Unwrapping Hawaiian Language

Aloha mai,

For those who know me, holidays aren't my cup of tea. Halloween costumes seem ridiculous, Thanksgiving's "thankful" ceremony feels insincere, and Christmas music is a pain to my ears. If you're thinking, "This guy is a Grinch," well, my wife already beat you to it.

Despite my distaste for the holidays, I respect everyone's feelings about them, and the phrase "To each his own" comes to mind. Even so, I make an effort to use holidays as an opportunity to teach Hawaiian.

Adding another layer to this, the holidays I mentioned are American, not part of the Hawaiian tradition. Hawaiians had to create words for these occasions using two main translation styles: transliteration and conceptual translation. For instance:

Transliteration

La kalikimaka—Christmas

Conceptual Translation

La hoomaikai—Thanksgiving

In both examples, the word "la" means "day." An older version for Christmas was "Karisimasa," showing the occasional use of "s" during that time. For Thanksgiving, we use hoomaikai, meaning to give thanks.

Lastly, you'll notice that I use the phrase "Aloha Kalikimaka" instead of "Hauoli Kalikimaka." The use of aloha is more fitting than hauoli. Using "hauoli" is a literal translation and is not considered appropriate.

That's all for this week. How about this: email me phrases or words you'd like to know for Christmas, and I'll do my best. Sound good?

Mahalo,

Malu

Ka-alala.com