Hawaiian alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Hawaiian alphabet, ka pīʻāpā Hawaiʻi, was adapted from the English alphabet in the early 19th century by American missionaries to print a Hawaiian bible.
made the first reported Europe
an discovery of Hawaii
. In his report, he wrote the name of the islands as "Owhyhee" or "Owhyee". By July 1823, they had begun using the phrase "Hawaiian Language." The actual writing system was developed by American Protestant missionaries on January 7, 1822. The original alphabet included:
and seven diphthongs:
In 1826, the developers voted to eliminate some of the letters which represented functionally redundant interchangeable letters, enabling the Hawaiian alphabet to approach the ideal state of one-symbol-one-sound, and thereby optimizing the ease with which people could teach and learn the reading and writing of Hawaiian.
became necessary. As early as 1823, the missionaries made limited use of the apostrophe
to represent the glottal stop, but they did not make it a letter of the alphabet. In publishing the Hawaiian bible, they used the okina to distinguish kou ('my') from kou ('your'). It wasn’t until 1864 that the okina became a recognized letter of the Hawaiian alphabet.
, was using macron
s in making handwritten transcriptions of Hawaiian vowels. The macron, or kahakō, was used to differentiate between short and long vowels. The macron itself never became an official letter. Instead, a second set of vowels with macrons were added to the language as separate letters.
Origins
In 1778, British explorer James CookJames Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
made the first reported Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an discovery of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. In his report, he wrote the name of the islands as "Owhyhee" or "Owhyee". By July 1823, they had begun using the phrase "Hawaiian Language." The actual writing system was developed by American Protestant missionaries on January 7, 1822. The original alphabet included:
-
A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z
and seven diphthongs:
-
AE, AI, AO, AU, EI, EU, OU
In 1826, the developers voted to eliminate some of the letters which represented functionally redundant interchangeable letters, enabling the Hawaiian alphabet to approach the ideal state of one-symbol-one-sound, and thereby optimizing the ease with which people could teach and learn the reading and writing of Hawaiian.
- Interchangeable B/P. B was dropped, P was kept
- Interchangeable L/R. L was kept, R was dropped
- Interchangeable K/T. K was kept, T was dropped
- Interchangeable V/W. V was dropped, W was kept
[[ʻOkina|Okina]]
Due to words with different meanings being spelled alike, use of the glottal stopGlottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
became necessary. As early as 1823, the missionaries made limited use of the apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
to represent the glottal stop, but they did not make it a letter of the alphabet. In publishing the Hawaiian bible, they used the okina to distinguish kou ('my') from kou ('your'). It wasn’t until 1864 that the okina became a recognized letter of the Hawaiian alphabet.
Kahakō
As early as 1821, one of the missionaries, Hiram BinghamHiram Bingham I
Hiram Bingham, formally Hiram Bingham I , was leader of the first group of Protestant missionaries to introduce Christianity to the Hawaiian islands.-Life:...
, was using macron
Macron
A macron, from the Greek , meaning "long", is a diacritic placed above a vowel . It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable in Greco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long vowel...
s in making handwritten transcriptions of Hawaiian vowels. The macron, or kahakō, was used to differentiate between short and long vowels. The macron itself never became an official letter. Instead, a second set of vowels with macrons were added to the language as separate letters.