THE HAWAIIAN ALPHABET
When we first went to Hawaii the Island we went to was Maui. We got off the plane and felt the tropical warm breezes and sunshine. We saw the beautiful mountains and the swaying palm trees. We fell in Love.
We got into our rental car, a convertible, took down the top and knew we had arrived in Paradise. Everywhere we looked we were in amazement. We found ourselves working together to pronounce the names of the streets. This was fun. We had no way of knowing if we were coming even close to the correct pronunciation. It turns out that we had mutilated the language as most newcomers to the Islands do.
So here are some tips on understanding the 13 letter alphabet and how to not sound like such a Haoli (non-native).
There are 13 letters and 18 sounds in the Hawaiian language.
13 LETTERS: A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W
Then there is the ‘okina which is like the sound between the ohs in oh-oh and is considered a consonant.
18 SOUNDS: a, e, i, o, u, a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w and w with a v sound
Vowels are pronounced:
a like a in above a like a far
e like e in bet e like ay in pay
i like y in city i like ee in see
o like o in low o like o in sole
u like oo in hoot u like oo in moon
Some vowels are diphthongs, forming a single sound as in ai in Waikiki. Consonants are pronounced as in English with the exception of the w with a v sound.
(The above information on the Hawaiian alphabet was taken from “Hawai’i The Islands of Aloha” Official Visitors’ Guide)
