Hawaiian Alphabet - Citizendium

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Hawaiian alphabet
Type	Alphabet
Spoken languages	Hawaiian language
Created by	American Protestant missionaries
Time period	1822-Present
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs → Proto-Sinaitic→ Proto-Canaanite alphabet→ Phoenician alphabet→ Greek alphabet→ Old Italic alphabet→ Roman alphabet→ Hawaiian alphabet

As an oral tradition, handed down generation after generation, the true origins of the Hawaiian language are relatively unknown. The Hawaiian alphabet, ka pī‘āpā Hawai‘ i, however, does not have such an obscure past. It was originally designed in the early 1800s by American missionaries who wanted to print a Hawaiian bible. Due to the language being passed down as an oral tradition, the missionaries had to adapt the Roman alphabet to fit their needs.

Contents

• 1 Origins
  • 1.1 ʻOkina
  • 1.2 Kahakō
• 2 Modern Alphabet
• 3 Pronunciation
  • 3.1 Diphthongs
• 4 References

Origins

In 1778, British explorer James Cook made the first reported European discovery of Hawaiʻi. In his report, he wrote the name of the islands as "Owhyhee" or "Owhyee". By July 1823, they had begun using the phrase "Hawaiian Language." The actual writing system was developed by American Protestant missionaries on January 7, 1822. The original alphabet included A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z and seven diphthongs AE, AI, AO, AU, EI, EU, OU. In 1826, the developers voted to eliminate some of the letters which represented functionally redundant interchangeable letters, enabling the Hawaiian alphabet to approach the ideal state of one-symbol-one-sound, and thereby optimizing the ease with which people could teach and learn the reading and writing of Hawaiian.

• Interchangeable B/P. B was dropped, P was kept.
• Interchangeable L/R. L was kept, R was dropped.
• Interchangeable K/T. K was kept, T was dropped.
• Interchangeable V/W. V was dropped, W was kept.

ʻOkina

Due to words with different meanings being spelled alike, use of the glottal stop became necessary. As early as 1823, the missionaries made limited use of the apostrophe to represent the glottal stop, but they did not make it a letter of the alphabet. In publishing the Hawaiian bible, they used the ʻokina to distinguish koʻu ('my') from kou ('your'). It wasn’t until 1864 that the ʻokina became a recognized letter of the Hawaiian alphabet.

Kahakō

As early as 1821, one of the missionaries, Hiram Bingham, was using macrons in making handwritten transcriptions of Hawaiian vowels. The macron, or kahakō, was used to differentiate between short and long vowels. The macron itself never became an official letter. Instead, a second set of vowels with macrons were added to the language as separate letters.

Modern Alphabet

The current official Hawaiian Alphabet consists of 18 letters: 5 normal vowels; Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu: 5 Vowels with Macrons; Āā, Ēē, Īī, Ōō, Ūū: and 8 consonants; Hh, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Pp, Ww, ʻokina.

Pronunciation

Character	Character Name	IPA
Aa	'ā	/a/
Ee	'ē	/e/
Ii	'ī	/i/
Oo	'ō	/o/
Uu	'ū	/u/
Āā	'ākō	/aː/
Ēē	'ēkō	/eː/
Īī	'īkō	/iː/
Ōō	'ōkō	/oː/
Ūū	'ūkō	/uː/
Hh	hē	/h/
Kk	kē	/k/
Ll	lā	/l/
Mm	mō	/m/
Nn	nō	/n/
Pp	pē	/p/
Ww	wē	/ʋ/
ʻ	ʻokina	/ʔ/

Diphthongs

Diphthongs
Diphthongs	Pronunciation	Examples
ai	i in ice	kai = sea water
ae	I or eye	Maeʻola = Never-fading
ao	ow in how without nasal twang	Maoli = True Kaona = Hidden Meaning
au	ou in house or out without nasal twang	Au = I, I am
ei	ei in chow mein or in eight	Lei = Garland
eu	eh-(y)oo	ʻEleu = Lively
iu	ee-(y)oo similar to ew in few	Wēkiu = Topmost
oe	oh-(w)eh	ʻOe = You
oi	oi in voice	Poi = Hawaiian Staple
ou	ow in bowl	Kou = your
ui	oo-(w)ee in gooey	Hui = Together, team, Chorus

References

Alternative Hawaii

Omniglot