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Spoken Hawaiian: An Incomplete and Unauthoritative Guide

What, only 12 letters?!

Nineteenth-century American missionaries used only 12 letters to create a written version of the spoken Hawaiian language. Superficially, that might make Hawaiian seem simple. But Hawaiian is a much more complex and subtle language than 12 letters can do justice to. However, we’re stuck with those 12 letters—the five English vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and seven of the consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w).

Consonants

The consonants have the same sound in Hawaiian as they do in your everyday English except for “w.” “W” is sometimes pronounced as “v” when it follows “a,” always pronounced as “v” when it follows “e” or “i.”

Vowels

The vowels are generally pronounced as they are in Italian, with each vowel sounded separately. Authentic Hawaiian makes further distinctions, but those are of more interest to scholars than to hikers. The following is a simplified system. Vowel sounds in general are:

a like “ah” in “Ah!”

e like “ay” in “day.”

i like “ee” as in “whee!”

o like “o” in “go.”

u like “oo” in “food” (or “u” in “rude”).

Notice that that means that when you see two or more of the same letter in a row, you pronounce each of them separately:

“Honokaa” is Ho-no-ka-a.

“Pepeekeo” is Pe-pe-e-ke-o.

“Milolii” is Mi-lo-li-i.

“Ookala” is O-o-ka-la.

“Puu” is Pu-u.

That seems too simple, and it is. If you tried to pronounce every vowel, speaking Hawaiian would turn into a nightmare. You wouldn’t live long enough to pronounce some words. Fortunately, several pairs of vowels often—but not always—form merged sounds.

Vowel Pairs Whose Sounds Merge

Like every other language, Hawaiian has vowel pairs whose sounds naturally “smooth” into each other. They’re similar to Italian or English diphthongs. The degree to which the two sounds are merged in Hawaiian is officially less than occurs in English, but most Hawaiian people I’ve talked with merge them fully. Vowel-pair pronunciation is approximately:

ae often smoothed to “eye” as in “eyeful” or “i” in “ice.” It’s the English long-i sound.

ai often smoothed as for “ae,” above.

ao often smoothed to sound like “ow” in “cow.”

au often smoothed to “ow” in “cow”, too.

ei sometimes smoothed to “ay” as in “day.” It’s the English long-a sound.

eu smooth the sounds together a little, like “ayoo.”

oi usually like “oi” in “oil”—in other words, just what you’re used to.

Syllables

Every Hawaiian syllable ends in a vowel sound. A Hawaiian syllable never contains more than one consonant. That means every consonant goes with the vowel that follows it. Every vowel not preceded by a consonant stands alone when you break a written word into syllables (you may smooth some of them together when you speak). For example:

“Aa” consists of the two syllables a-a (it’s a kind of lava flow that’s very rough and jagged).

“Kapoho” consists of the three syllables Ka-po-ho (a village destroyed by Kilauea’s 1960 eruption).

“Naalehu” consists of the four syllables Na-a-le-hu (not just the southernmost town on the Big Island but the southernmost town in the fifty states).

“Pahoehoe” consists of the five syllables pa-ho-e-ho-e (except that it’s usually pronounced “pa-hoi-hoi”; it’s another kind of lava flow, much smoother than aa).

“Kealakekua” consists of the six syllables Ke-a-la-ke-ku-a (the bay on the Big Island where Captain Cook was slain).

“Liliuokalani” consists of the seven syllables Li-li-u-o-ka-la-ni (Hawaii’s last monarch and writer of the beloved song “Aloha Oe”).

Accent

In general, the accent falls on the next-to-last syllable for words with three or more syllables and on the first syllable for words of two syllables. For words of more than three syllables, you put a little stress on every other syllable preceding the accented one. Don’t worry about this; it seems to come naturally.

There are common-usage exceptions, such as makai (ma-KAI, with the accent on the last syllable). When you see exceptions such as those, chances are that what has happened is that European usage has fully merged two sounds into one. Proper Hawaiian pronunciation of makai would be closer to “ma-KA-i,” a three-syllable word with the last two syllables almost merging.

Hint for Longer Words: Repetition and Rhythm

Have you noticed the tendency in long Hawaiian words for groups of letters to repeat? That kind of repetition is fairly common. When you see a long Hawaiian word, don’t panic. Identify its repeating letter groups, figure out how to pronounce them individually, then put the whole word together. Chances are you’ll come pretty close to getting it correct.

For example, Mokuaweoweo might throw you (it’s the huge caldera at the summit of Mauna Loa, one of the five volcanoes that make up the Big Island). But look at the repeating letter group weo (way-o). See the word as “Mokua/weo/weo.” So, two “weo”s prefixed with a “Mokua”—that makes “Mo-ku-a-way-o-way-o.” Once you’ve identified the repeating groups, the rhythm of the word comes naturally. Try this approach for longer words, including the state fish: humuhumunukunukuapuaa: two “hu-mu”s, two “nu-ku”s, and an “a-pu-a-a.” Now try it: “hu-mu/hu-mu/nu-ku/nu-ku/a-pu-a-a.” Very good!

Makai and mauka

In Hawaii, local people often give directions or describe the location of a place as makai (merge the ai), which means “toward the sea,” or mauka (merge the au), which means “toward the mountains; inland.” I had a terrible time remembering which was which until I came up with this mnemonic:

Go makai

Where sea meets sky,

and Tom Winnett came up with:

Mauka is toward the MAUntains.

However, I still think in terms of left, right, north, south, east, and west. I don’t often use mauka and makai in this book.

Do your best, with respect

Approach the language with respect, and give it your best shot. Then be prepared to hear local people pronounce it differently. Learn from them. Maybe it’s part of our jobs as visitors to inadvertently provide a little comic relief for those living and working here as opposed to just vacationing here.

Instant Hawaiian (see Bibliography) is a useful booklet that’s a lot less frivolous than its title implies. It begins, “So you’d like to learn to speak Hawaiian—you should live so long!” I felt I’d come to the right place. Look for it when you get to Hawaii.

Hapuna Beach State Park