The Hawaii Traveler

Hau’oli Kepakemapa! (Pronounced how-oh-lay key-pa-key-ma-pa) Or, happy September.  It’s another lesson in the beautiful language of love you’ll hear everywhere in the islands.
You don’t need to learn Hawaiian just to visit the islands, but it’s fun to learn a few words and phrases.  You may or may not decide to use them, but here are a few choice bits that you might recognize while you’re in the land of aloha. Check out some of the basic rules of Hawaiian pronunciation first, and remember: the Hawaiian  language is not the same as “Pidgin.” 

Aloha–Hello, goodbye, and is an expression of love.
Mahalo–Thank …read more

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Although Hawai’i is one of the United States, it comes with its own, native history and language. Hawaiian is a beautiful language, full of syllables and nuances that are easy to miss, if you’re not paying attention.  Here’s how it all works:
The Hawaiian alphabet uses only 12 Roman letters ( a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w). And those apostrophes are not really apostrophes; they’re what’s called an ‘okina, a diacritical mark that indicates a shortening, or sudden stopping of sound. (Called a glottal stop.) An ‘okina is a special character that Internet browsers don’t …read more

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At the corner of Hoohu and Pee
Photo by Flickr–Joe Schlabotnik

Either it has happened to you, or it will: You’re driving somewhere in Hawai’i, and are either holding a map or your companion in the passenger seat is. “Where am I supposed to turn?” you want to know. The next words uttered by your navigator are unintelligible, and sound like he/she has a mouthful of macadamia nuts, and a few stuck in her throat.
Why?
Because your friend or loved one with the map just took his or her first stab at pronouncing a Hawaiian word. And by the time she …read more

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