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Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

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  • Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

    There are a couple of bills before the State Legislature proposing that the Hawaiian language be added to letterhead and signage at State and County buildings (including use of the kahiko and okina).

    Although it appears not to have a snowball's chance in hell of passing in this Legislative season, I think it would be a great idea for several reasons:
    1) it would acknowledge the fact that the State of Hawaii Constitution recognizes Hawaiian as the second official language (it's the only state in the Union that has this distinction);
    2) many young children are learning Hawaiian as a second language, and this would give them a practical applicaton of their schoolwork;
    3) it would give more respect to the kanaka maoli;
    4) it would make some tourists realize that Hawai'i is unique and not another tropical version of LA.

    We have a monthly newspaper up here called the Northwest Hawai'i Times, which is written and distributed for the benefit of the many ex-pats who live in the state of Washington. I was reading an article in there where someone wrote that locals who have moved to the Mainland are the only group of immigrants who move within the US who call themselves "ex-pats". Californians who move up here don't call themselves "ex-pats" and New Yorkers who move anywhere don't call themselves "ex-pats" (they always call themselves New Yorkers no matter how long ago they moved away! ). But there is still enough of a tug in the hearts of former residents of Hawai'i that we want people to know that we still maintain our ties to the 'aina.

    Having signage and letterhead with Hawaiian on them would be a way of showing how proud we are of the people who first touched the shores of Hawai'i.

    Miulang
    "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

  • #2
    Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

    That would be the kahakō and 'okina. Kahiko is an entirely different word, as in "hula kahiko".

    I think having new signage include the diacritical marks is great. The street signs in Honolulu already do. And I think that as old signs get replaced, they should be updated to show the appropriate marks. But I think it would be too expensive to go on a campaign to replace/update all signs before their time.

    Similarly with letterhead stationery, there are warehouses full of printed letterhead that would be wasted if we demanded that kahakō and 'okina be used as of tomorrow. (I saw Ben Cayetano letterhead on state correspondence long into Linda Lingle's first year or so. )

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    • #3
      Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

      Originally posted by Miulang
      There are a couple of bills before the State Legislature proposing that the Hawaiian language be added to letterhead and signage at State and County buildings (including use of the kahiko and okina).
      Miulang

      Kahiko
      is the old style. the ancient way.

      as mentioned in the eg;, Hula kahiko is the old hula as opposed to hula awana;
      new hula with holoku...

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      • #4
        Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

        Only problem with the diacritical marks is I don 't know if they have a font set for Windoze, I know one exists for Mac.

        Miulang
        "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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        • #5
          Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

          Given the right encoding, it's not a problem. On the Mac, support is built in at the OS level, but most modern Windows applications can handle it, too. At least now you don't need a specific, special font set - Hawaiian diacriticals can be added to most pre-existing fonts, from Avant Garde to Times New Roman.

          For posting Hawaiian on the web, I posted a Hawaiian diacritical markings cheat sheet to my site a couple of years ago that I still use. Even if you can't call up the markings with easy keystrokes, cutting and pasting sometimes works:

          "I drive through Waikīkī along Kalākaua Avenue."

          It would be interesting to see Hawaii go bilingual the way Quebec does for English and French. But horribly expensive. Seeing as how we can't even keep our roads patched, I don't know what kind of case could be made for doing something like this.

          Of course, it doesn't hurt to start small. As things get replaced, the markings could always be added as we go along. Glen noted street signage is getting better in this regard. And I'm seeing more and more businesses reflecting them as well. Because of Hawaiian's official status, it can't hurt. Heck, one of my favorite projects when I was taking Hawaiian at UH was testing whether businesses knew you could write checks out in Hawaiian. Most did.

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          • #6
            Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

            OK, I went and actually read the article Miulang quoted. Ohhh. Actual bilingual signs?! Now that's something else. You mean, like traffic signs that say "Stop/Kū", the way the ones in Quebec say "Stop/Arrêt"? Whew, that'd be a big change.

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            • #7
              Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

              Originally posted by Glen Miyashiro
              OK, I went and actually read the article Miulang quoted. Ohhh. Actual bilingual signs?! Now that's something else. You mean, like traffic signs that say "Stop/Kū", the way the ones in Quebec say "Stop/Arrêt"? Whew, that'd be a big change.
              If it's phased in, I still think it would be a really good thing for Hawai'i for the reasons I gave earlier. Besides, in most places (at least up here anyway), there are multilingual signs in most public places already (for Cambodian, Laotian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese).

              Miulang
              "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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              • #8
                Re: Adding Hawaiian to State and County documents

                Originally posted by Glen Miyashiro
                like traffic signs that say "Stop/K?", the way the ones in Quebec say "Stop/Arrêt"? Whew, that'd be a big change.

                stop/try wait, yea!?

                go/hele on, bruddah!

                yield/Chance'um, brah!

                merge/Geev'um!

                slow school zone/keiki mo' akamai den you steh holoholo roun heah, so try slo'down, eh?

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