How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

[Nords]

I subscribe to a daily e-mail from Wordsmith.org, whose owner seems to try to do a good job. He enthuses about his choices, he tells funny family stories, and he holds contests with his readers. He appears to be the kind of guy who'd appreciate thoughtful feedback.

I think he's earned some thoughtful feedback for his 27 Dec entry:

This week's theme: words borrowed from other languages.
kahuna (kuh-HOO-nuh) noun
1. A priest or a medicine man.
2. An important person (usually in the phrase: big kahuna).
[From Hawaiian kahuna. Hawaiian is a Polynesian language spoken in the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific. The number of native speakers of the language has decreased to just a few hundreds.]
-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

I'd like to tell him that Hawaiian is a growing, vibrant language with many native speakers and even a regular column in a major newspaper. I'd like to tell him about the Hawaiian-language schools across the state. I'd like to tell him that there are over 150 people on Niihau alone who are fluent and even expanding the language.

But I'd also like to give him a reasonably accurate estimate of the number of people who speak the language. The U.S. Census Bureau seems to think that there are over 280,000 native Hawaiians in the state alone, and I'd bet that more than "a few hundreds" can speak Hawaiian.

What's a good number? I've Googled around the various Hawaiian culture websites (over 63,000 hits alone for "native Hawaiian speaker") but it's hard to determine credibility. Perhaps a HT reader can point me to an authoritative source. I know UH has a growing program but I'm pretty sure that there are others familiar with the question. If it's a website that's great, but I'm more interested in getting it right the first time than I am in just getting it from the Internet.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

for a thorough accounting, I suggest doing what most grad researchers do, which is to call the Institutional Research division of UHM. The best question to pose is, "how many people have completed at least four years of Hawaiian language courses?"

Then I would email the Aha Punana Leo and pose the same question, as they are within two degrees of separation of everyone in the Hawaiian speaking community, and many of their peepz are outside of the trad academics (e.g. the "ojt" Hawaiians, the native speakers, etc).

Add 'em up and tell us what you come up with.

[scrivener]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

Seems to me that if you were gonna do that, you should also call the DOE and see how many immersion students have completed ____ grade levels, or how many have been enrolled throughout the program's history. I don't think there'd be much redundancy there.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

Seems to me that if you were gonna do that, you should also call the DOE and see how many immersion students have completed ____ grade levels, or how many have been enrolled throughout the program's history. I don't think there'd be much redundancy there.

Actually, the APL will provide that same data much faster than the DOE, and will include the figures for the private PL preschools, giving a larger and more comprehensive number of those speakers under 18 years old.

[mokupuni]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

There is some discussion as to what is the definition of "Speak the Hawaiian Language." What constitutes fluency?

Anyways, from the numbers I saw last year published in the Green Book of Language Revitalization in practice, it was around 2,500.

FYI: There are many other ethnicities that also olelo Hawaii.

O au iho no,
Liko Puha

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

Considering that that figure alone accounts for the K-12 Kaiapuni kids, the GBLR number is waaaay conservative.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

maybe the numbers reflect Hawaiian as a first language among it's speakers.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

The number of native speakers of the language has decreased to just a few hundreds.

A quick Google suggests "Native Speaker" means "a speaker of a particular language who has spoken that language since earliest childhood". (Note that one's ethnicity is irrelevant.)

I see this as a question of how many people learned to speak Hawaiian at home. I think it's going to be difficult to legitimately upgrade the number from "few" to "several".

[Nords]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

Anyways, from the numbers I saw last year published in the Green Book of Language Revitalization in practice, it was around 2,500.

Thanks, Mokupuni...

[Nords]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

Another reader posted this AP article from Apr 2007:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...ack/?page=full

[TuNnL]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

A quick Google suggests "Native Speaker" means "a speaker of a particular language who has spoken that language since earliest childhood". (Note that one's ethnicity is irrelevant.)

I see this as a question of how many people learned to speak Hawaiian at home. I think it's going to be difficult to legitimately upgrade the number from "few" to "several".

I disagree. How are our keiki being successful in Hawaiian immersion schools to the tune of 2,000 enrollment? Keep in mind they are being taught subjects from math to reading completely in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i beginning from the pre-school level. IMHO, I would consider that “earliest childhood.”

[salmoned]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

Who says they're successful?

[alohabear]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

From what I know many people can speak the language, but only a few can really "speak" Hawaiian. You may hear two men speaking in Hawaiian about the beautiful mountains, but they are really talking about the cute girl on the beach.

My cousin who has a degree in Hawaiian studies from UH told me this. He once said that two native speakers from Ni'ihau lechered their class about this one semester.

This being said, I feel now days not many people truly "speak" the language.

[LikaNui]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

You may hear two men speaking in Hawaiian about the beautiful mountains, but they are really talking about the cute girl on the beach.

And it seems the answer to why they're talking about the cute girl can be found right in your next comment:

My cousin who has a degree in Hawaiian studies from UH told me this. He once said that two native speakers from Ni'ihau lechered their class about this one semester.

And there you have it. Two lechers sure would be interested in cute girls.

Thanks for the chuckle!

[alohabear]

Re: How many Hawaiians speak the Hawaiian language?

And it seems the answer to why they're talking about the cute girl can be found right in your next comment:

And there you have it. Two lechers sure would be interested in cute girls.

Thanks for the chuckle!

Oh my! LOL