New spelling in Hawaii??
Jan 28th, 2001, 08:34 AM
#2
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Aloha Larry -
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?!
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?!
Jan 28th, 2001, 08:43 AM
#3
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Aloha again -
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.
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.
Jan 29th, 2001, 11:33 AM
#6
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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??
