Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

[surlygirly]

How would you translate "Home sweet home" or something to that effect into Hawaiian? Someone asked me and I have no idea.

[Kalalau]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

Home hone might work. The online dictionary wehewehe might help some.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

How would you translate "Home sweet home" or something to that effect into Hawaiian? Someone asked me and I have no idea.

I believe that phrase was banished after the overthrow.

[Palama Kid]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

While reading about this year's HT Christmas get together, Tutusue mentioned that there's no "S" in the Hawaiian alphabet. I also know there's no "S" in the Hawaiian alphabet.

But I also remember singing a traditional Hawaiian song at Kaiulani Elementary School that had a phrase that goes "pua sila kaualoha".

No song title comes to mind. Am I disremembering?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

"pua sila kaualoha"

According to the beloved Pukui & Elbert resources, any Hawaiian word you see that starts with an s is an adaptation, a "loaned" word from another language. "Sila," for example, is the Hawaiian adaptation of the name "Silas."

[matapule]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

A term such as "home sweet home" cannot be translated into any polynesian language because the concept of "home, sweet home" does not exist in Polynesia.

For example if you take the word "home" and "sweet" in Tongan, it would come out "fale, fo'i fale." But Tongans would look at someone saying that with disbelief, because it is just gobuldigook!

Better to leave well enough alone.

By the way, Tongans would never inhabit a fale that had previous occupants. They would tear down the old fale and build a new one when new inhabitants arrived. Living in someone else's fale would be "gross" to Tongans.

[Betsey]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

There's the song 'Sanoe' as well. The Cazimeros translate it as 'mist' - which I think ordinarily would be 'noe'?

T is another letter not often written, but heard in oli.

[surlygirly]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

So...is it true there are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet?

I get:
a,e,h,i,k,l,m,n,o,p,u,w,y. Are those correct?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

So...is it true there are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet?

I get:
a,e,h,i,k,l,m,n,o,p,u,w,y. Are those correct?

Close...
The vowels: a e i o u
The consonants: h k l m n p w ` (last one is the `okina, which is a consonant)

The spoken Hawaiian language included the T and R sounds, but when missionaries developed the written form, those were dropped. Some of those letters (as well as S) show up in regional variations on different Islands.

[LikaNui]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

The vowels: a e i o u
The consonants: h k l m n p w ` (last one is the `okina, which is a consonant)
The spoken Hawaiian language included the T and R sounds, but when missionaries developed the written form, those were dropped. Some of those letters (as well as S) show up in regional variations on different Islands.

And don't forget that the written W is usually pronounced as a V (which is not in the Hawaiian alphabet), except when it's the first letter of a word. The name Kawika is pronounced ka-VEE-kah, but Waimea is, well, Waimea.
SurlyGirly, I don't think any of us here are even close to being experts on the Hawaiian language. Your best information will come from the language department at UH, or maybe check with OHA and see who they recommend asking.

[surlygirly]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

Thank you! I guess "Yokohama Bay" is the one that confused me, and I needed a 13th letter, so I added the y and forgot the '.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

I guess "Yokohama Bay" is the one that confused me, and I needed a 13th letter, so I added the y and forgot the '.

Yokohama is, of course, a Japanese word. But still - at least you knew there were 13! Most people fail to count the `okina (whereas the kahakō is still considered a diacritical mark, since it changes a letter and doesn't stand on its own).

[pzarquon]

Re: Help with a Hawaiian Phrase

Got an inquiry from an artist who wants to incorporate the following phrase in Hawaiian into a piece:

"You should have been here yesterday."

I took four years of Hawaiian, but I'm very rusty, and when you start playing with time in the phrase, my brain ties itself in knots. Any suggestions?