wi
th Hawai?i, beginning a new phase in the development of Hawaiian. During the nex
t forty years, the sounds of Spanish (1789), Russian (1804), French (1816), and
German (1816) arrived in Hawai?i via other explorers and businessmen. Hawaiian b
egan to be written for the first time, largely restricted to isolated names and
words, and word lists collected by explorers and travelers.[37]
The early explorers and merchants who first brought European languages to the Ha
wai?ian islands also took on a few native crew members who brought the Hawaiian
language into new territory.[38] Although there were not enough of these Hawaiia
n-speaking explorers to establish any viable speech communities abroad, they sti
ll had a noticeable presence. One of them, a boy in his teens known as Obookiah

(?Opukaha?ia), had a major impact on the future of the language. He sailed to Ne

w England, where he eventually became a student at the Foreign Mission School in
Cornwall, Connecticut. He inspired New Englanders to support a Christian missio
n to Hawai?i, and provided information on the Hawaiian language to the American
missionaries there prior to their departure for Hawai?i in 1819.[39]
Written Hawaiian[edit]
In 1820, Protestant missionaries from New England arrived in Hawai?i, inspired b
y the presence of several young Hawaiian men, especially Obookiah (?Opukaha?ia),
at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. The missionaries began
to learn the Hawaiian language so that they could form relationships with the lo
cals and publish a Hawai?ian Bible. To that end, they developed a successful alp
habet for Hawaiian by 1826, taught Hawaiians to read and write the language, pub
lished various educational materials in Hawaiian, and eventually finished transl
ating the Bible. Missionaries also influenced King Kamehameha III to establish t
he first Hawaiian-language constitutions in 1839 and 1840.[citation needed]
Adelbert von Chamisso might have consulted with a native speaker of Hawaiian in
Berlin, Germany, before publishing his grammar of Hawaiian (ber die Hawaiische Sp
rache) in 1837.[40] When Hawaiian King David Kalakaua took a trip around the wor
ld, he brought his native language with him. When his wife, Queen Kapi?olani, an
d his sister, Princess (later Queen) Lili?uokalani, took a trip across North Ame
rica and on to the British Islands, in 1887, Lili?uokalani's composition Aloha ?
Oe was already a famous song in the U.S.[41]
Headline from May 16, 1834, issue of newspaper published by Lorrin Andrews and s
tudents at Lahainaluna School
In 1834, the first Hawaiian-language newspapers were published by missionaries w
orking with locals. The missionaries also played a significant role in publishin
g a vocabulary (1836)[42] grammar (1854)[43] and dictionary (1865)[44] of Hawaii
an. Literacy in Hawaiian was widespread among the local population, especially e
thnic Hawaiians. Use of the language among the general population might have pea
ked around 1881. Even so, some people worried, as early as 1854, that the langua
ge was "soon destined to extinction."[45]
The increase in travel to and from Hawai?i during the 19th century introduced a
number of fatal illnesses such as smallpox, influenza, and leprosy, which killed
large numbers of native speakers of Hawaiian. Meanwhile, native speakers of oth
er languages, especially English, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Ilokano, co
ntinued to immigrate to Hawai?i. As a result, the actual number, as well as the
percentage, of native speakers of Hawaiian in the local population decreased sha
rply, and continued to fall throughout the nineteenth century.[citation needed]
As the status of Hawaiian dropped, the status of English in Hawai?i rose. In 188
5, the Prospectus of the Kamehameha Schools announced that "instruction will be
given only in English language" (see published opinion of the United States Cour
t of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Doe v. Kamehameha Schools, case no. 04-15044
, page 8928, filed August 2, 2005). Around 1900, students began to be punished f
or speaking Hawai?ian in schools,[46] and the number of native speakers of Hawai
ian diminished from 37,000 at the turn of the twentieth century to 1,000 today;
half of these remaining are now in their seventies or eighties (see Ethnologue r
eport below for citations).
There has been some controversy over the reasons for this decline. One school of
thought claims that the most important cause for the decline of the Hawaiian la
nguage was its voluntary abandonment by the majority of its native speakers. Acc
ording to Mary Kawena Pukui, they wanted their own children to speak English, as
a way to promote their success in a rapidly changing modern environment, so the
y refrained from using Hawaiian with their own children.[47] The Hawaiian langua
ge schools disappeared as their enrollments dropped: parents preferred English l
anguage schools. Another school of thought emphasizes the importance of other fa
ctors that discouraged the use of the language, such as the fact that the Englis
h language was made the only medium of instruction in all schools in 1896 and th
e fact that schools punished the use of Hawaiian (see "Banning" of Hawaiian belo
w.) General prejudice against ethnic Hawaiians (kanaka) has also been blamed for

the decline of the language.

A new dictionary was published in 1957, a new grammar in 1979, and new second-la
nguage textbooks in 1951, 1965, 1977, and 1989. Master's theses and doctoral dis
sertations on specific facets of Hawaiian appeared in 1951, 1975, 1976, and 1996
.
Kaona or hidden meaning[edit]
According to Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Elbert, kaona (kao-na)[48] is a "Hidde
n meaning, as in Hawaiian poetry; concealed reference, as to a person, thing, or
place; words with double meanings that might bring good or bad fortune." Pukui
lamented, in spite of years of dedicated work, it is impossible to record any lan
guage completely. How true this seems for Hawaiian, with its rich and varied bac
kground, its many idioms heretofore undescribed, and its ingenious and sophistic
ated use of figurative language. On page xiii of the 1986 dictionary she warned:
"Hawaiian has more words with multiple meanings than almost any other language.
One wishing to name a child, a house, a T-shirt, or a painting, should be carefu
l that the chosen name does not have a naughty or vulgar meaning. The name of a
justly respectable children's school, Hana Hau?oli, means happy activity and sug
gests a missionary author, but among older Hawaiians it has another, less 'innoc
ent' meaning that should not concern little children. A Honolulu street (and for
merly the name of a hotel) is Hale Le?a 'joyous house', but le?a also means orga
sm."
Understanding the kaona of the language requires a comprehensive knowledge of Ha
waiian legends, history and cosmology.
"Banning" of Hawaiian[edit]
The law cited as banning the Hawaiian language is identified as Act 57, sec. 30
of the 1896 Laws of the Republic of Hawai?i:
The English Language shall be the medium and basis of instruction in all public
and private schools, provided that where it is desired that another language sha
ll be taught in addition to the English language, such instruction may be author
ized by the Department, either by its rules, the curriculum of the school, or by
direct order in any particular instance. Any schools that shall not conform to
the provisions of this section shall not be recognized by the Department. [signe
d] June 8, 1896 Sanford B. Dole, President of the Republic of Hawai?i
This law established English as the medium of instruction for the government-rec
ognized schools both "public and private". While it did not ban or make illegal
the Hawaiian language in other contexts, its implementation in the schools had f
ar reaching effects. Those who had been pushing for English only schools took th
is law as licence to extinguish the native language at the early education level
. While the law stopped short of making Hawaiian illegal (it was still the domin
ant language spoken at the time), many children who spoke Hawaiian at school, in
cluding on the playground, were disciplined. This included corporal punishment a
nd going to the home of the offending child to strongly advise them to stop spea
king it in their home. Moreover, the law specifically provided for teaching lang
uages "in addition to the English language," reducing Hawaiian to the status of
a foreign language, subject to approval by the Department. Hawaiian was not taug
ht initially in any school, including the all-Hawaiian Kamehameha Schools. This
is largely because when these schools were founded, like Kamehameha Schools foun
ded in 1887 (nine years before this law), Hawaiian was being spoken in the home.
Once this law was enacted, individuals at these institutions took it upon thems
elves to enforce a ban on Hawaiian. Beginning in 1900, Mary Kawena Pukui, who wa
s later the co-author of the Hawaiian English Dictionary, was punished for speakin
g Hawaiian by being rapped on the forehead, allowed to eat only bread and water
for lunch, and denied home visits on holidays.[49] Winona Beamer was expelled fr
om Kamehameha Schools in 1937 for chanting Hawaiian.[50]
Hawaiian-language newspapers were published for over a hundred years, through th
e period of the suppression. Very few pro-Hawaiian papers made it through the pe
riod of the overthrow of the kingdom and the subsequent Act 57. Most papers that
survived that period had a distinctly pro-U.S.Annexation perspective. Pukui & E
lbert (1986:572) list fourteen Hawaiian newspapers. According to them, the newsp
apers entitled Ka Lama Hawaii and Ke Kumu Hawaii began publishing in 1834, and t

he one called Ka Hoku o Hawaii ceased publication in 1948. The longest run was t
hat of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa: about 66 years, from 1861 to 1927.
1949 to present[edit]
In 1949, the legislature of the Territory of Hawai?i commissioned Mary Pukui and
Samuel Elbert to write a new dictionary of Hawaiian, either revising the Andrew
s-Parker work, or starting from scratch.[51] Pukui and Elbert took a middle cour
se, using what they could from the Andrews dictionary, but making certain improv
ements and additions that were more significant than a minor revision. The dicti
onary they produced, in 1957, introduced an era of gradual increase in attention
to the language (and culture).
Efforts to promote the language have increased in recent decades. Hawaiian-langu
age "immersion" schools are now open to children whose families want to reintrod
uce Hawaiian language for future generations.[52] The ?Aha Punana Leo s Hawaiian l
anguage preschools i