Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Proper way to type the 'okina?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

    I heard that with Windows Vista, Microsoft has increased the number of Unicode characters in its core fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New). Can someone using Vista confirm this? Is it now finally possible to write ʻokina and kahakō using standard Microsoft fonts?

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

      As a typographer and typesetter since the middle-1970s, I was always taught that ‘okina was a single open quote... looks like a number "6". Option-right bracket on a Mac. (PC, I don't know. You can try alt-right bracket.)

      I was also taught that the accent grave key (above the tab key) ` was acceptable.

      But the accent grave doesn't look as nice as the single open quote, as its letter spacing is really whacked. It causes an ‘okina to look like it is preceded by a spacebar. It makes the single word look like two words, as in this example: Ko`olau. Whereas if you use the single open quote, it looks like one word with a glottal stop: Ko‘olau.

      You can also use a foot mark, as here: Ko'olau.

      On Macintosh computers, ever since Mac OS X 10.3, if you go into the International control panel and look down the list of languages, lo and behold, there is a "Hawaiian" choice, along with a Hawaiian flag! Checking this box will allow you to switch to the Hawaiian keyboard, which uses the single open quote for ‘okina. You get the letter simply by typing the foot mark, to the left of the return key.

      It also gives you the kahakō over vowels simply by typing the option-vowel key combination. ĀāĒēĪīŌōŪū ʻ

      Keola Donaghy of UH Hilo Hawaiian Studies Department was instrumental in getting this keyboard added to the Macintosh system.

      Blaine
      Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

        Keola is an amazing person! I hate to ask you this, but I just want to make sure I know what you're talking about. When you say the single open quote or the foot mark, does that mean the apostrophe?
        'Alika

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

          Originally posted by akrauth View Post
          Keola is an amazing person! I hate to ask you this, but I just want to make sure I know what you're talking about. When you say the single open quote or the foot mark, does that mean the apostrophe?
          Absolutely not! An apostrophe looks like a "9" or a single close quote. ‘Okina looks like a "6" -- the single open quote.

          Blaine
          Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

            Originally posted by zztype View Post
            As a typographer and typesetter since the middle-1970s, I was always taught that ‘okina was a single open quote... looks like a number "6". Option-right bracket on a Mac. (PC, I don't know. You can try alt-right bracket.)
            On a PC, for an ‘okina, you can type "alt + 0145" (hold down the "alt" key while typing the number). This works for Windows XP (and I think even 98, not sure about Vista) and works for nearly all fonts and all software programs. The kahakō is another matter.

            And thanks ZZ for info on Mac OS X. I have 9.1 and know the kahakō is not supported there. I'm thinking of upgrading when Leopard comes out.

            As for Hawaiian fonts, I'm not a big fan of that. It's OK if you're only using it on only on your computer and a printout from your printer is all you need, but if you're sharing documents (or using it for web use), it causes problems. But more than that, I don't feel that you have to buy a specialized font in order to use Hawaiian special characters. It should be built-in with what you already have. I know that's was not the case before, but I believe Microsoft and Apple (and Adobe) were supposed to be working on that. It looks like Apple succeeded; I'm not sure about Vista.

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

              Originally posted by akrauth View Post
              When you say the single open quote or the foot mark, does that mean the apostrophe?
              Just to add to the fun, some programs, (like MS Word) will change what you type into something else. For example, it will change a simple double-quote into the fancier open/close double quotes.

              I don't know if it will change the apostrophe to a single quote.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

                Originally posted by GeckoGeek View Post
                Just to add to the fun, some programs, (like MS Word) will change what you type into something else. For example, it will change a simple double-quote into the fancier open/close double quotes.

                I don't know if it will change the apostrophe to a single quote.
                That's Word's autocorrect function. I often type without looking at the screen, so it took me a while to realize that Word was doing that, and even longer to learn what to do about it.

                Most of the time, the autocorrect function is doing the thing the user intended, or at least that's what Microsoft hopes. When it's not what you intended, what you have to do is, as soon as Word autocorrects what you just typed, hit ctrl-Z ("undo"). This tells Word to lay off that particular "correction" that it just attempted. Then you can continue typing.

                I usually find myself doing this fix when the autocorrect function substitutes in "1st" (those were supposed to be superscripts) when I really wanted "1st", and the copyright symbol "©" when I really wanted "(c)".

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

                  One more bit of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi fun with Mac OS X:

                  If you have turned on the Hawaiian keyboard, go into your Date/Time control panel settings. There, you can choose a date/time format for your machine. Look in the list available (might have to hit International/Custom) and you’ll find...ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! No kidding!

                  If you select this, the first thing you will notice is that your menu bar clock now says P3 10:05 AM, which is Hawaiian notation for (P3=day 3=) Pōʻakolu 10:05 AM.

                  If you open your calendar, iCal, you’ll see that the days and months are now in Hawaiian and the times are expressed in Hawaiian.

                  Pretty cool.
                  Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

                    I wanted to upload a pict of what zz is describing but it is waaaaaaay too little. oh well.

                    pax

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

                      I was at Circuit City today and, remembering this thread, went and checked a Vista PC to see if I could get the ʻokina and kahakō to display properly in Times New Roman like Glen was asking about. Sure enough, now you can do it. Here's a picture:

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

                        Thanks for checking!

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Proper way to type the 'okina?

                          I purchased Guava Graphics' Hawaiian fonts and just love it for personal stuff. It works in Word as well as in my emails. Of course, the only problem is that unless whoever I'm writing to has the same program, what they see is the usual hamajang stuffs.

                          I love that Ryan gave me the diacritical marks & HTML to make both ‘okina and kahakō. Those work well on message boards and on my blog.

                          Mahalo nui, Ryan!!
                          Aloha,
                          Mokihana

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            It's Hawaiian, not Hawaiʻian

                            I have noticed lots of people from outside the islands spelling the adjectival form of Hawaiʻi as Hawaiʻian. It's nice that they're trying to be hyper-correct, but they're wrong. Since it's an English-language adjective, it uses the English-language spelling of Hawaiian. (If you were using ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and needed to use "Hawaiʻi" to modify another word, you wouldn't use the "-an" ending in the first place. I think you'd use a modifier following your word, so you'd say something like "[word] o Hawaiʻi".)

                            It baffled me as to why so many haole think that "Hawaiʻian" is the right way to spell it -- but I finally figured it out. It's because the surf magazines spell it that way.

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: It's Hawaiian, not Hawaiʻian

                              Originally posted by Glen Miyashiro View Post
                              I have noticed lots of people from outside the islands spelling the adjectival form of Hawaiʻi as Hawaiʻian. It's nice that they're trying to be hyper-correct, but they're wrong. Since it's an English-language adjective, it uses the English-language spelling of Hawaiian. (If you were using ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and needed to use "Hawaiʻi" to modify another word, you wouldn't use the "-an" ending in the first place. I think you'd use a modifier following your word, so you'd say something like "[word] o Hawaiʻi".)
                              I see that one often, too. As you say - people are going a little overboard in trying to be correct. The effort is nice, but I usually feel inspired to give 'em a gentle correction - just as you were saying.

                              And I've seen it from a number of Island residents as well, but yes, mostly from outside Hawai`i.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X