The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian: ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, pronounced [ʔoːˈlɛlo həˈvɐjʔi]) is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaiʻi, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the State of Hawaii. King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian-language constitution in 1839 and 1840.
For various reasons, including territorial legislation establishing English as the official language in schools, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. Hawaiian was essentially displaced by English on six of seven inhabited islands. In 2001, native speakers of Hawaiian amounted to less than 0.1% of the statewide population.
History
In 1778, British explorer James Cook made Europe's initial, recorded first contact with Hawaiʻi, beginning a new phase in the development of Hawaiian. During the next forty years, the sounds of Spanish (1789), Russian (1804), French (1816), and German (1816) arrived in Hawaiʻi via other explorers and businessmen. Hawaiian began to be written for the first time, largely restricted to isolated names and words, and word lists collected by explorers and travelers.
The early explorers and merchants who first brought European languages to the Hawaiian islands also took on a few native crew members who brought the Hawaiian language into new territory. Hawaiians took these nautical jobs because their traditional way of life changed due to plantations, and although there were not enough of these Hawaiian-speaking explorers to establish any viable speech communities abroad, they still had a noticeable presence. One of them, a boy in his teens known as Obookiah (ʻŌpūkahaʻia), had a major impact on the future of the language. He sailed to New England, where he eventually became a student at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. He inspired New Englanders to support a Christian mission to Hawaiʻi, and provided information on the Hawaiian language to the American missionaries there prior to their departure for Hawaiʻi in 1819.
Adelbert von Chamisso might have consulted with a native speaker of Hawaiian in Berlin, Germany, before publishing his grammar of Hawaiian (Über die Hawaiische Sprache) in 1837. When Hawaiian King David Kalākaua took a trip around the world, he brought his native language with him. When his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, and his sister, Princess (later Queen) Liliʻuokalani, took a trip across North America and on to the British Islands, in 1887, Liliʻuokalani's composition Aloha ʻOe was already a famous song in the U.S.
In 1834, the first Hawaiian-language newspapers were published by missionaries working with locals. The missionaries also played a significant role in publishing a vocabulary (1836) grammar (1854) and dictionary (1865) of Hawaiian. Literacy in Hawaiian was widespread among the local population, especially ethnic Hawaiians. Use of the language among the general population might have peaked around 1881. Even so, some people worried, as early as 1854, that the language was "soon destined to extinction."
The decline of the Hawaiian language dates back to a coup that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and dethroned the existing Hawaiian queen. Thereafter, a law was instituted that banned the Hawaiian language from being taught. Efforts to promote the language have increased in recent decades. Hawaiian-language "immersion" schools are now open to children whose families want to reintroduce Hawaiian language for future generations.
Today, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian, which was under 0.1% of the statewide population in 1997, has risen to 2,000, out of 24,000 total who are fluent in the language, according to the US 2011 census. On six of the seven permanently inhabited islands, Hawaiian has been largely displaced by English, but on Niʻihau, native speakers of Hawaiian have remained fairly isolated and have continued to use Hawaiian almost exclusively.
Linguistics
An Austronesian language, Indonesian is related to other languages such as Malay, Hawaiian and Malagasy.
Classification
Hawaiian's full classification is as follows:
Austronesian> Malayo-Polynesian > Oceanic > Polynesian > Eastern Polynesian > Marquesic > Hawaiian
Morphophonemics
Hawaiian has five pure vowels. The short vowels are /u, i, o, e, a/, and the long vowels, if they are considered separate phonemes rather than simply sequences of like vowels, are /uː, iː, oː, eː, aː/. Furthermore, there are 9 short-vowel diphthongs and 6 long-vowel ones.
Hawaiian is known for having very few consonant phonemes – eight: /p, k ~ t, ʔ, h, m, n, l, w ~ v/. It is notable that Hawaiian has allophonic variation of [t] with [k], [w] with [v], and (in some dialects) [l] with [n]. The [t]–[k] variation is quite unusual among the world's languages, and is likely a product both of the small number of consonants in Hawaiian, and the recent shift of historical *t to modern [t]–[k], after historical *k had shifted to [ʔ]
Hawaiian syllable structure is (C)V. All CV syllables occur except for wū; wu occurs only in two words borrowed from English. As shown by Schütz, Hawaiian word-stress is predictable in words of one to four syllables, but not in words of five or more syllables. Hawaiian phonological processes include palatalization and deletion of consonants, as well as raising, diphthongization, deletion, and compensatory lengthening of vowels. Phonological reduction (or "decay") of consonant phonemes during the historical development of the language has resulted in the phonemic glottal stop. Ultimate loss (deletion) of intervocalic consonant phonemes has resulted in Hawaiian long vowels and diphthongs. Every word must end in a vowel and every syllable must end in a vowel. No two consonants can be pronounced without at least one vowel between them. There is but one exception to this rule and it applies to a word introduced by the American missionaries‒ Kristo, from “Christ."
Syntax
Hawaiian is an analytic language with verb–subject–object word order, though it can shift to an SVO order under specific conditions.
Hawaiian nouns have two genders, though these do not correspond to natural gender. Instead, they are the o-class and a-class nouns. O-class nouns, in general, are nouns whose creation cannot be controlled by the subject while a-class in general, are those whose creation can be controlled. The difference between these two classes only occurs in the genitive case.
Despite having a genitive case, however, no inflection is marked on the noun itself. So, while Hawaiian nouns can express case with particles, only the pronouns are declined for it. Hawaiian also distinguishes between a dual and a plural system for pronouns, with first person distinguishing inclusive and exclusive in the dual and plural. All pronouns, in the nominative case, can be seen in the table below:
| Meaning | Pronoun |
|---|---|
| 1.s | au |
| 1.d.inc | kāua |
| 1.d.exc | māua |
| 1.p.inc | kākou |
| 1.p.exc | mākou |
| 2.s | ʻoe |
| 2.d | ʻolua |
| 2.p | ʻoukou |
| 3.s | ia |
| 3.d | lāua |
| 3.p | lākou |
Like with the nouns, all verbal distinctions in Hawiian are expressed with particles. Several of these can be seen in the table below. Some authors propose a plusperfect, but this is disputed and the exact meaning of the combination often depends on context.
| particle | meaning |
|---|---|
| ua + verb | perfective aspect, past tense; or perfect tense/aspect |
| i + verb | past tense; perfect participle |
| e + verb + ana | imperfective aspect |
| ke + verb + nei | present tense, progressive aspect |
| e + verb | future tense; infinitive; imperative |
| mai + verb | negative imperative |
| verb + ʻia | passive voice |
Orthography
Hawaiians had no written language prior to Western contact, except for petroglyph symbols. The modern Hawaiian alphabet, ka pīʻāpā Hawaiʻi, is based on the Latin script. Hawaiian words end only in vowels, and every consonant must be followed by a vowel. The Hawaiian alphabetical order has all of the vowels before the consonants. This writing system was developed by American Protestant missionaries during 1820–1826. It was the first thing they ever printed in Hawaiʻi, on January 7, 1822.
Written Sample:
Hānau kū'oko'a 'ia nā kānaka apau loa, a ua kau like ka hanohano a me nā pono kīvila ma luna o kākou pākahi. Ua ku'u mai ka no'ono'o pono a me ka 'ike pono ma luna o kākou, no laila, e aloha kākou kekahi i kekahi.
Spoken sample:
Sources & Further reading
Wikipedia articles on Hawiian
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