“A syllable in Hawaiian may consist of a single vowel, or a consonant
united with a vowel or at most of a consonant and two vowels, never of
more than one consonant. The accent of five-sixths of the words is on
the penult, and a few proper names accent the first syllable.
In Hawaiian every syllable ends in a vowel and no syllable can have
more than three letters, generally not more than two and a large number
of syllables consist of single letters—vowels. Hence the vowel sounds
greatly predominate over the consonant. The language may therefore
appear monotonous to one unacquainted with its force.
In Hawaiian there is a great lack of generic terms, as is the case with
all uncultivated languages. No people have use for generic terms until
they begin to reason and the language shows that they were better
warriors and poets than philosophers and statesmen. Their language,
however, richly abounds in specific names and epithets.
The general rule, then, is that the accent falls on the penult; but
there are many exceptions and some words which look the same to the eye
take on entirely different meanings by different tones, accents, or
inflections.
The study of these kaaos or legends would demonstrate that the
Hawaiians possessed a language not only adapted to their former
necessities but capable of being used in introducing the arts of
civilized society and especially of pure morals, of law, and the
religion of the Bible.”
The above quotations are from Lorrin Andrew’s Dictionary of the
Hawaiian Language, containing some 15,500 Hawaiian words, printed in
Honolulu in 1865.
{ a is sounded as in father
{ e ,, ,, ,, ,, they
{ i ,, ,, ,, ,, marine
{ o ,, ,, ,, ,, note
Hawaiian vowels { u ,, ,, ,, ,, rule or as oo in moon
{ ai when sounded as a diphthong resembles English
{ ay
{ au when sounded as a diphthong resembles ou as
{ in loud
The consonants are h, k, l, m, n, p, and w. No distinction is made
between k and t or l and r, and w sounds like v between the penult and
final syllable of a word.
I