Virtual Vacation

Aloha everyone! Mahalo for the response. I told myself that I needed to have at least 15 comments in order to start my Hawaiian posts.  Well here goes!

Before I get started, I need a few more pictures, I wanted to give you a little geography and language lesson so you know exactly where I am and how to pronounce some of the Hawaiian names.

Hawaii consists of 8 islands:

I live on O'ahu (Oh-ah-hoo)

We live on the North Shore which is called the Country, Honolulu is considered Town.  There is some what of a rivalry between Town and Country people, lol.

 

Sounds like the Town Mouse and Country Mouse.  Anyway if you live in Town it's because you have a job there, like the night life and are a busy body in general.  It's much harder to live out in the country because you need to make a living and a drive to town takes about an hour.  So the people that live out here on North shore are usually, surfers, employees in a restaurant or shop, shop owners , artists, teachers, retired and generally pretty laid back:)





In Hawaii today, only about 8,000 people speak Hawaiian. In 1899 the Hawaiian language was banned when it was annexed to the United States, and it declined rapidly.  In 1978 Hawaiian was made an official language of the state and a revival was made.  Some schools teach and speak only in Hawaiian, and the state provides funds for all students to receive Hawaiian Studies (culture and language).

Now if you've been to Hawaii (Hah-vy-ee) then you know that most towns and streets have Hawaiian names and often are hard to pronounce.

So here is your language lesson for today.

The Hawaiian alphabet consists of 13 letters:

 A  E  I  O  U

H  K  L  M  N  P  W   '(okina)

Now the vowels are pronounced just like they would be in Spanish :

a - ah   as in awful
e- eh    as in hey
i- ee    as in police
o- oh   as in over
u- oo   as in food

The only other tricky letter is W. It can be pronounced as a W or a soft V

Waikiki- easy right Why-key-key

If W is after A it can be pronounced W or V

Wahiawa- Wah-hee-wah
Kawika- Kah-vee-kah

If  W is after i or e it is pronounced V

Haleiwa- Hah-lay-ee-vah

If W is after o or u it is pronounced W

I had to learn the hard way and stumble through especially when I started teaching.  The kids would laugh and correct me, mainly on their names!!  One year I had so many kids who's name started with K I could not get them straight...

Kalani, Kalea, Keoni, Kai, Kaimana, Kyla, Keira, Kela, Kealoha.....I could go on and on.

Okay, so there you have it. 

Our next stop will be the the little town we live in of Waialua/Haleiwa.