Are you aware of non-traditional Hawaiian words that you use?

This week I have a recording for you to jump-start all of this. In the recording you’ll hear a short conversation about the “weather”, but there is no equivalent word for “weather” in Hawaiian traditionally. Does this mean Hawaiians, who were intimately connected to the land and elements, didn’t know how to talk about the weather? NO. They knew the weather far better than their descendants. This is one area where Hawaiian greatly differs from English. In comparison, there is no English word Equivalent for “Poi”. You’ll find more examples like this as you learn.

As you listen to the recording, pay attention to the way this kupuna describes the weather. Instead of using the “modern” word for weather (anila), you’ll hear that the kupuna is asked about his “aina” and then use words to describe the weather there on that day.

Here’s the link to that recording - Tape 113 

Start Point - Minute 68:30 - 68:45 (15 seconds)

Transcripiton: “Pehea ka aina o kaua? Ano mahana… ko makou ma anei nei. Kohu mea, e ua ana. Mahana, keia po, mahana. Keia mau la aku nei, ano omalumalu. Aole poha ka la.” 

In addition to that recording, when you listen to Native Speakers, focus on:

• The words they’re using
• New meanings to words you already know
• HOW they are using words (expression)
• The CONTEXT that they use certain words

Traditional words are the foundation of Hawaiian as we know it. It takes years to fully understand Hawaiian words, due to the many meanings they can possess and many are not listed in any dictionary. Before we go thinking about creating new words, we should know and be able to freely use traditional words. 

Na’u iho no,

Malu