New spelling in Hawaii??
 

Hi, I just noticed that apostrophes have been added to many Hawaiian words like Lana'i, Hale'iwa, Kaua'i, etc. I am curious when and why this has occurred. Thanks

Aloha Larry - <BR> <BR>My understanding is that this is the official Hawaiian way to spell these words, and the apostrophies depict which syllable gets the emphasis, i.e. Kaua'i has the symbol after the last "a", so therefore you would pronounce it kaWAi. It also suggests that if there is an apostrophie separating two of the same letters, one needs to pronounce them individually and separately. Does this answer make sense?!

Aloha again - <BR> <BR>I have a correction to make on what I said above - the apostrophie has nothing to do with syllable emphasis, but rather is there to clarify when vowels need to be spoken separately. Hope that's not too confusing, but I checked this out in my Fodor's Hawai'i Guide.

Hi Larry, these apostrophes (or 'okina, which is the Hawaiian word for each of these) denote glottal stops in each word. In the Hawaiian language, every letter is pronounced.

The "apostrophe" (or 'okina, as it is referred to in Hawaiian) denotes a glottal stop in the word. Every letter is pronounced.

Thank you for the responses - I am aware of the pronunciation since I lived in Haleiwa or is that Hale'iwa in the sixties. I guess my question is when did "they" start using the 'okina? There was a big article in our local paper on Lana'i and since they usually screw up I thought it was a typo!! Is this all part of the relinquishment of statehood I have heard about? Seems weird after all these years that "they" would change the language??

Larry, I've experienced the same phenomena while I'm over there. I seem to start speaking that way after 5-6 Kona Brewing Co. Fire Rock Pale <BR>Ales! \;^) <BR> <BR>Kal <BR>335 more days <BR>