When saying a word that has an ʻokina the symbol indicates a slight pause, similar to when one says “uh-oh” to show concern.Īnother example is lanai vs. It is written with a backward apostrophe (ʻ). The reason why the ʻokina is considered a consonant is because an ʻokina that is missing can change the meaning of a word, as the following example illustrates:Īn ʻokina indicates a break in the sound when a word is spoken.
The Hawaiian alphabet consists of 13 letters – five vowels and eight consonants, one of them being a glottal stop (called ʻokina).
Cook and his men recorded the Hawaiian language for the first time in 1778. History of the Hawaiian Languageīefore Captain Cook's arrival in Hawaii in 1778, Hawaiian was strictly an oral language. Nevertheless, only about 0.1% of the people who live in Hawaii speak its native tongue today. Hawaiian is being taught in language immersion schools, and one can even obtain a Master's degree in the Hawaiian language from the University of Hawaii. However, a Hawaiian language “renaissance” has occurred over the past 40 years, and today more people are interested in learning the language again. The Hawaiian language has had a tumultuous history and was at one point even expected to be extinct by the end of the 20th century.
The Hawaiian language (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi) is one of the oldest living languages in the world.