How to Talk in Hawaii

Abstract

WHEN you visit the Hawaiian Islands, you may hear spoken not only Hawaiian, but also Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, several Philippine dialects, and various brands of pidgin. But general American is the dominant language, and you do not need to learn any other tongue to travel about freely on all the islands in the group. English has been the language of instruction in the schools for more than a hundred years. One third of the population is white American stock, whereas the pure Hawaiians comprise only 2 percent. Sermons are sometimes preached in Hawaiian in certain churches, and election posters are printed in both English and Hawaiian. Aside from occasional localisms and the lyrics to songs for hula dancers, you will have to go out of your way to hear Hawaiian spoken. The visitor, nonetheless, will enjoy his stay much more if he knows something about the Hawaiian language, can spot the common expressions, pronounce the curious personal names and place names, and even practice a phrase or two of pidgin. Hawaiian differs from other Polynesian languages in the use of [k] for [t], [1] for [r], [n] for [rj], [h] for [f] or [s], and sometimes [w] for [v]. The liquid sound may originally have been closer to [r] than to [1]. When the missionary printers first standardized the written language with the Roman alphabet after 1820o, they voted six to two in favor of using 1. The personal name of King Kamehameha II was set up in type both as Liholiho and Rihoriho, and he chose the first because it looked better to him.