Will you show respect to the kupuna of Hawaii by perpetuating their way of thinking?

Aloha,

Most Hawaiian words we use today are traditional Hawaiian words - the creation of these words was led by the native Hawaiian speaking community. 

Before we can get into examples of how words were created for new (usually Western) concepts or innovations, we have to understand the mindset behind it. My kupuna weren’t always just trying to come up with a new word, they would often describe the new concept or innovation. One way they would do this is to take an old word and add a “qualifiying” word to represent this new and foreign object (a lot like compound words in English). 

In these words pahu is the “base word”. As the Hawaiian community was introduced to new objects that could be described as a drum/box like thing (pahu), they added other traditional Hawaiian “qualifying” or descriptive words to distinguish what kind of pahu it was. For example:

• Pahu - Drum (as for Hula)
• Pahu waiwai - Treasure chest (chest of valuables)
• Pahu leka - Mail box 
• Pahu hau - Ice box (refrigerator) 
• Pahu hoolele leo - Speaker box

Do you see how they used traditional Hawaiian words to describe new things instead of just creating a whole new word for them?

A quick way to find more example like this is to go to wehewehe.org, type in a word like pahu or hale and put in the asterisk (*) next to the word you chose. (Make sure there is no space between the work and the asterisk) 

Again, I’m going to emphasize that 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 

Next week we’re going to talk a little bit about how “new” or modern words have been created and why this is creating a communication gap with native speakers. (Native speakers don’t even know most of these new words and can’t understand them because the words don’t follow the accepted way that Hawaiian words have always been created). 

Aloha,

Malu