November 10, 2003

A Very Basic Hawaiian Lexicon

Hawaiian vowels are pronounced European-style: A -- ah, E -- eh, I -- ee, O -- oh, U -- ooh. Each vowel is pronounced separately, especially when separated by an ', which is a glottal stop. The consonants are pronounced phonetically, except the W is pronounced as a V.

'aina -- land
ali'i -- chief, king/queen. The first "upper-caste" people in old Hawaii were the ali'i, the ruling class. Kamehameha I was ali'i before he became king of all the islands.
aloha -- love; used as "Hello", "Goodbye", and "I love you."
aloha kakhiaka -- Good morning
a'ole -- no
'ele'ele -- black
hale -- home
halau -- a hula group
haole -- white person
kala -- sun
(therefore Haleakala is "House of the Sun"
kama'aina -- local, navive, person who belongs to the land
hau'ole -- happy
kahu -- shepherd, used to refer to the pastor of the church
kane -- man, men
keiki -- child, children
kula -- school
kumu -- teacher
lanai -- porch, verandah
lani -- heaven, sky
mahalo -- thank you
mahalo nui loa -- thank you very much
malihini -- tourist, outsider
mauka -- toward the mountain, used as a direction word. "My apartment is mauka the YWCA."
makai -- toward the ocean, used as a direction word. "The downtown McDonald's is makai The School."
maika'i -- good
moana -- ocean
ohana -- family
papa he'e nalu -- surfboard
pau -- finished, "I'm pau with work today!"
pua -- flower
pua'a -- pig
puka -- hole, cave, empty space, zero
wahine -- woman, women
wikiwiki -- fast. The express lane in the grocery store is called the wikiwike lane.

Posted by at November 10, 2003 08:17 AM | TrackBack
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