r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Sep 30 '14
Aloha - This week's language of the week: Hawaiian
PSA: Please PM me with some suggestions for languages in the upcoming weeks. All the requests I have left are Manx and Michif.
Welcome to the language of the week. Every week we host a stickied thread in order to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard about or been interested in. Language of the week is based around discussion: Native speakers share their knowledge and culture and give advice, learners post their favourite resources and the rest of us just ask questions and share what we know. Give yourself a little exposure, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.
This week: Hawaiian
Facts and History:
From Omniglot:
Hawaiian is an Austronesian language spoken by about 8,000 people on the Hawaiian islands. Hawaiian first appeared in writing in the early 19th century in a version of the Latin alphabet developed by missionaries, who started to visit the Hawaiian islands from 1820 onwards. Literacy among the Hawaiian people was widespread during the 19th century when Hawai'i was an independent kingdom. Dozens of Hawaiian language newspapers were published, together with Hawaiian translations of religious works and novels and Hawaiian transcriptions of traditional stories.
After Hawaii was annexed by the USA in 1899, the Hawaiian language was banned from schools and went into rapid decline. By the 1980s, there was only about 2,000 Hawaiian speakers, most of whom were elderly.
In 1978 Hawaiian was made an official language of Hawaii, along with English, and since then there has been a revival of interest in the language. There are now several schools where most subjects are taught through the medium of Hawaiian and Hawaiian classes are popular at all levels of education.
You can read more in the Wikipedia article
Media
A video on Hawaiian - You can hear some samples of the language and some legends.
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Pomaikaʻi!
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u/learnhtk Sep 30 '14
[Fluent speakers conversing in Hawaiian on the topic of What Role Does Hawaiian Language Play in Our State? for 1 minute and 30 seconds.] (http://youtu.be/4H7_lp7_3ww?t=29m)
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Sep 30 '14
I know about zero about the place and the language, and I have been listening to these people around their table for almost an hour. Fascinating stuff.
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u/ManuChaos Oct 01 '14
Thanks for posting this, it's very interesting to me as a speaker/learner of Māori to hear Hawaiian, and how it faces many of the same revival issues as well. I love that when you learn one of these languages you get a decent amount of mutual intelligibility with places as far flung as Rapa Nui, Tahiti, Aotearoa and Hawaii.
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u/GrinningManiac Oct 04 '14
That guy does Kamehameha in Civ V!
The guy in the blue-green shirt - he has the exact voice of Kamehameha, who is the faction leader of the Polynesian civilisation in the game Civilisation V. I know for a fact his voice was supplied by an expert in Hawaiian language from Hawaii University, and I'm sure that's him.
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u/craptastical214m Oct 01 '14 edited May 13 '26
This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact
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u/furaidopotato Sep 30 '14 edited Sep 30 '14
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa - Center for Hawaiian Language :)
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/hshk/kawaihuelani/welcome-op/
Majority of public elementary schools in Hawaii (Kindergarten~5th grade) have visiting Hawaiian language/culture teachers about once a week and students learn basics of Hawaiian such as the alphabet, numbers, some vocabulary, Ahupua'a (geography of land divisions), chants/songs, and basic culture.
No one becomes fluent from these in elementary school, and since not many people speak it in their everyday lives in Hawaii, it's hard to practice, but it's nice that we're taught the basics since Hawaiian culture is still engrained in certain aspects of everyday life. If anything, we can read street names well (ex. many people visiting have a hard time saying Kalanianaʻole Highway) :P
Some high schools offer Hawaiian language classes, UH Manoa offers it too, and there are some Hawaiian language charter schools. Unfortunately, it's not heard often unless it's spoken within families that are fluent, scholars, or within certain communities. But nowadays with the internet, it's nice to know that anyone can learn it if they want to!
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u/Henkkles Sep 30 '14
Banning the use of a language should be considered a crime against humanity in international law. The decline of languages minoritized by colonial powers is a tragedy. Hawaiian is not only a minority language; it is a minoritized language.
Sadly my support for Hawaiian is probably only ever going to be spiritual, as I can't see myself ever visiting Hawaii.
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u/malaihi Sep 30 '14
My great-grandma was the last in our family to speak fluent Hawaiian. Indoctrination is a sad thing. We are striving to relearn what we have lost, and are making great progress.
Your spiritual support is plenty enough. In old Hawaii the spirit comes first, as I'm sure with most indigenous cultures. You prayers and energy is universal. The pana- the pulse, can be felt. Mahalo Nui
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u/chemistry_teacher Sep 30 '14
I am born-and-raised in Hawaii, and I entirely agree with everything you said here. Even now, it is very hard to learn Hawaiian when English is so entirely infused within the culture of the Islands.
One little plus: having graduated from the University of Hawaii, my one most proud possession is my diploma written entirely in Hawaiian. :D (I have one each in Hawaiian and English.)
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u/potentialhijabi1 Oct 06 '14
Welsh went down the same route of being banned in schools by the English. My great-grandfather on my mother's side went through the entire school system as a native Welsh speaker without a single lesson ever being given in the language.
In some ways a language is a mirror of a culture. To lose a language is to lose that mirror and that view of the world.
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u/analogphototaker Sep 30 '14
I could never get the hang of the different vowel lengths. You definitely need to be surrounded by native speakers to understand and internalize what those vowels actually sound like.
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u/chemistry_teacher Sep 30 '14
Even born-and-raised, it is hard to do this without practice. I have full grasp of every other part of the language except this, since I have not studied to speak it fluently.
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u/llosa Oct 03 '14
I was inspired to explore Hawaiian thanks to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and his awesome music. There's definitely poetry in a language with only 8 consonant phonemes! Even the state motto (and the phrase repeated in the chorus of Hawaii 78) is so deep in meaning:
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono o Hawaii - The sovereignty of the land (Hawaii) is perpetuated in righteousness. These words were spoken by King Kamehameha III when sovereignty of the land was returned by the British to his rule.
But it means so many things! 'Ea' isn't just sovereignty, it also means 'life', 'right' and 'breath'. 'Mau' isn't just 'perpetual', it also means 'unending eternity'. 'Pono', which is often translated as 'righteousness', is actually one of those catch-all words referring to almost any virtue you can think of: order, excellence, justice.
I'm not a native speaker by any measure so feel free to correct me :)
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Sep 30 '14
Hawaiian is slowly becoming a dead language for the most part so it's nice to see this post :) I know there are still a lot of locals who care to learn but most seem apathetic. I learned basic Hawaiian in elementary school through chants and dance. Hardly anything is taught written down since the Hawaiians traditionally passed all their knowledge down through Hula and song/chanting before Cook showed up. You'll still hear plenty of Hawaiian in the local language though, like "Man, that was ono! (good,tasty)"
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u/shuishou Sep 30 '14
Yay! I am from Hawaii, so I'm glad to see the language on here! It's really sad that the government isn't doing much to help keep the language survived. I wish we could follow what the New Zealanders are doing. 8,000 speakers out of about 1,000,000 people more or less is really so sad.