I am not a linguist, nor am I trained in anthropology, but it seems to me that language must be one of the key windows in the soul of a people. If this is the case, then the traveler to Hawai'i is in luck, because the Hawaiian language is possibly the most accessible (to westerners) of the Pacific Islander languages. The language is beautiful to listen to and upon first exposure seems relatively simple in structure, yet it is an amazingly expressive language, capable of complexity and nuance.
As a visitor to Hawai'i, you may not be too concerned with the Hawaiian language. After all, it is a U.S. state, right? I'd like to convince you to reconsider that answer. Sure, Hawai'i is a state, and as such, English is the official language. I'll post my thoughts on that in the future, but for now, just keep in mind that the Hawaiian people predate the U.S. by at least a thousand years, during which time, they spoke Hawaiian. Thanks to myriad cultural programs, the language is enjoying a resurgence.
Understanding basic pronunciation is a great idea for the traveler to Hawai'i. Not only is it fun, but you'll seem like less of a dweeb when trying to say Hawaiian place names. Most mainlanders feel pretty comfortable pronouncing mainland place names, even ones with Spanish influence, like San Francisco, or native American influence, like Dakota. But when you visit Hawai'i, you'll discover that Hawaiian places have, well... Hawaiian names.
Written Hawaiian
Prior to the arrival of New England Christian missionaries in 1820, the Hawaiian language had no written form. The missionaries, in their zeal to teach reading and writing (so their new converts could read scripture, no doubt), were first to create a written form of the language. They used the alphabet they knew best, the 26 characters of the modern latin alphabet.
The missionaries were not linguists, and many historians now say they made some errors in creating written Hawaiian, most notably in dropping some consonants, the sounds of which they couldn't differentiate when listening to spoken Hawaiian. The Hawaiian people then, as now, were avid learners, and valued literacy greatly. Most learned to read and write, and for better or worse, the missionaries version of the language became what most now consider the Hawaiian language.
Basic Pronunciation
Regardless of what mistakes may have been made all those years ago, one benefit of that work is that today, persons learning Hawaiian for the first time have some good basic rules we can follow, especially when reading street and highway signs on the roads of the islands today.
Vowels
As luck would have it, Hawaiian has the same vowels that western languages have. Hawaiian vowels are always pronounced, there are no silent vowels, though it may seem that way at times because the vowel sounds may be so close together. Unlike in English, Hawaiian vowels always make one sound:
- a - pronounced like 'ah' as in ha.
- e - pronounced like 'ay' as in neighbor.
- i - pronounced like 'ee' as in petite or neat.
- o - pronounced like 'oh' as in crow.
- u - pronounced like 'oo' as in juice or cool.
Try it! Say Mauna Kea - it should sound something like "mah-oo-nah kay-ah" (but run the vowel sounds together quickly as you speak them).
If you listen carefully to native speakers, you'll see that two vowels together are usually pronounced together so quickly that they make what seems like a single sound. In most cases, the two sounds are just run together quickly, but are still present.
Consider the town named Kawaihae, following our rules we might exaggerate the pronunciation as "Kah-wah-ee-hah-ay" but practice running the ai and the ae sounds together until you almost (but not quite) hear "Kah-weye-heye".
The 'Okina
Linguists refer to this as a glottal stop. The symbol looks like an apostrophe appearing before a vowel and indicates that you should quickly stop the previous sound so that the following vowel sounds distinct. Say "Uh oh", that stop between the uh and the oh is the 'okina.
The Kahakō
This symbol appears above a vowel and indicates the sound should be drawn out as if two of the same vowel had been written together.
Consonants
There are 7 consonants in the Hawaiian language: H, K, L, M, N, P, and W. Each is pronounced as in english, save for W, which is often pronounced like V.
Putting it Together
Now that you are armed with the basics, try those Hawaiian Island names again. I bet you'll be surprised at how pervasive the mispronunciation of these has become on the mainland, rarely have I heard anyone pronounce them correctly. Remember the pronunciation guides below are a bit exaggerated, when two vowels are together speak them quickly, running the sounds together, and don't forget the 'okina (shown as *).
- Ni'ihau - Nee * ee-hah-oo
- Kaua'i - Kah-00-ah * ee
- O'ahu - Oh * ah-hoo
- Moloka'i - Moh-loh-kah * ee
- Lana'i - Lah-nah * ee
- Kaho'olawe - Kah-hoh * oh-lah-vay
- Maui - Mah-oo-ee
- Hawai'i - Hah-vah-ee * ee
To continue deeper into the fascinating language of the Islands, I recommend the following great books on the subject:
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