'Good luck' in Hawaiian can be said as 'Maika'I Pomaika'I' or just 'Pomaika'I'. A variety of popular Hawaiian words and phrases can be found online at websites such as http://www.alohafriendsluau.com/words.html/. The whole of the Hawaiian alphabet is made up of just seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, and w) and five vowels (a, e, i, o and u). The consonant is always followed by a vowel therefore making every Hawaiian word end in a vowel. Hawaiian also has a glottal stop, as seen in the word for 'good luck' and is written in where it is pronounced.
Hawaiian, alongside English, is the official language of Hawaii and was established in 1839. The number of Hawaiian speaking inhabitants dramatically decreased between the 1830s and 1950s when the language was banned from schools for a variety of reasons. Now the native speakers of Hawaiian make up less than 0.1 per cent of the population and English has already displaced the language on six of the seven Hawaiian islands.
From the 50s onwards there has been an increase in interest and preservation of the language. Public Hawaiian language schools were established and a number of immersion schools soon followed. This change was acknowledged by the federal government and in the Hawaiian National Park Language Correction Act of 2000, a number of national parks in Hawaii had their names changed to observe the Hawaiian spelling. The only area in the world where Hawaiian is the first language is in Ni'ihau. Here children learn Hawaiian as their native tongue and English is taught at a later date. The main reasons that Ni'ihau has kept Hawaiin as the first language are that it has been privately owned for over 100 years, outsiders are rarely allowed to visit, the owners have favored the preservation of the language and because the Ni'ihau inhabitants have continued to speak the language.
It is useful to learn translations into Hawaiian now because as the popularity of the language decreases, there may not be an opportunity to use it in the future.
Hawaiian, alongside English, is the official language of Hawaii and was established in 1839. The number of Hawaiian speaking inhabitants dramatically decreased between the 1830s and 1950s when the language was banned from schools for a variety of reasons. Now the native speakers of Hawaiian make up less than 0.1 per cent of the population and English has already displaced the language on six of the seven Hawaiian islands.
From the 50s onwards there has been an increase in interest and preservation of the language. Public Hawaiian language schools were established and a number of immersion schools soon followed. This change was acknowledged by the federal government and in the Hawaiian National Park Language Correction Act of 2000, a number of national parks in Hawaii had their names changed to observe the Hawaiian spelling. The only area in the world where Hawaiian is the first language is in Ni'ihau. Here children learn Hawaiian as their native tongue and English is taught at a later date. The main reasons that Ni'ihau has kept Hawaiin as the first language are that it has been privately owned for over 100 years, outsiders are rarely allowed to visit, the owners have favored the preservation of the language and because the Ni'ihau inhabitants have continued to speak the language.
It is useful to learn translations into Hawaiian now because as the popularity of the language decreases, there may not be an opportunity to use it in the future.
