Category: Hawaiian (ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi)

A’a

By Simon

One Hawaiian word that is used in English is a’a, which is defined as “a kind of rough-surface volcanic rock” [source].

However in Hawaiian it is written ʻaʻā, pronounced [ʔəˈʔaː] and means:

1. to burn, blaze, glow; fire; staring (eyes)
2. lava; stony, abounding with ʻaʻā lava
3. Sirius (the star)
4. young stage of damselfish

The word aʻa [əˈʔa] means:

1. small root, rootlet, vein, artery, nerve, tendon, muscle
2. to send greetings or love; joyous hospitality; joy at greeting a loved one

There is also ʻaʻa [ʔəˈʔa], which means:

1. to brave, dare, challenge, defy, check, venture; to accept a challenge; to volunteer; to act wickedly or presumptuously; bold, venturesome, valiant, intrepid
2. belt, girdle, waist; to gird, to tie on
3. bag, pocket, caul, envelope for a foetus, scrip; fiber from coconut husk; clothlike sheath at base of coconut frond; cloth; chaff, hull
4. a wind
5. booby bird

And ʻā.ʻā [ʔaː.ʔaː], which means:

1. dumbness, inability to speak intelligibly, a dumb person; dumb, silent, still; to stutter and stammer, as a dumb person
2. dwarf, small person; dwarfish, small
3. demented, panic-stricken
4. booby bird.
5. male ʻōʻō bird

Source: Hawaiian Dictionaries

This shows the importance of the ʻokina (“cutting”) and kahakō (“long mark”) in Hawaiian. The former represents a glottal stop [ʔ] and is a letter in Hawaiian, and the latter indicates a long vowel.

Ukuleles and machetes

By Simon

My new ukulele

Yesterday I bought myself a ukulele, something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while. I already play the guitar and mandolin, and had been thinking about trying other stringed instruments, such as the ukulele, banjo and bouzouki. A while ago I saw a poster about the Bangor Uke Club / Clwb Uke Bangor and thought it might be cool to join it, and yesterday I finally did.

The usual story is that the word ukulele (/juːkəˈleɪliː/) comes from the Hawaiʻian words ʻuku /Ɂuku/ – louse, flea; small, tiny, and lele /lele/ – to fly, jump, leap, hop, skip, swing, bounce, and many other meanings.

The OED describes the ukulele as “a small four-stringed Hawaiʻian guitar that is a development of a Portuguese instrument introduced to the island c1879”, and the Online Etymology Dictionary says that the name ukulele or ‘leaping flea’ comes from the rapid movement of the fingers used to play it.

Braguinha

According to the ‘Ukulele Guild of Hawai’i, ‘ukuleles developed from a type of small guitar known as machete do braga or braguinha (see right) from Madeira. They also mention that there is some uncertainity about the origins of the name ukulele – one story is that a certain Edward Purvis, an English solider who was assistant chamberlain to the Hawaiʻian King Kalākaua in the 1880s, and who was a small man with a lively playing style on this instrument, was nicknamed ‘ukulele (dancing flea) by the Hawaiʻians, who gave the same name to the instrument.

The earliest written reference to this instrument, in a travel book about Hawai‘i, dates back to 1891 and it was spelt ukelele rather than ukulele, a word which didn’t appear in print until 1895 in the Hawaiʻian Gazette. Both spellings were used interchangeably for a period, and the former possibly comes from the Hawaiʻian word ʻukē – to swing, sway; tap, rap, tick, thud.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain mention a number of possible origins of the word ukulele: a certain João Fernandes from Madeira was nicknamed ‘ukulele (dancing flea) by the Hawai‘ians, who were impressed by his virtuosity and speed on the braguinha, and the way his fingers jumped about, and the name became associated with the instrument as well. Alternatively it was Edward Purvis who acquired the nickname. Or that the name comes from uku (a tribute, reward, fee) and lele (to land, disembark); or from ʻūkēkē lele (‘dancing ʻūkēkē’ – a type of musical bow); or that Gabriel Davian and Judge W. L. Wilcox coined and translated the name, joking that the way one scratched at it, the instrument must have been a jumping flea.

Other Hawaiʻian expressions featuring lele include:

– lele māmā – to fly swiftly, dart
– hoʻo.lele – to cause to fly; to fly, as a kite; to disembark, to embark, as on a project; to palpitate; to enlarge or project, as pictures
– hoʻolele leo – radio broadcast, broadcaster, microphone, ventriloquism, ventriloquist
– hoʻolele hua kēpau -to set type
– mea hoʻolele leo – microphone

Word of the day – kai

By Simon

kai /kai̭/ [Māori]

  1. (verb) to eat, consume, feed (oneself), partake, devour.
  2. (noun) food, meal.

Related expressions include:

  • kai moana = seafood, shellfish
  • wāhi kai = café, restaurant (wāhi = place)
  • hari kai = a song to entertain visitors as food is set out (hari = joy, happiness)

The Māori word kai is mentioned quite a lot in the book I’m reading at the moment, Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All by Christina Thompson: a memoir about the author’s life with her Māori husband which also discusses the history of the Māori, and contacts between them and other peoples.

Other Māori words and concepts are also discussed, include iwi, which means an extended kinship group, a tribe, a nation, a people, a nationality or a race, and often refers to a large group of people descended from a common ancestor, and utu, which means revenge, cost, price, wage, fee, payment, salary, reciprocity, and is an important concept in Māori culture.

Kai also means food in Tok Pisin, and kaikai means to eat. In Japanese kai (海 かい) means sea, among other things, though this reading of the kanji 海 is derived from Chinese (hai) – the native Japanese word for sea is うみ (umi).

In Hawai’ian, kai means sea, sea water, gravy, sauce or soup, while food is ʻai, or mea’ai.

Maori language in Hawaii

By Simon

According to a news item I found today, it’s possible to study the Maori language at the University of Hawaii. The Maori courses, which are taught at the Manoa campus, are popular with Hawaiian students, who are interesting in Maori because it has many similarities with the Hawaiian language and they are curious to find out what it’s like. They are also interested in other Polynesian languages.

Another article I came across today compares the Cree, Hualapai, Maori, and Hawaiian indigenous language programs. The writer describes common components and problems of implementation, and concludes that successful programs need to link language and culture, need written teaching materials, and need community support and parental involvement.

Hualapai, a.k.a Walapai, is spoken in parts of Arizona, in case you’re wondering.

Word of the day – puke wehewehe ʻōlelo

By Simon

Today’s word, puke wehewehe ‘ōlelo, is the Hawai‘ian for dictionary. It means literally ‘book [that] explains words’. I found a good Hawai‘ian-English dictionary today, and also some online Hawai‘ian lessons.

According to this article, the Hawai‘an language is in a slightly more secure position today than it was 20 years, when the most of those who spoke were adults, and there weren’t many of them either. Nowadays about 2,000 children are educated through the medium of Hawai‘ian each year, and Hawai‘ian medium education is available from kindergarten to college. Few of the students in the Hawai‘ian medium schools speak the language when they start, and most of them speak English outside school, so there is a long way to go to revive Hawai‘ian.

‘Ōlelo Hawai’i ‘oe?

By Simon

According to a couple of articles (here and here) I found today, a new PhD program focusing on the Hawaiian language and culture has recently been set up at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. This is apparently the first doctorate in the United States in a Native language. Five students are undertaking research into Hawaiian and indigenous language and culture revitalization. One the things they’re working on is to come up with Hawaiian versions of scientific and technological terms, such as World Wide Web – Punaewele puni honua (network around the world) and photosynthesis – ka’ama’ai (acting through light to produce food).

When people are bilingual in a ‘large’ language like English and a ‘small’ one like Hawaiian, they might be tempted to simply use English words to fill in any gaps in their Hawaiian vocabulary, rather than coining new Hawaiian words. The new terms being created by the PhD students should help with this problem.

Did you know that wiki, as in Wikipedia comes from the Hawaiian word wiki-wiki, which means quick?