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I can only feel a huge respect for what the Hawaiian people have managed to do. From 800 speakers to thousands now. Wow. I'm impressed. That's what loving your culture means. My sincere congratulations.
As a polyglot and native speaker (kanaka 'ōlelo) as well as a former Hawaiian language teacher, I'm very impressed at this presentation of our language. You did a very thorough job! On a daily basis, I speak Hawaiian commands with my dog and have conversations with my nieces/nephews who attend immersion school. I'll speak Hawaiian with my siblings/family when I don't want others to listen in. I also have many coworkers that speak Hawaiian and enjoy conversing with them whenever I see them.
*Man! Is there any formal material/book that you would recomend for learning Hawaiian? I'm from México, but I'm really interested. Ans everything I find in the web are presencial courses in the US. :'c* *By the way, I am curious, do you want independence from the US? 🤔*
@@lailamayoral3544 Ka Lei Ha'aheo (by Alberta Pualani Hopkins) is the text book I used also Hawaiian Grammar (by by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert). As for my political views, I usually keep them to myself 😁
I've been going to Hawai'i for 30+ years, and while before almost everything was spoken in English only, you can absolutely hear Hawaiian being used casually in public today. it's even gotten to where Merri Monarch, the biggest Hula competition, has an all Hawaiian commentary broadcast now! it's absolutely amazing to know that the effort of language revival works!
i see your expectations of drawing a false equivalence in order to draw up controversy and raise you the fact that the comment in question that this is about language preservation. here's hoping Welsh can have a similar experience in revivalism.
When did all this happen? I moved from Hawai'i in 2017 and from what I can remember, Hawaiian wasn't widely spoken everywhere I went. Very nice to hear tho
@@pheo212 i was on Oahu mostly when i was younger, but in the last few years I've spent more time on Kauai, Maui and the big island. plus they have immersion classes for different fields of study now, like farming, cultural studies and nature conservation.
My name is Emma. I am a senior in Highschool currently taking my fourth year of Hawaiian. All of my friends and I use Hawaiian daily in and out of school. I am very thankful you made this video. Aloha. 'O Emma ko'u inoa. He papa 'umikūmālua ma ke kula ki'eki'e. Aia au ma ka papa 'ōlelo Hawai'i 'ehā. No'u ka ha'uoli a mahalo piha no mākaukau 'oe i kēia wikio.
Hello, I was interested in how you said you use Hawaiian daily how much English you use on a daily basis, how much Hawaiian news and websites are there and things like business signs, menus and other visible Hawaiian language is out there, and if many non-native Hawaiians are also learning Hawaiian.
@@gj1234567899999 There isn't a lot of all Hawaiian news or websites out there but almost all local tv will have at least a little Hawaiian in them. You can also find smaller networks like 'Oiwi Tv that do all Hawaiian shows and series. Other Networks like PBS Hawai'i my not have all Hawaiian shows but a lot of their content focus heavily on Hawaiian culture. As far as visual Hawaiian language goes, it's everywhere. Like he mentioned in the video, it's in hotels, on advertisements, news bulletins, street names, it's all over the place. Most of the time it's just a few words or well known fraises, it's rarely all Hawaiian. For example, in Hawaii you might see a sign posted on a fence or in a driveway that says "kapu". In Hawaiian "kapu" means sacred or forbidden, so when you see a "kapu" sign it's equivalent to a "keep out" sign or "no trespassing" sign. Pretty much all the schools in Hawaii offer a Hawaiian language course and lot's of people take them. If it's a graduation requirement, that's even more incentive for non Hawaiians to take up the language, because chances are they'll decide to choose a language like Hawaiian that they are some what familiar with or interested in as opposed to a completely foreign language like French. There is definitely much more native Hawaiian speakers then there are non Hawaiian speakers but I'd say that there at least a few out there. I hope this answers you question.
I’m from New Zealand, and it’s amazing how similar te Reo Māori (the Māori language) is to Hawaiian. There are no ‘l’s in Māori so the word for love is ‘aroha’. It’s also interesting to note that the mythological ancestral homeland of Māori, which is said to be the place where all spirits return to after death, is called ‘Hawaiki’. It would be so cool if you did an episode on te Reo Māori because it has also had a renaissance like Hawaiian after it nearly died out
Hi Daniel, you speak Te Reo Māori, right? If it is okay with you, do you think you could help me with a very short Māori lyric and English translation project I am working on. I will credit you for your help. I would really appreciate it :)
Aj you tongans and samoans need to humble yourself and stop trying to claim everything Maori never mention your islands neither did we come from there maybe stick to your own lane
@@steveboy7302 The Polynesians migrated from the west (Samoa) to the east. Aotearoa and Hawai'i were among the last places to be settled by Polynesians. I think it's quite possible that Savai'i is the ancestral homeland that the ancient Polynesians called Hawaiki, Havai'i and 'Avaiki, especially since Te Reo Maori, Tahitian and Hawaiian languages don't have the letter "s" in their language. I think of the Polynesians more of a family because I think of Fiji as our ancestral grandfather, Asia as our ancestral grandmother, the land as our mother and the moana as our father. I think of all of the Polynesians islands as brothers and sisters. Samoa and Tonga are the oldest siblings, while Hawai'i and Aotearoa are the youngest siblings (with everyone else in between). I've noticed that the western modern world has tried to overtake our Aotearoa and Hawai'i siblings the most by taking their land, customs and language, and so Hawai'i and Aotearoa have needed to be the most proactive in defending their culture and languages. I live in Hawaii so I see this first hand to the point where my children feel defensive about Hawaiian culture and even their own physical features as Hawaiians. Another thing about Polynesians.... once you start doing your research about our gods, languages, foods, and customs, I think you will be amazed at how Polynesians are much more alike than they are different.
I really enjoyed this video. My maternal grandparents were native Hawaiian speakers. Sadly my generation was not so blessed. I have retained some of it, but I am far from fluent. I was heartened by the resurgence of interest in the Hawaiian language in the last century. May it continue. Mahalo nui loa!
I am not Kanaka Maoli, so when I was first learning the language, my Hawaiian language teacher taught all students (regardless of ethnicity) to think of Pidgin when first learning Hawaiian grammar. Pidgin actually derives much of its non-English grammar from Hawaiian, so by converting the sentence to be translated into Pidgin first and then into Hawaiian, it serves as an intermediary step.
Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd Because over a century of US occupation of the Hawaiian Islands has actively suppressed the local culture, language, and identity. People reclaiming their identity is a recent phenomenon dating back to the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1970’s. And it also isn’t just the indigenous community, this happened to some extent to every community in Hawaiʻi that wasn’t from the US. By descent I am half Japanese, and my grandparents and their parents were native Japanese speakers in Hawaiʻi, but the events surrounding the forced relocation of people of Japanese descent during the Second World War convinced my grandparents never to teach the language to their children for fear of reprisal even after the war was over. It’s easier to maintain their military occupation if the population has been goaded into complacency through fear and repression.
Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd - there were quite a few Brits here in the days of the Hawaiian Kingdom as well who married into Hawaiian families, so some of the older British names among Hawaiian families come from those lines. The Hawaiian Kingdom, particularly under the reigns of Kamehameha IV and V, tried to cultivate relations with the British crown moreso than with the USA. I descend from Kanaka Maoli lines that had some mixture with English ancestry as far back as the 1830s. My ancestors were mostly Paniolo - Hawaiian cattle ranchers - where this ancestry is common. Harbottle, Lindsey, Spencer, Davis - these are some well known Hawaiian family names that descend from an English ancestor.
@Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd Because there was a time when the aim of English/British government was, "Make The World England", aka colonialism. Ever heard of the phrase "The empire on which the sun never sets"?
I took Hawaiian in High school for an easy A because it's similar to my Samoan language. I do have Hawaiian blood, so it ended up being a very fun class that made me connect to that side of my Polynesian culture. Thanks for your video it was shared to me by a friend.
Little trigger fish with a nose like a pig. I still have the diaper bag from when I was a baby and it has this fish and the word all over it. It was one of the first Hawaiian words I learned.
I am fascinated by the languages of Polynesia. Even though I can't speak a single one, the fact that they're related to Malagasy, Tagalog or the languages of Taiwan and together form the geographically wide Austronesian family is damn cool. Also, their limited phonetic inventary is interesting.
انا ايضا معك اعتقد ان اللغات البسيطة الا معقدة هي الاجمل انا احاول اختراع لغتي الخاصة من خلال دمج تلك اللغات واريد ان اسئلك ما الذي يجب ان افعله حتى تكون لغتي جميلة بالنسبة اليك؟
Aloha Paul ! I seen you and your lovely wife walking through the food court near the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton. Anyways Mahalo Nui Loa for making this video, spot on my brother! I am one of those people who grew up in the Immersion schools plus my Tūtū (grandmother) is from Niʻihau so English and Hawaiian are both my first languages I guess. I mainly speak English but I speak Hawaiian with family and friends. My Bible is in Hawaiian we call it Ka Baibala Hemolele or the Holy Bible. I use my language in music both when listening to or writing my own. I still use old place names when referring to places and stories of places. Learning history through old Hawaiian language news papers which do not have ʻokina or kahakō but we know the correct words through context. That’s how and when I use it, it’s not as often as I’d like but we teach it to the children and they’re growing up much like I did with both English and Hawaiian. Thank you so much again for doing a video on Hawaiian and I know people who are interested in the language can use what you’ve shared and gain cool insight. Keep doing what your doing and E lā maikaʻi iā ʻoe - have a nice (good) day !
If you haven't done it yet, you'll have to do the Maori language of New Zealand. Considering the Polynesians reached NZ around 1300 CE, it might be the youngest non-creole language on Earth.
The idea of "youngest non-creole language is a little odd. Obviously, when the Maori first arrived at New Zealand, they still spoke the same language as people wherever they came from. There is a certain logic to arguing that a language "starts" when it's cut off from other members of a dialect continuum, as Maori would have been separated from the language of those they left behind at that point, making a neat split in the family tree as language changes stopped spreading between the 2 populations. The problem with this theory is that it would lead you to conclude all sorts of wild things about wide dialect continuums, like that French and Portuguese are the same language, simply because there's a continuum between the two. It would also lead you to believe that any group of people who were isolated for a generation would have their own separate "language", even if it were clearly mutually intelligible with other descendants of the parent language. Also, I'm pretty sure Maori is not the most recent separation of peoples leading to a language split. The first later one that came in my brain is Afrikaans. Of course, Maori is different from Afrikaans in that New Zealand had no native population at the time, meaning that it's changes had nothing to do with language contact (except perhaps between different groups of sailors). (In fact, I think I remember there being debate over whether Afrikaans is really a Germanic language or a Dutch based creole.) Thinking that way, I suppose there might be some kind of record Maori is breaking, but calling it the "youngest" non-creole language seems misleading. To me the term "youngest non-creole language" would at best refer to a language that changed particularly fast, so that you wouldn't have to go back as far to find language that was not mutually intelligible. Apparently, this sort of thing might happen when languages start to die out (like Dyirbal has apparentlu changed a lot) which seems to me to be just a very dramatic example of the fact that languages change faster when there's heavy language contact and large cultural changes (as can be seen with the (I think) rapid evolution of Afrikaans).
@@Mr.Nichan Well yes, there is a debate about "where" exactly one language ends and another related one begins, like whether Scots is a dialect of English or a separate language. And some Serbs and Croatians insist that their two languages are separate when (from what I've heard) they're almost identical, and many sources refer to "the Serbo-Croatian language". Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich famously stated "a language is a dialect with an army and navy" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy ). Re. Afrikaans, yes, I used the qualifier "non-creole" mainly for that reason, even though I have also heard there's a debate about whether or not it's a true creole.
Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) for your posting! I miss my native Hawaiian language since moving to the mainland. I hope that my language doesn't die. The Hawaiian language should be taught in ALL public schools in Hawai'i and made mandatory.
Yeah, I wish I was put in Hawaiian language schools growing up too. But at least I can pretty much understand just by all the words I know from growing up. I still plan on moving back home soon.
Dude you made me tear up. Thank you for acknowledging us ❤️ This was such a well done basic breakdown of my language. I was almost conversational in high school (took it as my language requirement), then moved to the continent and lost it. I’m trying to get it back... Eō ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! ❤️
OMG, I never expected this! I'm Filipino and I'm super-duper determined to learn Hawaiian. Although I have no idea what any of these words mean (hitherto watching this video) I've noticed grammatical patterns within the language that are very similar with Filipino and Cebuano (I speak both languages), especially the object markers and how you're able to describe nouns without the use of verbs. Examples: *Hawaiian:* Nani ka wahine (The woman is beautiful) *Filipino:* Maganda ang babae (The woman is beautiful) *Hawaiian:* Maika'i au (I'm good) *Filipino:* Magaling ako (I'm good) - These phrases follow the same word order (Predicate + [Obj. marker/Article] Subject) Maraming salamat sa'yo, Paul! 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
The formal name for that distinction is alienable and inalienable possession. There's a Wikipedia article on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_possession
Tommy Japan Brony I wish state governments here in the US would do more to support native languages. I think it would be amazing to learn something like Comanche here in Texas. There are also some non-native languages that have had considerable regional influence. My husband is from Lancaster County, where Pennsylvania Dutch is common. Here in Texas, there was considerable immigration by Czech and German speakers and there are still elderly people in central Texas who can speak the Texan dialect of those languages, but sadly most of their descendants cannot.
@@brookekennel2636 Languages which have lost their regional influences mostly due to its native speakers being under the hegemony of other people who speak a different language gradually disappears and will eventually be forced to die out anyway. This sadly applies to everywhere around the world. For example, I live in Anatolia and see all the other languages beside Turkish itself are forced to die out in favor of that so-called national unity. Most of the indigenous languages here such as Lydian had already died out and now remaining languages are becoming more narrowly spoken each day to top it off.
@@sporksto4372 Actually, many natives live in their own minor self-governing (to an extent) reserves. It would be their duty to continue teaching their people the language. Unfortunately, most of these reserves have become barely civil drug dens.
@@whenthedustfallsaway I think you missed my point. There were self-governing systems back then here in Anatolia but no longer valid any of them. What I exactly mean is that people are forced to fight off takeover attempts in order to protect their identity, language, culture and such stuff, because no one recognizes the rights of minorities. This unfortunately happens in every corner of the world and people react to it very normally.
I'd love to see more videos about native American languages, but I understand it's pretty hard to get a hold of speaker especially for the endangered ones.
I read that as "more videos about vaguely related" rather than "this is an X, more X please". Like "hey, american languages, what about Spanish?" Or maybe the word grouping was "native american" languages, rather than native "American languages". Oh dear, language is hard.
So glad you made this after visiting Hawai'i. I can just imagine the wheels turning in your head after seeing all those Hawaiian words and place names. Your familiarity with Tagalog helped you place Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages in evolutionary linguistic perspective. I'm from Hawaii, and this video explained a lot of what I Hawaiian I was exposed to growing up in Hawai'i, e.g. singing Hawaiian songs like "Aloha 'Oe." BTW before the renaissance of Hawaiian at the end of the 70s, tourists thought the word "mahalo" meant "garbage" because that's what was written on trash cans at Ala Moana Shopping Center and in places frequented by tourists. You can imagine the confusion at being told "mahalo" after doing someone a favor like holding the door open, or the waiter presenting you with the check...
Keep it on Hawaiians! 💪 I’m currently learning Nahuatl (the Aztec language), similarly to Hawaiian, in Mexico Nahuatl was overtook by Spanish but in the last decades there is a Revival of the language.
I am Dutch, I learn Hawaiian on Duolingo. It's a really fun language. The beginning of learning it was really hard, because of the different order than my language. But after a while I understood it. The words aren't very difficult at all, so it isn't a very hard language to learn. I really like it. Thank you for this really interesting video!
Similarities to Filipino languages: 1. The word order and how it starts with a verb. Using the example from the video "Nani ka wahine" it can be translated word for word . Tagalog = "Maganda ang babae.", Cebuano "Guapa ang babayi.", Waray = "Kahusay san babayi". And just like Hawai'ian, switching the order would make it a noun phrase, "Ang magandang babae(ay)", "Ang guapa nga babayi(kay)", "An mahusay nga babayi(kay)". 2. The use of a plural marker "mau", "mga" in Filipino langauges(mostly). 3. Demonstratives where most of them starts with the same sound in Filipino except for the word "Kena" which is very samilar to the Cebuano language word for that, "Kana". 4. Subject pronouns like "au" and "o ia"("ako" and "siya") Not an expert, I'm just sharing what I have observed.
Tupak! Filipino here, having both Cebuano (Davao dialect) and Standard Filipino as my native languages. I'm always amazed when Malayo-Polynesian languages are discussed, since Filipino and all native Philippine languages are grouped here. Originally, Philippine languages do not have consonant clusters, as seen in the pre-Hispanized baybayin and other forms of surat (traditional writing). The modern languages do still maintain this, and sometimes to comedic effect: "bababa ba?" means "will someone alight here?" (verb: "baba", go down, alight; repeating the first syllable makes its tense in the future; " "ba" is an affirmative marker, used in a yes/no question). The predict-subject arrangement is also a feature of Malayo-Polynesian languages: reading through Malay and Indonesian, I can see lots of commonalities with how we write. And similarly, since it's a noun phrase, it doesn't mean much, only telling the noun and its attributes. But the word order can be switched in some cases, as in the second example: The big house - Ka hale nui: in Cebuano it can be written as "Ang dakong balay" or "Ang balay nga dako/Ang balay'ng dako", or in Tagalog/Filipino as "Ang malaking bahay" or "Ang bahay na malaki", the suffix -ng used for vowel harmony. The two versions of "we" are also very Malayo-Polynesian, since our cultures have a social picture of realities that apply to the speaker and those that do not: for instance, "kāua" is "amua/amoa" in Cebuano, while "māua" is "inyuha/inyoha". So is the singular and plural definite articles, but in Filipino and other Philippine languages the definite/indefinite articles combined into a common singular/plural article, using the word "ang": "nā kumu/he kumu" is "ang guro" in Filipino, while "he mau kumu" is "ang mga guro". We can use the comparison table to even discuss the similarities. English - Hawai'ian - Cebuano - Filipino: house - hale - balay - bahay canoe (as in a boat) - wa'a - bangka - bangka woman - wahine - babaye/babayi - babae fish - i'a - isda - isda thing - mea - butang - bagay bird - manu - langgam - ibon and by sound: evening - ahiahi - gabi-i - gabi (and in other Philippine languages, for example Hiligaynon, it's "gab-i") and by the VSO sentence order: I love you - Aloha au iā 'oe - Gihigugma tika - Minamahal kita (or just "Mahal kita") Edit: Changed the Cebuano particle intp the standard form "nga" from my dialectal "na".
After three years, I have finally started taking Hawaiian language courses online. My maternal grandmother was Hawaiian, and it is great to reconnect to the culture and language.
I wish them to preserve this beautiful language. It's a treasure. And I wish them to keep their traditions - not for tourists to see, but for their own joy. Though if I ever came to Hawaii, I'd like to see a bit of it :) to remember it forever.
All countries and people should do this. Many people want to destroy diverse cultures though by mixing them together which destroys both and creates a new culture
What ever is left in their traditions are just a shell of their former selves, it's now turned into caricature and shallow commodity crafted after the white people's imagination of what an "exotic Hawaii" is.
@@sohopedeco Yeah, Nheengatu is an amazing language. And since Guarani and Nheengatu are both in the same language family, a video about they will be awesome.
@@lilyraimey3499 our language is a moral language we never wrote our language that's why alot of polynesians are good at singing the only type of writing was like our tattoos and carving
I was fortunate to take a linguistics class at Hawai’i Pacific University and found out that Hawai’i use to be the most literate nation in the world. Too bad the the language was shunned the way it was. I’m glad there is a push to revitalize it!!!
I’m from Hawaii and I love this video, like most people here I can’t speak Hawaiian but I can say the common place names. My brother is also conversational in Hawaiian. I can also say humuhumunukunukuāpua’a
In finnish we have also a lot of vowels and this humuhumunukunukuapua'a seems & sounds like a funny combination of finnish worlds, literally from word to word it's in english "bustle bustle sleep sleep (imperative) heeelp!" :D Hawai'ian sounds like a really cool language, and easy to pronounce as a finnish person since we also say everything exactly how it's written :)
Yes, it’s one of the words my father remembers from being scolded. It literally means “deafening,” the implication being that someone’s talking is making you go deaf.
Im malay and i find out hawaiian have many similarities words with malay, yeah we in same language family, Austronesia... But the grammar seems like hawaiian more harder than malay because malay lost most of the grammar and simplification, and yeah our language family are most logical languages to learn... Very interesting video!!!
I was a pre teen in the early 80s living on O’ahu, so missed out on the toddler language immersion. I am Caucasian, but took hula lessons from a Hawaiian/Chinese elder and her daughters. (I don’t recall how much Hawaiian my hula teacher’s family spoke.) Being involved in hula allowed me to experience a nice amount of Hawaiian instrumental music (think percussion and guitar) as well as singing. (Also, I was the only blonde girl in my group. 😀) Also, Hawaiian was offered as a language option in high school.
Austronesian languages remind me our indigenous languages of South America. I'm Guajajara from Brazil and we also have in Ze'egete (the good speech) 'we/our' inclusive and exclusive ('Zane' and 'Oré'). Love it 👏
I think there was ancient cultural meetings between the people of Polynesian and native South Americans. There is even a native tribe in Los Angeles that calls its canoe the same as a Polynesian one and share the same building style
@@jordansaipaia7874 I don't think that's true because Polynesians never even knew the Americas even existed as such, they only stopped in Hawaii. And the Los Angeles native tribe are proberly recent Pacific islander migrants that went there but have nothing to do with native American culture.
@@michaelcalle2981you dont know that , its still up to speculation even among experts . also the furthest Polynesian people have migrated was not hawai'i .. it was rapa nui [easter island]
I am Irish and trying to preserve my own language. I also want to learn Hawai’ian and help preserve their langauge! Weirdly enough there are some strange similarities between our languages. Nā in Hawaiian is na in irish, i’a is iasc and lā is lá (fish, day). The word order is also VSO. Even though they aren’t related at all, it’s sometimes weird seeing the occasional similarity here and there.
What I would like to know is how the hell is Irish declining as a native language, with government support for nearly a 100 years and yet Hawaiian has increased in use by nearly 10,000 people with minimal government intervention in the last 40?
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is my 2nd language and I am also Kanaka Maoli (native person/native Hawaiian). I began learning Hawaiian while dancing hula (Hawaiʻi native dance) and then I decided to take courses at my local college so I could really learn my language. I use ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi every day when speaking to my friends. Sometimes I will tell them how my day was and what happened in Hawaiian. Very commonly, I ask my friends Pehea ʻoe (how are you) and then also respond in Hawaiian.
Thanks for this insight into the Hawaiian language. I've been doing the Duolingo course for almost a month and have yet to practice the possessives or any plural pronouns. As a student of Spanish and Mandarin, getting a more detailed overview of Hawaiian grammar is astonishing.
fun fact, as long as you keep adding the right ʻawe markers and ʻawe you can make a sentence as long as you want to. You can even add sentence fragments to make it even longer. Ex. Makemake au e hele -> I want to go, is a complete sentence but it can be made more specific by adding an ʻawe and a marker (i/ma). so, Makemake au e hele i ke kula -> I want to go to the school can also be made longer with another marker Makemake au e hele i ke kula ma ka hola ʻehiku -> I want to go to school at seven (lit. at the hour seven) Makemake au e hele i ke kula ma ka hola ʻehiku no ka hoʻopaʻa haʻawina ʻana -> I want to go to school at seven for the purpose of studying. Note that there is not a word for studying or any verb ending with ing so you have to make it studying with the ʻana. You can also negate these sentences or add tenses. :)
As an Indonesian who learnt Hawaiian on Duolingo, I found many Austronesian cognates. au = Aku kou = kau ia = ia wai = air alanui = jalan moloā = malas make = mati Aia...... = ada...... etc.
Good God, I'm an American in Portugal (struggling) and have watched half a dozen of your Intro's to Languages. The research required to nail historical and basic Lang. structures is hands-down brilliant. Every time. Thank you for being a rock-solid guiding light.
James Hainsworth Maori is an important language. I visited Fiji with my New Zealand 5 year old granddaughter (Pakeha) and she astonished a local Fijian by speaking to him in Maori and he understood a lot of what she was saying. The numbers seem to be identical.
@@MrNicopa Agreed. I don't think it would be covered much on this channel but I really like the culture that comes with the language too. Not necessarily traditions, but more philosophical issues such as land treatment. I'm 100% Pākehā, as far as I know, but I think it's really worth learning (and that's what I'm doing).
Glad to see my culture being put out there I live in a small town called kaneohe and to see our language fade is heart breaking malama pono those who help meaning we care for those who help you my friend are amazing
@@rogerwilco2 I don't personally know of any Germanic languages that use 'v' for /w/ I do know German uses 'v' for the sound /f/. Swedish pronounces 'v' as /v/, Like; Vi äter nötkött.
Aloha, my name is Kahakuhailoa Poepoe and I am from the island of Molokai and a māna leo (a native Hawaiian speaker), I am so appreciative you made a video on this. Great video, I am one of the last māna Leo of my generation, and I am sad to see our people and language being desecrated slowly by America’s public school system. My Island is 80% native Hawaiian which makes my life different from those who live on other islands. One thing I heard was he mea iki as your welcome, I hear no’u ka hau’oli a lot more which means for I am happy.
I'm half Hawaiian and my mother is a native and speaks Hawaiian, but she never wanted to teach me to speak the language. What little Hawaiian I spoke growing up I learned from my dad, who has a love of languages. I always felt incredibly sad that I didn't get to know much of my culture from my mom, but it's incredibly heartwarming that that's not the norm anymore! One day I hope to fully embody my Hawaiian culture in language and spirit!
Thank you so much for covering this language! I visited Hawai’i when I was very young and loved the language. I’ve tried to learn it before, but have had to put it on the back burner for the time being. It amazes me how complex of a language you can have even with so few consonants, and of course it’s very beautiful. I remember hearing about a visitor at the turn of the century who joked that he thought Hawaiians snuck out at night to add more vowels to the street signs every time he went to sleep!
Great work as always, Paul! Wow, never heard such a thing as different possessive adjectives for whether a thing you chose to possess, or not.... Learning languages also means achieving a total new way of thinking, and imagining and perceive the world around you.. It never ceases to amaze me.
Mahalo for the video! I’m a native speaker and Hawaiian is my first language 🤗 I went to a Hawaiian immersion school and speak it with my dad every day. I think this video was really well done and I can’t wait to share it with my ʻohana and friends. Again, mahalo nui iā ʻoe 🤙🏽
We speak Hawaiian at home and publicly quite regularly. My son is a fluent speaker and I am learning and have been studying for several years now. He started learning Hawaiian at age 5 via the immersion program, and we are a proud ohana honored to be part of the language revival!
I lived in Hawaii for about seven years, and I always consider the language to be one of the most poetic and beautiful in the world. I just know "Our Father" in hawaiian, and when I pray I try to say our Father in English and Hawaiian. It is a very special language.
The revitalization of Hawaiian has been a huge inspiration to Native American communities on the mainland. A lot of the methodology, like the Language Nests, has been adopted here. I'd love to see Paul cover some of the Indigenous languages of the US and Canada :)
I lived in Hawai'i from 2011-2016, and there were quite a few Hawaiian words that came up in everyday life there. I was always so impressed by the gentle beauty of native locals, their kind aloha, and their deep spirit. I have never seen a dance more graceful and exquisite than the hula done by native Hawaiian women. Their culture has deep spiritual roots, as exemplified by the word "aloha", spoken not just as a greeting, but as a benediction and a declaration of brother- and sisterhood. I always felt honored when a local referred to me as "Auntie". It made me feel included as family.
Great job, Paul! As a speaker, I appreciate this very accurate and thorough introduction to our language! Yes, Hawaiian was almost gone but speakers are increasing year by year thanks to these immersion schools and a revitalization among Hawaiians about preserving language and culture. The funny thing about Hawaiian is that depending on what area you're from and how your elders spoke it, there are all these little exceptions here and there to the rules. For example, it's quite common for people to use the "wrong" article with certain words (ke pākaukau instead of ka pākaukau). I've always used a-class possessive with younger siblings but o-class with older. Another interesting thing about possessives, a word could have slightly different connotations depending on which possessive is used. Take the word kiʻi for example, meaning 'picture, image,' or 'photo.' If you say koʻu kiʻi, you mean that it's my picture in the sense that it's a picture or photo of me, I am in the photo and have no control over that. But if you say kaʻu kiʻi, it means my picture in the sense that I may have taken a photo of something or purchased a photo or postcard in a shop. And a fun fact - kiʻi is a direct cognate of tiki in Tahitian or Maori (k=t, ʻ=k), so the borrowed English word tiki, originally meaning image, is why the old carved wooden statues were called so - they were images of the old gods.
Thank you.. on Ni'ihau the older ones use the switched K&T Tapu for Kapu... if you listen to some of the singing from Kapiolani Park Oahu concerts you can pick up someone from home other than on Kauai you hear more... Puuwai Aloha'oe
I love the idea of a-class and o-class possessives -- it's a distinction that we don't automatically tag in other languages. Just out of curiosity, with ko'u ki'i and ka'u ki'i, which would you use for a selfie? After all, it's a picture of me that I took myself.
@@dylanstillwood good question. For a selfie, you can use either a or o form. Choosing between one or the other would depend on what aspect of your selfie you are emphasizing when you talk about it. In a general sense if there’s a situation where either could be used then o-form is usually the one defaulted to.
I speak Hawaiian with relative fluency as a second language learner. I started learning my ancestral tongue in middle school and continued through college. How much I speak Hawaiian depends on the situation and who I'm around. It's the only language I use in prayer. It's the primary language I use with babies and toddlers. With some friends, it's the primary language we speak to each other. With most friends who also speak Hawaiian, our usage is situational. Finally, with my partner, who is highly skilled in the Hawaiian language and associated arts (e.g. poetry and prayer composition), we speak Hawaiian most often to each other when we don't want people eavesdropping on our conversation. It should be the primary language we speak with each other, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in Hawaiian to maintain the level of specificity and nuance in conversation and conceptualization that the two of us maintain in English. BTW, we're both fans of Langfocus! Mahalo, e Paul! If you happen to visit Hawaiʻi, drop us a line and we'd be happy to show you the richness of our ʻōlelo on the landscape and living culture of Hawaiʻi.
Hawaiian has gone through many hurdles, and still definitely is on the islands; however, Iʻm glad to see this beautiful language have more exposure outside of Hawaiʻi. I am learning and definitely trying to speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi as much as I can. It is a lot easier to write than it is to speak. Luckily, I have some friends who can speak and are studying ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, and my brother also went through the Hawaiian Immersion Program, so using it as much as I can with them. But, to be honest, although Hawaiian is documented as an official language, it is taught in the same manner as Spanish in most schools, as a secondary and supplementary language, so many people within Hawaiian are unable to speak more than a few sentences in Hawaiian. The Hawaiian Immersion Schools are an exception, fortunately going from preschool all the way to the Doctorate level. The road to revitalization is a long one, but we are steadfast and have so much hope to see Hawaiian re-instituted in the islands for ourselves, our ancestors and our children and grandchildren. I ola mau ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! (P.S. Did you know it was Hawaiian Language Month in Hawaiʻi? Hauʻoli Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi!)
This is awesome, It would be great to see you do videos on other indigenous languages, Navajo has made an amazing comeback and while much smaller the language of my people, Mi'kmaq, is seeing a similar revitalization as well.
This was great! Wish there was a love button to click haha. This was super informational and throughourly explained the grammatical aspects! Thanks so much for this video! 'Ōlelo hawai'i is a language close to my heart ^_^
Yes, this same exact Ancient Austronesian word (mata = eye), with it's meaning, exists all across Pacific Island Worlds. It remained unchanged, intact. This is also true with many words, having the exact same meaning, often with only one single consonant or one vowel difference.
Austronesian languages are fascinating, they sound amazingly good, yet they have a very logical, regular grammar which almost is close to that of "constructed" languages. Glad Hawai'ian is being subject of conservation efforts 👍👍.
I'm also a polynesian thank you for this and I'll love to hear more about it and all polynesian languages are similar but please do more videos about other island of polynesian island like New Zealand easter island etc to know about our language
What is super fascinating for me is that Poles can just straight read Hawaiian perfectly because letters and words sound exactly the same as in Polish :D
Mostly true, but not entirely. Hawaiian W is an approximant, which means it should not be pronounced like Polish W, but like English W (or German W in certain dialects). You must also watch out for short A which has slightly different vowel pronunciations. And Polish doesn't have long vowels. Finally, Polish O is generally an open vowel, while Hawaiian O is generally a closed vowel. Of course, I am just being picky here, lol. I only became aware of these differences because I thought that knowing Spanish would make Hawaiian pronunciation a breeze (pun intended!) and it mostly does, but not completely. :P
I once attended a Christmas outdoor mass where the preacher gave the sermon in Hawaiian. I had only been on Oahu about 2 weeks. I was in near tears over just how absolutely beautiful it sounded. It sounded so florid. My jaw was on the ground in awe of the beauty of the language.
I know a good amount of Hawaiian words but not a lot of its grammar structures. This is because I took hula for ten years in California with ke kumu, Pearl. She started us off with numbers, colors, body parts, and nature features. These words pop up a lot in Hawaiian songs, so she wanted us to be able to pick them out as we danced and know where we are in the song. She gave us English translations of the lyrics and the history of the song (when she felt it was needed), as well, because for her, it was very important to know what you're dancing and know the story behind it. If I hadn't moved out of state, I would have continued my lessons and become a ke kumu myself, fully learning the language, reading more books on Hawaiian culture, along with learning more dances and how to play more instruments. As it is, where I moved to has very few halau and they're all competition based. Nothing wrong with wanting to do competition hula, but Auntie Pearl wanted us to learn hula for the sake of learning and carrying on tradition, even if we're not native Hawaiian.
Great video (as usual from you!). Love the Austronesian parallels, definitely resemble some obscure languages I have come across in NTT Indonesia, (Sumba-Hawu-Dhao group), the fun never ends! Thanks!
I'm Maori and I speak te reo Maori. Our language is very similar to 'olelo Hawai'i. I have lots of respect. Nga mihi nunui atu ki a koutou no o koutou nei mahi rahi whakaharahara e pa ana nei ki te whakarauora reo Hawai'i. Tihei, mauri ora.
I am a native speaker of tahitian. 10 years ago I learned the marquesian language of Nuku Hiva. I was impressed to see how close it is to marquesian for instance Makemake = makimaki or ma'ima'i Thank you for this presentation. I realized that my being part if the community of VSO languages. I guess that with a little practice and ear re-arrangement I could be fluent in hawaiian. Nui ke aloha- Ia nui te ka'oha- Ia rahi te arofa
Finally as a native hawaiian this topic has been kinda hidden and what tourist dosent know about Hawaii. I went to a hawaiian charter school for 3 years during joniur hi days. I am thank full you made this video.
@@quadeevans6484 Can't you still do that now? Like give them up for adoption or something. Maybe not when they're grown up but you could easily get rid of little ones if you needed to
I spent my formative years in Hawai'i and fell in love with the place and the people, so to me the Hawai'ian language will always hold a special magic. Every language is a window into a different view of the world, and to me, the Hawai'ian perspective is uniquely kind and honest. It's a beautiful language for a beautiful land and a wonderful culture, and I will always be grateful for having had the good luck to experience it.
There's definitely some good symbolism in the movie, if you knew from the beginning that Moana's name meant ocean. It's funny that the parents forbid a girl they named ocean to go to the ocean though 😂. Rename her land!
@@oscar6540-b7c I hate that they had to do that for legal reasons. I don't speak any Polynesian languages, so I don't know what Vaiana means, but it can't possibly fit better than "Moana" for a character that basically spends the whole movie traveling the ocean.
I don’t know that much before making the video. I always research and treat the video as a project. I learn from making each video. But I forget a lot too, because I’m constantly switching topics.
Another fascinating LangFocus video! Thanks, Paul! I can't imagine how long it must take you to research everything then edit the video meticulously. I look forward to each of your videos. Thank you again.
Hi, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the video!
► If you're learning a language, whether it's a widely spoken language or an endangered one, try using italki for online lessons with native teachers: go.italki.com/1Ojye8x --► My favorite way to practices languages!
Do you know what " Bond" is called in Hawaii????🥀
@@kritikabatta4530 pa'a'ia
mahalo for this, you are contributing to the ahwaiian rennisance. long live olelo hawai'i
Fun fact: Wikipedia is derived from Wikiwiki, a Hawaiian word, meaning "fast" :-0
Hoàng Kim Việt Ui người Việt nè
Fastpedia😂😂😂
So, when in my language Wikipedia is pronunced ''vikipedia'', is it actually the right way to pronunce it? Interesting.
@@kacperwoch4368 That's why it is Википедия or Vikipediya in Russian
@@kacperwoch4368 is catalan ?
I can only feel a huge respect for what the Hawaiian people have managed to do.
From 800 speakers to thousands now. Wow.
I'm impressed.
That's what loving your culture means.
My sincere congratulations.
They SPAMmed it.
I hope Indians do the same, vanquish english from their daily lives.
Cauko not the same cultural context. Indian is full of languages (maybe more than 300) English might be the most politically neutral language.
I'd comment the same thing. Really impressive.
@Cauko You mean Native-Americans? Some groups are already doing their language revivals like the Navajo.
As a polyglot and native speaker (kanaka 'ōlelo) as well as a former Hawaiian language teacher, I'm very impressed at this presentation of our language. You did a very thorough job!
On a daily basis, I speak Hawaiian commands with my dog and have conversations with my nieces/nephews who attend immersion school. I'll speak Hawaiian with my siblings/family when I don't want others to listen in. I also have many coworkers that speak Hawaiian and enjoy conversing with them whenever I see them.
*Man! Is there any formal material/book that you would recomend for learning Hawaiian? I'm from México, but I'm really interested. Ans everything I find in the web are presencial courses in the US. :'c*
*By the way, I am curious, do you want independence from the US? 🤔*
KaimiNite That's awesome! How do you say the basic dog commands in Hawaiian?
@@lailamayoral3544 Ka Lei Ha'aheo (by Alberta Pualani Hopkins) is the text book I used also Hawaiian Grammar (by by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert). As for my political views, I usually keep them to myself 😁
@@CalvinKrausesit: noho (or noho i lalo), stand: kū, stay: kali (to wait), come: mai (or hele mai), speak: hae, down: lalo, lay down: moe
@@lailamayoral3544 There's a Duolingo Hawaiian course you can try its, basic but free.
I've been going to Hawai'i for 30+ years, and while before almost everything was spoken in English only, you can absolutely hear Hawaiian being used casually in public today. it's even gotten to where Merri Monarch, the biggest Hula competition, has an all Hawaiian commentary broadcast now! it's absolutely amazing to know that the effort of language revival works!
i see your expectations of drawing a false equivalence in order to draw up controversy and raise you the fact that the comment in question that this is about language preservation.
here's hoping Welsh can have a similar experience in revivalism.
When did all this happen? I moved from Hawai'i in 2017 and from what I can remember, Hawaiian wasn't widely spoken everywhere I went. Very nice to hear tho
@@pheo212 i was on Oahu mostly when i was younger, but in the last few years I've spent more time on Kauai, Maui and the big island. plus they have immersion classes for different fields of study now, like farming, cultural studies and nature conservation.
Love to hear that
Free Hawaii and America from Anglo colonisation!
My name is Emma. I am a senior in Highschool currently taking my fourth year of Hawaiian. All of my friends and I use Hawaiian daily in and out of school. I am very thankful you made this video.
Aloha. 'O Emma ko'u inoa. He papa 'umikūmālua ma ke kula ki'eki'e. Aia au ma ka papa 'ōlelo Hawai'i 'ehā. No'u ka ha'uoli a mahalo piha no mākaukau 'oe i kēia wikio.
Hello, I was interested in how you said you use Hawaiian daily how much English you use on a daily basis, how much Hawaiian news and websites are there and things like business signs, menus and other visible Hawaiian language is out there, and if many non-native Hawaiians are also learning Hawaiian.
@@gj1234567899999 There isn't a lot of all Hawaiian news or websites out there but almost all local tv will have at least a little Hawaiian in them. You can also find smaller networks like 'Oiwi Tv that do all Hawaiian shows and series. Other Networks like PBS Hawai'i my not have all Hawaiian shows but a lot of their content focus heavily on Hawaiian culture. As far as visual Hawaiian language goes, it's everywhere. Like he mentioned in the video, it's in hotels, on advertisements, news bulletins, street names, it's all over the place. Most of the time it's just a few words or well known fraises, it's rarely all Hawaiian. For example, in Hawaii you might see a sign posted on a fence or in a driveway that says "kapu". In Hawaiian "kapu" means sacred or forbidden, so when you see a "kapu" sign it's equivalent to a "keep out" sign or "no trespassing" sign. Pretty much all the schools in Hawaii offer a Hawaiian language course and lot's of people take them. If it's a graduation requirement, that's even more incentive for non Hawaiians to take up the language, because chances are they'll decide to choose a language like Hawaiian that they are some what familiar with or interested in as opposed to a completely foreign language like French. There is definitely much more native Hawaiian speakers then there are non Hawaiian speakers but I'd say that there at least a few out there. I hope this answers you question.
Maybe you could put together an endangered language playlist.
That would be awesome 😻
That would be a long list.
@Þórfinnr Karlsefni Þórðarson wow you have 2 thorns and an eth in your name
Ken MacMillan UP
Fortasse pelliculārum indicem tūtūbulensem linguārum moritūrārum et in periculō facere potes.
"Ohana means family." And family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.
Thank you. I knew someone would post this 👍
Was looking for this
Or forgotten.
Is this a reference to something? I'm sorry I didn't get it, please help 😬
Rahul Dhargalkar this is a reference to the movie: “Lilo and Stich” which is a Disney movie that partially takes place in Hawai’i.
I’m from New Zealand, and it’s amazing how similar te Reo Māori (the Māori language) is to Hawaiian. There are no ‘l’s in Māori so the word for love is ‘aroha’. It’s also interesting to note that the mythological ancestral homeland of Māori, which is said to be the place where all spirits return to after death, is called ‘Hawaiki’. It would be so cool if you did an episode on te Reo Māori because it has also had a renaissance like Hawaiian after it nearly died out
Hi Daniel, you speak Te Reo Māori, right? If it is okay with you, do you think you could help me with a very short Māori lyric and English translation project I am working on. I will credit you for your help. I would really appreciate it :)
He did an episode about te reo māori today!
@A J is "Havai'i" Tongan or Tokelauan?
Aj you tongans and samoans need to humble yourself and stop trying to claim everything Maori never mention your islands neither did we come from there maybe stick to your own lane
@@steveboy7302 The Polynesians migrated from the west (Samoa) to the east. Aotearoa and Hawai'i were among the last places to be settled by Polynesians. I think it's quite possible that Savai'i is the ancestral homeland that the ancient Polynesians called Hawaiki, Havai'i and 'Avaiki, especially since Te Reo Maori, Tahitian and Hawaiian languages don't have the letter "s" in their language. I think of the Polynesians more of a family because I think of Fiji as our ancestral grandfather, Asia as our ancestral grandmother, the land as our mother and the moana as our father. I think of all of the Polynesians islands as brothers and sisters. Samoa and Tonga are the oldest siblings, while Hawai'i and Aotearoa are the youngest siblings (with everyone else in between). I've noticed that the western modern world has tried to overtake our Aotearoa and Hawai'i siblings the most by taking their land, customs and language, and so Hawai'i and Aotearoa have needed to be the most proactive in defending their culture and languages. I live in Hawaii so I see this first hand to the point where my children feel defensive about Hawaiian culture and even their own physical features as Hawaiians. Another thing about Polynesians.... once you start doing your research about our gods, languages, foods, and customs, I think you will be amazed at how Polynesians are much more alike than they are different.
I really enjoyed this video. My maternal grandparents were native Hawaiian speakers. Sadly my generation was not so blessed. I have retained some of it, but I am far from fluent. I was heartened by the resurgence of interest in the Hawaiian language in the last century. May it continue. Mahalo nui loa!
I am not Kanaka Maoli, so when I was first learning the language, my Hawaiian language teacher taught all students (regardless of ethnicity) to think of Pidgin when first learning Hawaiian grammar. Pidgin actually derives much of its non-English grammar from Hawaiian, so by converting the sentence to be translated into Pidgin first and then into Hawaiian, it serves as an intermediary step.
Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd Because over a century of US occupation of the Hawaiian Islands has actively suppressed the local culture, language, and identity. People reclaiming their identity is a recent phenomenon dating back to the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1970’s.
And it also isn’t just the indigenous community, this happened to some extent to every community in Hawaiʻi that wasn’t from the US. By descent I am half Japanese, and my grandparents and their parents were native Japanese speakers in Hawaiʻi, but the events surrounding the forced relocation of people of Japanese descent during the Second World War convinced my grandparents never to teach the language to their children for fear of reprisal even after the war was over. It’s easier to maintain their military occupation if the population has been goaded into complacency through fear and repression.
Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd - there were quite a few Brits here in the days of the Hawaiian Kingdom as well who married into Hawaiian families, so some of the older British names among Hawaiian families come from those lines. The Hawaiian Kingdom, particularly under the reigns of Kamehameha IV and V, tried to cultivate relations with the British crown moreso than with the USA. I descend from Kanaka Maoli lines that had some mixture with English ancestry as far back as the 1830s. My ancestors were mostly Paniolo - Hawaiian cattle ranchers - where this ancestry is common. Harbottle, Lindsey, Spencer, Davis - these are some well known Hawaiian family names that descend from an English ancestor.
@Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd Because there was a time when the aim of English/British government was, "Make The World England", aka colonialism. Ever heard of the phrase "The empire on which the sun never sets"?
I took Hawaiian in High school for an easy A because it's similar to my Samoan language. I do have Hawaiian blood, so it ended up being a very fun class that made me connect to that side of my Polynesian culture.
Thanks for your video it was shared to me by a friend.
"Ohana means family"
family means nobody gets left behind,
Or forgotten
This is exactly what came to my mind when I heard him say it!
I was waiting for that comment
Aaaand that was enough to almost make me cry.
I love seeing language revitalization efforts like this for endangered languages. Languages like Hawaiian provide so much insight
Look at Israel and the Jewish language
They revived a language that was dead for about 2000 years.
@@dodom.8741 bad troll is bad at trolling
@@hannolansman7993 Yes Hebrew is the only language to come back from the dead. Why not Hawaiian?
@@jazz-m4q
Hawaiian has not been dead yet as there hace always been some speakers. It has come close however.
You might be interested in some of the work Basque language activists are putting to revitalize their language. The results are impressive.
Paul: let’s talk about Hawaian!
*Humuhumunukunukuāpua’a has joined the chat*
Highschool Musical ll?
@@MarinosHindkjr yes😂
A fish, right?
Lmao 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Little trigger fish with a nose like a pig. I still have the diaper bag from when I was a baby and it has this fish and the word all over it. It was one of the first Hawaiian words I learned.
I am fascinated by the languages of Polynesia. Even though I can't speak a single one, the fact that they're related to Malagasy, Tagalog or the languages of Taiwan and together form the geographically wide Austronesian family is damn cool. Also, their limited phonetic inventary is interesting.
You Filipinos need to keep to your own lane
@@steveboy7302 what’s your problem?
@@steveboy7302 anong problema mo?
انا ايضا معك اعتقد ان اللغات البسيطة الا معقدة هي الاجمل انا احاول اختراع لغتي الخاصة من خلال دمج تلك اللغات
واريد ان اسئلك ما الذي يجب ان افعله حتى تكون لغتي جميلة بالنسبة اليك؟
Aloha Paul ! I seen you and your lovely wife walking through the food court near the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton. Anyways Mahalo Nui Loa for making this video, spot on my brother!
I am one of those people who grew up in the Immersion schools plus my Tūtū (grandmother) is from Niʻihau so English and Hawaiian are both my first languages I guess. I mainly speak English but I speak Hawaiian with family and friends. My Bible is in Hawaiian we call it Ka Baibala Hemolele or the Holy Bible. I use my language in music both when listening to or writing my own. I still use old place names when referring to places and stories of places. Learning history through old Hawaiian language news papers which do not have ʻokina or kahakō but we know the correct words through context. That’s how and when I use it, it’s not as often as I’d like but we teach it to the children and they’re growing up much like I did with both English and Hawaiian. Thank you so much again for doing a video on Hawaiian and I know people who are interested in the language can use what you’ve shared and gain cool insight. Keep doing what your doing and
E lā maikaʻi iā ʻoe - have a nice (good) day !
ua-cam.com/video/7W465jldGoU/v-deo.html
Here’s a link if anyone wants to hear the Niihau dialect of the Hawaiian language
If you haven't done it yet, you'll have to do the Maori language of New Zealand. Considering the Polynesians reached NZ around 1300 CE, it might be the youngest non-creole language on Earth.
The idea of "youngest non-creole language is a little odd. Obviously, when the Maori first arrived at New Zealand, they still spoke the same language as people wherever they came from.
There is a certain logic to arguing that a language "starts" when it's cut off from other members of a dialect continuum, as Maori would have been separated from the language of those they left behind at that point, making a neat split in the family tree as language changes stopped spreading between the 2 populations. The problem with this theory is that it would lead you to conclude all sorts of wild things about wide dialect continuums, like that French and Portuguese are the same language, simply because there's a continuum between the two. It would also lead you to believe that any group of people who were isolated for a generation would have their own separate "language", even if it were clearly mutually intelligible with other descendants of the parent language.
Also, I'm pretty sure Maori is not the most recent separation of peoples leading to a language split. The first later one that came in my brain is Afrikaans. Of course, Maori is different from Afrikaans in that New Zealand had no native population at the time, meaning that it's changes had nothing to do with language contact (except perhaps between different groups of sailors). (In fact, I think I remember there being debate over whether Afrikaans is really a Germanic language or a Dutch based creole.)
Thinking that way, I suppose there might be some kind of record Maori is breaking, but calling it the "youngest" non-creole language seems misleading. To me the term "youngest non-creole language" would at best refer to a language that changed particularly fast, so that you wouldn't have to go back as far to find language that was not mutually intelligible. Apparently, this sort of thing might happen when languages start to die out (like Dyirbal has apparentlu changed a lot) which seems to me to be just a very dramatic example of the fact that languages change faster when there's heavy language contact and large cultural changes (as can be seen with the (I think) rapid evolution of Afrikaans).
@@Mr.Nichan Well yes, there is a debate about "where" exactly one language ends and another related one begins, like whether Scots is a dialect of English or a separate language. And some Serbs and Croatians insist that their two languages are separate when (from what I've heard) they're almost identical, and many sources refer to "the Serbo-Croatian language". Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich famously stated "a language is a dialect with an army and navy" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy ). Re. Afrikaans, yes, I used the qualifier "non-creole" mainly for that reason, even though I have also heard there's a debate about whether or not it's a true creole.
Samoan and Tongan are the first Polynesian languages. The original. Te Reo Maori isn't.
This! This! This!
YES PLEASE MAORI !!
Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) for your posting! I miss my native Hawaiian language since moving to the mainland. I hope that my language doesn't die. The Hawaiian language should be taught in ALL public schools in Hawai'i and made mandatory.
Yeah, I wish I was put in Hawaiian language schools growing up too. But at least I can pretty much understand just by all the words I know from growing up. I still plan on moving back home soon.
@giulia t It's the local language. That's like saying America shouldn't make English mandatory in schools.
Your last name is Salvador you look Asian I'm guessing your Filipino not native hawaiian
@@steveboy7302 How ignorant of you!
Dude you made me tear up. Thank you for acknowledging us ❤️ This was such a well done basic breakdown of my language. I was almost conversational in high school (took it as my language requirement), then moved to the continent and lost it. I’m trying to get it back... Eō ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! ❤️
Me 2 aloha'oe
OMG, I never expected this! I'm Filipino and I'm super-duper determined to learn Hawaiian. Although I have no idea what any of these words mean (hitherto watching this video) I've noticed grammatical patterns within the language that are very similar with Filipino and Cebuano (I speak both languages), especially the object markers and how you're able to describe nouns without the use of verbs.
Examples:
*Hawaiian:* Nani ka wahine (The woman is beautiful)
*Filipino:* Maganda ang babae (The woman is beautiful)
*Hawaiian:* Maika'i au (I'm good)
*Filipino:* Magaling ako (I'm good)
- These phrases follow the same word order (Predicate + [Obj. marker/Article] Subject)
Maraming salamat sa'yo, Paul!
🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
As a non-hawaiian speaker, I find really interesting the distinction between O-class and A-class
Me too!
The formal name for that distinction is alienable and inalienable possession. There's a Wikipedia article on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_possession
I know, it’s a fascinating concept.
There's many languages that have this distinction, generally called "alienable" and "inalienable" possessives.
The distinction between alienable and inalienable possession has been noted in Chinese.
There're actually about 200 languages in America and most of them are spoken by Native American.
Such as Hopi, Apache, Navajo and Blackfoot language.
Tommy Japan Brony I wish state governments here in the US would do more to support native languages. I think it would be amazing to learn something like Comanche here in Texas.
There are also some non-native languages that have had considerable regional influence. My husband is from Lancaster County, where Pennsylvania Dutch is common. Here in Texas, there was considerable immigration by Czech and German speakers and there are still elderly people in central Texas who can speak the Texan dialect of those languages, but sadly most of their descendants cannot.
@@brookekennel2636 Agreed. It's a shame that the states do so little to promote and support the native languages here.
@@brookekennel2636 Languages which have lost their regional influences mostly due to its native speakers being under the hegemony of other people who speak a different language gradually disappears and will eventually be forced to die out anyway. This sadly applies to everywhere around the world. For example, I live in Anatolia and see all the other languages beside Turkish itself are forced to die out in favor of that so-called national unity. Most of the indigenous languages here such as Lydian had already died out and now remaining languages are becoming more narrowly spoken each day to top it off.
@@sporksto4372 Actually, many natives live in their own minor self-governing (to an extent) reserves. It would be their duty to continue teaching their people the language. Unfortunately, most of these reserves have become barely civil drug dens.
@@whenthedustfallsaway I think you missed my point. There were self-governing systems back then here in Anatolia but no longer valid any of them. What I exactly mean is that people are forced to fight off takeover attempts in order to protect their identity, language, culture and such stuff, because no one recognizes the rights of minorities. This unfortunately happens in every corner of the world and people react to it very normally.
I'd love to see more videos about native American languages, but I understand it's pretty hard to get a hold of speaker especially for the endangered ones.
I don't think they necessarily meant continental America, just any country/group that's legally a part of America (i.e. territories)
I think he's not even talking about Hawaii in general. This is a whole different topic about native american languages.
@@Cindy99765 i mean, America ain't a country
@@raulbaezmontanez988 The United States of America, there we go.
I read that as "more videos about vaguely related" rather than "this is an X, more X please". Like "hey, american languages, what about Spanish?"
Or maybe the word grouping was "native american" languages, rather than native "American languages".
Oh dear, language is hard.
Ohana means family
and family means no one is left behind
Now it looks like I stole your comment.
Drietfoga or forgotten
Or forgotten
I knew that the community would be present with this great quote.
Omg yes! Thank you!
So glad you made this after visiting Hawai'i. I can just imagine the wheels turning in your head after seeing all those Hawaiian words and place names. Your familiarity with Tagalog helped you place Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages in evolutionary linguistic perspective. I'm from Hawaii, and this video explained a lot of what I Hawaiian I was exposed to growing up in Hawai'i, e.g. singing Hawaiian songs like "Aloha 'Oe." BTW before the renaissance of Hawaiian at the end of the 70s, tourists thought the word "mahalo" meant "garbage" because that's what was written on trash cans at Ala Moana Shopping Center and in places frequented by tourists. You can imagine the confusion at being told "mahalo" after doing someone a favor like holding the door open, or the waiter presenting you with the check...
...auwē...! Pretty dang funny....! Nā mahalo fo dat. :)
Keep it on Hawaiians! 💪 I’m currently learning Nahuatl (the Aztec language), similarly to Hawaiian, in Mexico Nahuatl was overtook by Spanish but in the last decades there is a Revival of the language.
كغو انت رجل شريف
Atlatl!
I am Dutch, I learn Hawaiian on Duolingo. It's a really fun language. The beginning of learning it was really hard, because of the different order than my language. But after a while I understood it. The words aren't very difficult at all, so it isn't a very hard language to learn. I really like it. Thank you for this really interesting video!
I’m learning Hawaiian in Duolingo too
Ever thought about doing a video on Pirahã, the simplest language in the world? Only has ten letters.
Woah
Didnt expect to see you here
Thirteen apparently! But this would be very interesting indeed.
The hardest, because of its grammar.
Wait, you're here?
The language difficulty has nothing to do with number of letters used to write it.
Similarities to Filipino languages:
1. The word order and how it starts with a verb. Using the example from the video "Nani ka wahine" it can be translated word for word . Tagalog = "Maganda ang babae.", Cebuano "Guapa ang babayi.", Waray = "Kahusay san babayi". And just like Hawai'ian, switching the order would make it a noun phrase, "Ang magandang babae(ay)", "Ang guapa nga babayi(kay)", "An mahusay nga babayi(kay)".
2. The use of a plural marker "mau", "mga" in Filipino langauges(mostly).
3. Demonstratives where most of them starts with the same sound in Filipino except for the word "Kena" which is very samilar to the Cebuano language word for that, "Kana".
4. Subject pronouns like "au" and "o ia"("ako" and "siya")
Not an expert, I'm just sharing what I have observed.
They're both Austronesian languages.
Tupak! Filipino here, having both Cebuano (Davao dialect) and Standard Filipino as my native languages.
I'm always amazed when Malayo-Polynesian languages are discussed, since Filipino and all native Philippine languages are grouped here.
Originally, Philippine languages do not have consonant clusters, as seen in the pre-Hispanized baybayin and other forms of surat (traditional writing). The modern languages do still maintain this, and sometimes to comedic effect: "bababa ba?" means "will someone alight here?" (verb: "baba", go down, alight; repeating the first syllable makes its tense in the future; " "ba" is an affirmative marker, used in a yes/no question).
The predict-subject arrangement is also a feature of Malayo-Polynesian languages: reading through Malay and Indonesian, I can see lots of commonalities with how we write. And similarly, since it's a noun phrase, it doesn't mean much, only telling the noun and its attributes. But the word order can be switched in some cases, as in the second example:
The big house - Ka hale nui: in Cebuano it can be written as "Ang dakong balay" or "Ang balay nga dako/Ang balay'ng dako", or in Tagalog/Filipino as "Ang malaking bahay" or "Ang bahay na malaki", the suffix -ng used for vowel harmony.
The two versions of "we" are also very Malayo-Polynesian, since our cultures have a social picture of realities that apply to the speaker and those that do not: for instance, "kāua" is "amua/amoa" in Cebuano, while "māua" is "inyuha/inyoha". So is the singular and plural definite articles, but in Filipino and other Philippine languages the definite/indefinite articles combined into a common singular/plural article, using the word "ang": "nā kumu/he kumu" is "ang guro" in Filipino, while "he mau kumu" is "ang mga guro".
We can use the comparison table to even discuss the similarities.
English - Hawai'ian - Cebuano - Filipino:
house - hale - balay - bahay
canoe (as in a boat) - wa'a - bangka - bangka
woman - wahine - babaye/babayi - babae
fish - i'a - isda - isda
thing - mea - butang - bagay
bird - manu - langgam - ibon
and by sound:
evening - ahiahi - gabi-i - gabi (and in other Philippine languages, for example Hiligaynon, it's "gab-i")
and by the VSO sentence order:
I love you - Aloha au iā 'oe - Gihigugma tika - Minamahal kita (or just "Mahal kita")
Edit: Changed the Cebuano particle intp the standard form "nga" from my dialectal "na".
Ah that's why Hawaii seems to be a hotspot for Filipino Americans
There are many Filipino languages. Do you mean Tagalog?
"kana" in Cebuano is "kina" in Tagalog
After three years, I have finally started taking Hawaiian language courses online. My maternal grandmother was Hawaiian, and it is great to reconnect to the culture and language.
I wish them to preserve this beautiful language. It's a treasure. And I wish them to keep their traditions - not for tourists to see, but for their own joy. Though if I ever came to Hawaii, I'd like to see a bit of it :) to remember it forever.
These are such beautiful thoughts, Yours.
You have thinking power that is guided by a magnificent Heart.
All countries and people should do this. Many people want to destroy diverse cultures though by mixing them together which destroys both and creates a new culture
@@haltdieklappe7972 i dont like diversity
What ever is left in their traditions are just a shell of their former selves, it's now turned into caricature and shallow commodity crafted after the white people's imagination of what an "exotic Hawaii" is.
Hope that you will make videos on Maori and Guarani soon. Some of the most influential indigenous languages.
Nheengatu might be cool too.
@@sohopedeco Yeah, Nheengatu is an amazing language. And since Guarani and Nheengatu are both in the same language family, a video about they will be awesome.
I'd love to see that too! (Love from India)
He made a video about Guarani 2 weeks ago.
YES!! I love Polynesian languages!!
Tyler Erickson they sound so sweet and gentle.
@@lilyraimey3499 agreed
@@lilyraimey3499 our language is a moral language we never wrote our language that's why alot of polynesians are good at singing the only type of writing was like our tattoos and carving
Everybody's gangsta until The Humuhumunukunukuapua'a joined the chat.
I don't know whether I butchered that name saying it or I did well
@Evi1M4chine yes 😂💜
Who moo? Who moo? New coo. New coo. Ah, poo. Ought, ah.
Pualam Nusantara Indonesian
Been pronouncing that since elementary
I was fortunate to take a linguistics class at Hawai’i Pacific University and found out that Hawai’i use to be the most literate nation in the world. Too bad the the language was shunned the way it was. I’m glad there is a push to revitalize it!!!
I’m from Hawaii and I love this video, like most people here I can’t speak Hawaiian but I can say the common place names. My brother is also conversational in Hawaiian. I can also say humuhumunukunukuāpua’a
My brother likes fishing and he always says humuhumunukunukuapua'a, I can say it too. Lol
As an Indomesian, humuhumunukunukukua-pua'a is very easy to say for me hehehe, what does it mean though.
In finnish we have also a lot of vowels and this humuhumunukunukuapua'a seems & sounds like a funny combination of finnish worlds, literally from word to word it's in english "bustle bustle sleep sleep (imperative) heeelp!" :D
Hawai'ian sounds like a really cool language, and easy to pronounce as a finnish person since we also say everything exactly how it's written :)
@@ronzac55 its the name of the state fish (reef triggerfish). we all learn about it as kids
I am learning hawaiian on duolingo and youtube. But can only speak a bit any tips
"Shut up" in Hawaiian is Kuli Kuli.
Kulîkulî (or only Kulî) means Grasshopper in Kurdish :)
@@kurdish_music Why won't the Kulîkulî Kuli Kuli.
The Kulîkulî won't kuli kuli, because he is trying to attract the female Kulîkulî :)
Yes, it’s one of the words my father remembers from being scolded. It literally means “deafening,” the implication being that someone’s talking is making you go deaf.
Tommy Japan Brony Kuli Kuli is Tamil for Shower Shower
Im malay and i find out hawaiian have many similarities words with malay, yeah we in same language family, Austronesia... But the grammar seems like hawaiian more harder than malay because malay lost most of the grammar and simplification, and yeah our language family are most logical languages to learn... Very interesting video!!!
I was a pre teen in the early 80s living on O’ahu, so missed out on the toddler language immersion. I am Caucasian, but took hula lessons from a Hawaiian/Chinese elder and her daughters. (I don’t recall how much Hawaiian my hula teacher’s family spoke.) Being involved in hula allowed me to experience a nice amount of Hawaiian instrumental music (think percussion and guitar) as well as singing. (Also, I was the only blonde girl in my group. 😀) Also, Hawaiian was offered as a language option in high school.
If I had to choose an endangered language to learn, it’d be Hawaiian. Hawaiian language and culture is fascinating.
Most of us come in touch with Hawaiian everyday, without sometimes even realising
"Wikipedia"
"Wiki" comes from Hawaiian meaning "fast"
Similarly with tattoo coming from our word tātau and taboo from our word kapu meaning forbbiden
Best language channel! Best wishes from Hungary! 😁
Käcskë!
@@bodhigustisattva6278 kecske=goat🐐
Szia!
@@nicholasnelson7365 Üdvözlet!
Üdvözöljük
Austronesian languages remind me our indigenous languages of South America.
I'm Guajajara from Brazil and we also have in Ze'egete (the good speech) 'we/our' inclusive and exclusive ('Zane' and 'Oré').
Love it 👏
From what Brazilian State the Guajajara people are from?
@@andreafigueroa465 Pará, Roraima and Maranhão.
I think there was ancient cultural meetings between the people of Polynesian and native South Americans. There is even a native tribe in Los Angeles that calls its canoe the same as a Polynesian one and share the same building style
@@jordansaipaia7874 I don't think that's true because Polynesians never even knew the Americas even existed as such, they only stopped in Hawaii. And the Los Angeles native tribe are proberly recent Pacific islander migrants that went there but have nothing to do with native American culture.
@@michaelcalle2981you dont know that , its still up to speculation even among experts .
also the furthest Polynesian people have migrated was not hawai'i .. it was rapa nui [easter island]
I am Irish and trying to preserve my own language. I also want to learn Hawai’ian and help preserve their langauge! Weirdly enough there are some strange similarities between our languages. Nā in Hawaiian is na in irish, i’a is iasc and lā is lá (fish, day). The word order is also VSO. Even though they aren’t related at all, it’s sometimes weird seeing the occasional similarity here and there.
Irish language - despite the independence of Ireland - is endangered, so you guys feel the urge to preserve it to the next generations by learning it.
Focus on your own language but support others who try to do the same.
Yeah, interesting coincidences
I learn both too
What I would like to know is how the hell is Irish declining as a native language, with government support for nearly a 100 years and yet Hawaiian has increased in use by nearly 10,000 people with minimal government intervention in the last 40?
Maikaʻi no, Isaiah, a me dia dhuit kuʻu hoaloha..!! 🤙
(( wehewehe.org/ ))
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is my 2nd language and I am also Kanaka Maoli (native person/native Hawaiian). I began learning Hawaiian while dancing hula (Hawaiʻi native dance) and then I decided to take courses at my local college so I could really learn my language. I use ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi every day when speaking to my friends. Sometimes I will tell them how my day was and what happened in Hawaiian. Very commonly, I ask my friends Pehea ʻoe (how are you) and then also respond in Hawaiian.
Thanks for this insight into the Hawaiian language. I've been doing the Duolingo course for almost a month and have yet to practice the possessives or any plural pronouns. As a student of Spanish and Mandarin, getting a more detailed overview of Hawaiian grammar is astonishing.
I've loved Hawaiian ever since watching Lilo and Stitch as a child! Beautiful language.
>tiny Hawaiian words
"Oh hey, this language looks fairly easy to learn!"
>mile long nightmare sentence
"Uhhhhh...m-maybe not..."
SO many vowels..
@@junjunjamore7735 English has more vowels
@@the-bruh.cum5 Yes, but Hawaiian really make use of their five, and has many words that's only vowels. English has consonant clusters here and there.
@@junjunjamore7735 streNGthS
fun fact, as long as you keep adding the right ʻawe markers and ʻawe you can make a sentence as long as you want to. You can even add sentence fragments to make it even longer.
Ex. Makemake au e hele -> I want to go, is a complete sentence but it can be made more specific by adding an ʻawe and a marker (i/ma).
so, Makemake au e hele i ke kula -> I want to go to the school can also be made longer with another marker
Makemake au e hele i ke kula ma ka hola ʻehiku -> I want to go to school at seven (lit. at the hour seven)
Makemake au e hele i ke kula ma ka hola ʻehiku no ka hoʻopaʻa haʻawina ʻana -> I want to go to school at seven for the purpose of studying. Note that there is not a word for studying or any verb ending with ing so you have to make it studying with the ʻana.
You can also negate these sentences or add tenses. :)
As an Indonesian who learnt Hawaiian on Duolingo, I found many Austronesian cognates.
au = Aku
kou = kau
ia = ia
wai = air
alanui = jalan
moloā = malas
make = mati
Aia...... = ada......
etc.
Nice see you here.
Good God, I'm an American in Portugal (struggling) and have watched half a dozen of your Intro's to Languages. The research required to nail historical and basic Lang. structures is hands-down brilliant. Every time. Thank you for being a rock-solid guiding light.
Mahalo! I’ve been waiting for you to talk about Hawaiian for ages!!
Kei te pehea koe? - How are you
Aroha - Love
Ahiahi - Afternoon
I'd love to see a video on Māori!
James Hainsworth
Maori is an important language.
I visited Fiji with my New Zealand 5 year old granddaughter (Pakeha) and she astonished a local Fijian by speaking to him in Maori and he understood a lot of what she was saying. The numbers seem to be identical.
@@MrNicopa Agreed. I don't think it would be covered much on this channel but I really like the culture that comes with the language too. Not necessarily traditions, but more philosophical issues such as land treatment. I'm 100% Pākehā, as far as I know, but I think it's really worth learning (and that's what I'm doing).
Glad to see my culture being put out there I live in a small town called kaneohe and to see our language fade is heart breaking malama pono those who help meaning we care for those who help you my friend are amazing
I think it's interesting how Hawaiin uses the letter 'w' for the sound /v/. Like a lot of germanic languages, also Polish.
It's also the reverse of at least some Hindi speakers I know who pronounce all v's as "w" and have problems with that v sound.
I am aware of Germanic languages that pronounce V more as W, for example Swedish.
I am not aware of the reverse.
@@rogerwilco2 I don't personally know of any Germanic languages that use 'v' for /w/ I do know German uses 'v' for the sound /f/. Swedish pronounces 'v' as /v/,
Like; Vi äter nötkött.
It’s not always /v/ sometimes it’s /w/ it depends on the vowel after it.
@@tylerthelen485 what does that last word mean? It looks like someone came to write Danish but forgot how diacritics work.
Aloha, my name is Kahakuhailoa Poepoe and I am from the island of Molokai and a māna leo (a native Hawaiian speaker), I am so appreciative you made a video on this. Great video, I am one of the last māna Leo of my generation, and I am sad to see our people and language being desecrated slowly by America’s public school system. My Island is 80% native Hawaiian which makes my life different from those who live on other islands. One thing I heard was he mea iki as your welcome, I hear no’u ka hau’oli a lot more which means for I am happy.
I'm half Hawaiian and my mother is a native and speaks Hawaiian, but she never wanted to teach me to speak the language. What little Hawaiian I spoke growing up I learned from my dad, who has a love of languages. I always felt incredibly sad that I didn't get to know much of my culture from my mom, but it's incredibly heartwarming that that's not the norm anymore! One day I hope to fully embody my Hawaiian culture in language and spirit!
Why didn't she want to teach you?
Thank you so much for covering this language! I visited Hawai’i when I was very young and loved the language. I’ve tried to learn it before, but have had to put it on the back burner for the time being. It amazes me how complex of a language you can have even with so few consonants, and of course it’s very beautiful.
I remember hearing about a visitor at the turn of the century who joked that he thought Hawaiians snuck out at night to add more vowels to the street signs every time he went to sleep!
Hehe 😅
Great work as always, Paul! Wow, never heard such a thing as different possessive adjectives for whether a thing you chose to possess, or not.... Learning languages also means achieving a total new way of thinking, and imagining and perceive the world around you.. It never ceases to amaze me.
HELLO HAWAIIAN, WE ARE BROTHERS ! LOVE FROM MALAYSIA
Mahalo for the video! I’m a native speaker and Hawaiian is my first language 🤗 I went to a Hawaiian immersion school and speak it with my dad every day. I think this video was really well done and I can’t wait to share it with my ʻohana and friends. Again, mahalo nui iā ʻoe 🤙🏽
We speak Hawaiian at home and publicly quite regularly. My son is a fluent speaker and I am learning and have been studying for several years now. He started learning Hawaiian at age 5 via the immersion program, and we are a proud ohana honored to be part of the language revival!
I lived in Hawaii for about seven years, and I always consider the language to be one of the most poetic and beautiful in the world. I just know "Our Father" in hawaiian, and when I pray I try to say our Father in English and Hawaiian. It is a very special language.
Thanks for making this video ❤️ I love ōlelo hawai‘i!
The revitalization of Hawaiian has been a huge inspiration to Native American communities on the mainland. A lot of the methodology, like the Language Nests, has been adopted here. I'd love to see Paul cover some of the Indigenous languages of the US and Canada :)
I lived in Hawai'i from 2011-2016, and there were quite a few Hawaiian words that came up in everyday life there. I was always so impressed by the gentle beauty of native locals, their kind aloha, and their deep spirit. I have never seen a dance more graceful and exquisite than the hula done by native Hawaiian women. Their culture has deep spiritual roots, as exemplified by the word "aloha", spoken not just as a greeting, but as a benediction and a declaration of brother- and sisterhood. I always felt honored when a local referred to me as "Auntie". It made me feel included as family.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your research and knowledge. Keep spreading the good knowledge 💙
Thanks, Robin!
Great job, Paul! As a speaker, I appreciate this very accurate and thorough introduction to our language! Yes, Hawaiian was almost gone but speakers are increasing year by year thanks to these immersion schools and a revitalization among Hawaiians about preserving language and culture. The funny thing about Hawaiian is that depending on what area you're from and how your elders spoke it, there are all these little exceptions here and there to the rules. For example, it's quite common for people to use the "wrong" article with certain words (ke pākaukau instead of ka pākaukau). I've always used a-class possessive with younger siblings but o-class with older. Another interesting thing about possessives, a word could have slightly different connotations depending on which possessive is used. Take the word kiʻi for example, meaning 'picture, image,' or 'photo.' If you say koʻu kiʻi, you mean that it's my picture in the sense that it's a picture or photo of me, I am in the photo and have no control over that. But if you say kaʻu kiʻi, it means my picture in the sense that I may have taken a photo of something or purchased a photo or postcard in a shop. And a fun fact - kiʻi is a direct cognate of tiki in Tahitian or Maori (k=t, ʻ=k), so the borrowed English word tiki, originally meaning image, is why the old carved wooden statues were called so - they were images of the old gods.
Thank you.. on Ni'ihau the older ones
use the switched K&T
Tapu for Kapu... if you listen to some of the singing from Kapiolani Park Oahu concerts you can pick up someone from home other than on Kauai you hear more...
Puuwai Aloha'oe
I love the idea of a-class and o-class possessives -- it's a distinction that we don't automatically tag in other languages. Just out of curiosity, with ko'u ki'i and ka'u ki'i, which would you use for a selfie? After all, it's a picture of me that I took myself.
@@dylanstillwood good question. For a selfie, you can use either a or o form. Choosing between one or the other would depend on what aspect of your selfie you are emphasizing when you talk about it. In a general sense if there’s a situation where either could be used then o-form is usually the one defaulted to.
I speak Hawaiian with relative fluency as a second language learner. I started learning my ancestral tongue in middle school and continued through college.
How much I speak Hawaiian depends on the situation and who I'm around. It's the only language I use in prayer. It's the primary language I use with babies and toddlers. With some friends, it's the primary language we speak to each other. With most friends who also speak Hawaiian, our usage is situational. Finally, with my partner, who is highly skilled in the Hawaiian language and associated arts (e.g. poetry and prayer composition), we speak Hawaiian most often to each other when we don't want people eavesdropping on our conversation. It should be the primary language we speak with each other, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in Hawaiian to maintain the level of specificity and nuance in conversation and conceptualization that the two of us maintain in English.
BTW, we're both fans of Langfocus! Mahalo, e Paul! If you happen to visit Hawaiʻi, drop us a line and we'd be happy to show you the richness of our ʻōlelo on the landscape and living culture of Hawaiʻi.
Hawaiian has gone through many hurdles, and still definitely is on the islands; however, Iʻm glad to see this beautiful language have more exposure outside of Hawaiʻi. I am learning and definitely trying to speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi as much as I can. It is a lot easier to write than it is to speak. Luckily, I have some friends who can speak and are studying ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, and my brother also went through the Hawaiian Immersion Program, so using it as much as I can with them. But, to be honest, although Hawaiian is documented as an official language, it is taught in the same manner as Spanish in most schools, as a secondary and supplementary language, so many people within Hawaiian are unable to speak more than a few sentences in Hawaiian. The Hawaiian Immersion Schools are an exception, fortunately going from preschool all the way to the Doctorate level. The road to revitalization is a long one, but we are steadfast and have so much hope to see Hawaiian re-instituted in the islands for ourselves, our ancestors and our children and grandchildren. I ola mau ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! (P.S. Did you know it was Hawaiian Language Month in Hawaiʻi? Hauʻoli Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi!)
You have no idea how long I've waited for this one
This is awesome, It would be great to see you do videos on other indigenous languages, Navajo has made an amazing comeback and while much smaller the language of my people, Mi'kmaq, is seeing a similar revitalization as well.
Indeed, i want to watch navajo episode!
Navajo, the language of the WWII code talkers deserves a video, agreed.
This was great! Wish there was a love button to click haha. This was super informational and throughourly explained the grammatical aspects! Thanks so much for this video! 'Ōlelo hawai'i is a language close to my heart ^_^
The word "eye" in the austronesian (malayo Polynesian languages.
Mata, Filipino (nationalized Tagalog)
Yes, this same exact Ancient Austronesian word (mata = eye), with it's meaning, exists all across Pacific Island Worlds. It remained unchanged, intact.
This is also true with many words, having the exact same meaning, often with only one single consonant or one vowel difference.
Langit also
Oh. We say “mas” in Chuuk, Micronesia. It means “eye”.
Hell yeah! I've been waiting for a video on a Polynesian language for a really long time now.
This video put a lot of my questins about grammar into a manageable way of looking at it. It now makes a lot more sense. Thais!
Austronesian languages are fascinating, they sound amazingly good, yet they have a very logical, regular grammar which almost is close to that of "constructed" languages.
Glad Hawai'ian is being subject of conservation efforts 👍👍.
لغاتكم رائعة انتم الاسترونيزيون افكر في صنع لغة جديدة يكون اساسها لغاتكم بالاضافة الى اللغة اليابانية ولغات الكريول الاوربية والإنجليزية هل توافقني؟
I'm also a polynesian thank you for this and I'll love to hear more about it and all polynesian languages are similar but please do more videos about other island of polynesian island like New Zealand easter island etc to know about our language
يجب ان يصنع ڤيديو عن االلغة البونوليزية البدائية(حب من البلاد العربية والإسلامية)
What is super fascinating for me is that Poles can just straight read Hawaiian perfectly because letters and words sound exactly the same as in Polish :D
It's more about English having its ortography and phonology greatly diverged from each other, much more than most languages.
Mostly true, but not entirely. Hawaiian W is an approximant, which means it should not be pronounced like Polish W, but like English W (or German W in certain dialects). You must also watch out for short A which has slightly different vowel pronunciations. And Polish doesn't have long vowels. Finally, Polish O is generally an open vowel, while Hawaiian O is generally a closed vowel. Of course, I am just being picky here, lol. I only became aware of these differences because I thought that knowing Spanish would make Hawaiian pronunciation a breeze (pun intended!) and it mostly does, but not completely. :P
I once attended a Christmas outdoor mass where the preacher gave the sermon in Hawaiian. I had only been on Oahu about 2 weeks. I was in near tears over just how absolutely beautiful it sounded. It sounded so florid. My jaw was on the ground in awe of the beauty of the language.
i love austronesian languages 🥺💗 i hope you make more videos about them because they're so interesting
"Ohana means family"
And family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.
"Except maybe her (Blue Meanie)."
Hawaii deserves independence.
And open borders too! Can't be anti western imperialism without wanting that too these days. :)
Ana E , actually you can. But if they wanna open for us all to go there, no problem.
Exactly! Austronesian peoples should be independent.
It's about 100 years late. The most important thing now is to prevent them from extinction.
TruthSeeker Zxuan , 100 years is too little a time for whom wants to be independent.
I live in Oahu and I’ve never heard of Ala moana and Waikiki meaning those and never thought of it as Hawaiian but as names! Haha
great, thanks for doing this! I spent some time two years ago on Hawai'i and I was so fascinated by the native culture and language!
I know a good amount of Hawaiian words but not a lot of its grammar structures. This is because I took hula for ten years in California with ke kumu, Pearl. She started us off with numbers, colors, body parts, and nature features. These words pop up a lot in Hawaiian songs, so she wanted us to be able to pick them out as we danced and know where we are in the song. She gave us English translations of the lyrics and the history of the song (when she felt it was needed), as well, because for her, it was very important to know what you're dancing and know the story behind it. If I hadn't moved out of state, I would have continued my lessons and become a ke kumu myself, fully learning the language, reading more books on Hawaiian culture, along with learning more dances and how to play more instruments. As it is, where I moved to has very few halau and they're all competition based. Nothing wrong with wanting to do competition hula, but Auntie Pearl wanted us to learn hula for the sake of learning and carrying on tradition, even if we're not native Hawaiian.
Great video (as usual from you!). Love the Austronesian parallels, definitely resemble some obscure languages I have come across in NTT Indonesia, (Sumba-Hawu-Dhao group), the fun never ends! Thanks!
*endangered languages
I'm Maori and I speak te reo Maori. Our language is very similar to 'olelo Hawai'i.
I have lots of respect.
Nga mihi nunui atu ki a koutou no o koutou nei mahi rahi whakaharahara e pa ana nei ki te whakarauora reo Hawai'i.
Tihei, mauri ora.
Tena koe! He leo mahalo kēia iā ʻoe i ke kākoʻo ʻana mai e ke hoa o ka moana nui ākea nei!
To anyone wanting to learn a really fun and cool language, I'd HIGHLY recommend Hawaiian. It's such a cool language. It's on both Duolingo and Drops!
I am a native speaker of tahitian. 10 years ago I learned the marquesian language of Nuku Hiva. I was impressed to see how close it is to marquesian for instance
Makemake = makimaki or ma'ima'i
Thank you for this presentation. I realized that my being part if the community of VSO languages.
I guess that with a little practice and ear re-arrangement I could be fluent in hawaiian.
Nui ke aloha- Ia nui te ka'oha- Ia rahi te arofa
Finally as a native hawaiian this topic has been kinda hidden and what tourist dosent know about Hawaii. I went to a hawaiian charter school for 3 years during joniur hi days. I am thank full you made this video.
I was already interested in Hawaiian, and you've whetted my appetite!
“You can’t choose whether to have a sister or not” hmm REAAAALLY
*loads gun*
not with that attitude
You gotta understand back then you could disown kids if you pleased
@@quadeevans6484 Can't you still do that now? Like give them up for adoption or something. Maybe not when they're grown up but you could easily get rid of little ones if you needed to
@@m_uz1244 i guess you could its just more socially acceptable back then is what I meant
13:06 you read "in" as "it" two times
Hahaha
Learning Tahitian right now and the languages are so similar! Nice video!
I spent my formative years in Hawai'i and fell in love with the place and the people, so to me the Hawai'ian language will always hold a special magic. Every language is a window into a different view of the world, and to me, the Hawai'ian perspective is uniquely kind and honest. It's a beautiful language for a beautiful land and a wonderful culture, and I will always be grateful for having had the good luck to experience it.
all of my heart is in hawai'i'i'i
“Moana” I am Moana of Motunui. You will board my boat, sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Te Fiti
Aue, aue
Nuku I mua
Te manulele e tataki e~
WHAT CAN I SAY EXCEPT YOUR WELCOME
There's definitely some good symbolism in the movie, if you knew from the beginning that Moana's name meant ocean.
It's funny that the parents forbid a girl they named ocean to go to the ocean though 😂. Rename her land!
Well, they renamed her in Europe as Vaiana
@@oscar6540-b7c I hate that they had to do that for legal reasons. I don't speak any Polynesian languages, so I don't know what Vaiana means, but it can't possibly fit better than "Moana" for a character that basically spends the whole movie traveling the ocean.
Hawai was the first country to recognaise the Argentinean infependence. Viva Hawai!!!
Fascinating History.
The Kings of Hawai'i (while The Kingdom was in place).
Langfocus is the best, I am always so in awe at the amount of knowledge he has
I don’t know that much before making the video. I always research and treat the video as a project. I learn from making each video. But I forget a lot too, because I’m constantly switching topics.
Another fascinating LangFocus video! Thanks, Paul! I can't imagine how long it must take you to research everything then edit the video meticulously. I look forward to each of your videos. Thank you again.