This page explains most of the terms used in the Hawaiian Glossary.
Also, below the list of terms, a list of resources used to construct this website.

a-class possessive There are two classes of possessives; a-class and o-class. A-class possessives are alienable, acquired and mark the possessor as dominant or active. Some examples of a-class possessives are: ka‘u (my), kāu (your), and kāna (his, her(s), its). Compare with o-class possessives.

cognate Cognates are words of different languages that are related in meaning and have a common etymological origin. A Polynesian example of cognates are the words related to the word tiki. Tiki is a Māori word and is not Hawaiian. The Tahitian cognate of tiki is ti‘i and the Hawaiian cognate is ki‘i.

consonant The Hawaiian language has eight consonants; h, k, l, m, n, p, w and ‘ (the ‘okina).

consonant cluster Consecutive consonants in a word. Two or more consonants juxtaposed side by side in a word. One of the rules of the Hawaiian language is that there are no consonant clusters in Hawaiian spelling. There appears to be one and only one accepted exception to this rule. An amazing anomaly.

contraction A shortened form of a word or compound word. I have seen the PE dictionary call this a "coalescence." Some examples are: ‘ailea (oil) is short for ‘aila + ea, ‘a‘ohe (none) is short for ‘a‘ole + he, mo‘olelo (story) is short mo‘o + ‘ōlelo, and kamāli‘i (royal child) is short for kama + ali‘i.

diacritic There is only one diacritic mark in the Hawaiian language and it is called a kahakō. Sometimes the ‘okina is refered to as a diacritic mark, but it is not. The ‘okina is a Hawaiian consonant.

diphthong Hawaiian diphthongs are two vowels pronounced as a single syllable. There are 9 Hawaiian diphthongs. They are ae, ai, ao, au, ei, eu, oi, ou and the ninth being iu.

glottal stop The glottal stop is rendered as an upside-down or inverted apostrophe that is called an ‘okina.

kahakō The kahakō is a diacritic mark that is called a macron in English. A kahakō makes a vowel and the syllable associated with it a long sound, with approximately a double count of length of a regular vowel. And syllables with a kahakō always receive stress when pronounced. Kahakō is comprised of the two words, kaha (mark) and kō (long vowel sound) and literally means "long vowel sound mark." Along with the ‘okina, the kahakō is an unusual "element" of the Hawaiian language. For various reasons, the ‘okina and kahakō are often excluded in the spelling of Hawaiian words, but the ‘okina and kahakō are important for correct spelling and pronunciation; they are just as important as any Hawaiian letter. For instance, you can spell the place name Waikīkī without the two kahakō as Waikiki, however the word Waikiki is an Anglicized version of a Hawaiian word and to that extent it is a legitimate spelling, but it is not a correctly spelled Hawaiian word.

letters The Hawaiian language has 13 letters; 5 vowels and 8 consonants.

intransitive verb The action of the verb is confined to the subject. Often abbreviated as vi.

macron Macron is the English name for the diacritic mark called a kahakō. See the kahakō entry.

Māmaka Kaiao Māmaka Kaiao is a modern Hawaiian dictionary that expands the Hawaiian vocabulary to include words for things and concepts for which previously there were no Hawaiian words.

noun A word or group of words that refers to a person, place or thing.

o-class possessive There are two classes of possessives; a-class and o-class. O-class possessives are inalienable, inherited and mark the possessor as subordinate or passive. O-class possessives are used much more often than a-class possessives. Some examples of o-class possessives are: ko‘u (my), kou (your), and kona (his, her(s), its). Compare with a-class possessives.
‘okina The word ‘okina is a combination of the intransitive verb ‘oki plus the nominalizing suffix -na and literally means "cutting off, serverance, seperation" The ‘okina is represented in writing as an upside-down or inverted apostrophe. Sometimes the ‘okina is called a diacritical mark, but it is not a diacritical mark. The only diacritic mark in the Hawaiian language is the kahakō. Along with the kahakō, the ‘okina is an unusual "element" of the Hawaiian language. As strange as it may seem, the ‘okina is a real and full fledged consonant in the Hawaiian language, however it is a unique consonant in that it doesn't have a sound like the other consonants. The ‘okina is what is called a “voiceless glottal plosive”, which makes it sort of a silent consonant. For various reasons, the ‘okina and kahakō are often excluded in the spelling of Hawaiian words, but the ‘okina and kahakō are important for correct spelling and pronunciation; they are just as important as any Hawaiian letter. For instance, the not so well known word ka‘i is a two syllable word and means "to lead, to direct", but remove the ‘okina and it becomes the much better known word kai which is a one syllable word and means "sea." Also, you can spell the place name Hawai‘i without the ‘okina as Hawaii, however Hawaii is an Anglicized version of a Hawaiian word and to that extent it is a legitimate spelling, but it is not a correctly spelled Hawaiian word.

PE dictionary The Hawaiian Dictionary by Mark Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Ebert and published by University of Hawai‘i Press. The PE dictionary is the most important Hawaiian dictionary and is considered the most definitive and authoritative lexicon of the Hawaiian language.

penultimate Penultimate is a fancy term meaning second to last.

place name A name given to or held by a geographical location, as a town, city, village, land section, fish pond, crater, mountain, stream, island, church, building, et cetera.

Place Names of Hawaii Place Names of Hawaii is an exceptional and important reference book for anyone who is interested in the Hawaiian language or anyone who just wants to know the meaning of place names in Hawai‘i.

proper noun A noun or compound word used to denote a specific person, place or thing. Whereas the word car is just a noun and not a proper noun, Ford is a proper noun because it is the name for a specific brand of car.

punctuation The Hawaiian language uses the same punctuation rules as the English language. Sometimes the kahakō and the ‘okina are wrongly described as punctuation marks. They are not punctuation marks. The kahakō and ‘okina may seem like strange "elements" of the Hawaiian language, because they are different from English spelling, but they are not punctuation marks. The ‘okina is a Hawaiian consonant and the kahakō is a diacritic mark.

reduplication The Hawaiian language has many words that are reduplications. A reduplication is the repetition of one or two syllables of a word. The effect of a reduplication usually changes the meaning of the word to show an increased frequency, repetition, pluralization or continuing action or state, but very often there is no difference in meaning or it can have a diminutive meaning. Perhaps the best know example of a reduplication is in the proper noun of Kamehameha, where the base word meha (lonely) is repeated. Other well known examples are; wikiwiki and Likelike. The previous examples are full reduplications, but there are also particle reduplications. An example of a particle reduplication is mamake (several deaths) which is a particle reduplication of make (death) and also is an example of a pluralizing reduplication. An example of a reduplication that illustrates the effect of continuing action is hoehoe (to paddle continuously) whereas hoe means "to paddle."

stative verb A stative verb has no action. A stative verb describes the state or condition of the subject. Often abbreviated as vs.

stress There are three rules that govern Hawaiian stress. One, all diphthongs are stressed. Two, all syllables with a kahakō receive stress. And three, the penultimate syllable of a stress unit also receives stress along with all diphthongs and syllables with a kahakō. All three rules are concurrently applicable and no rule supersedes or voids any other rule of stress.

stress unit This concept is not really discussed much on this website, but it is important because it determines which syllable is the penultimate syllable for correct pronunciation, because the penultimate syllable of a stress unit receives stress. Stress units are discussed in the PE dictionary on page xvii, under Pronunciation of Hawaiian and on page xx in the glossary. Periods or what they call online periods are used to seperate the stress units. The periods are used only to identify the penultimate syllable and do not represent a new or different way to spell Hawaiian words. I will use the word pulelehua (butterfly) as an example of how being able to identify the penultimate syllable is important for correct pronunciation. In this example, all bold and capitalized syllables are stressed. The correct stress units in the word pulelehua are pule and lehua, thus the PE dictionary entry is shown as pule.lehua. The stress would be on the bold and capitalized syllables, as PU–le–le–HU–a. PU and HU are the penultimate syllabes, but I have heard the word pronounced incorrectly as though the stressed syllables were LE and HU, as if the dictionary entry was written as pulele.hua. This false depiction of the stress units would result in the incorrect stress as pu–LE–le–HU–a. And also, there is actually a w-glide in pulelehua, but I will not discuss the w-glide here, but you can read about w-glides in the w-glide entry on this page.

transitive verb The action of the verb is transfered from the subject to the object or direct object. Often abbreviated as vt.

transliterated The conversion of text from a non-Hawaiian language to Hawaiian spelling. Most transliterated Hawaiian words are derived from English words.

vowel The Hawaiian language has five vowels; a, e, i, o and u.

w-glide W-glides are natural occurrences of the spoken Hawaiian language and they are sometimes written into the word that has them. A soft v sound in an acceptable pronunciation of many if not most ws is a Hawaiian word, but w-glides are always pronounced as a w sound and not as a soft v sound. Perhaps the best example of a w-glide, that most everyone commonly uses in pronunciation is in the word Maui. There is no w in the word Maui, but there is a w sound in the last syllable, so that the last syllable is pronounced kind of like wee. Maui is also an example of a word where the w-glide is never written in the word, as Mauwi. All words with a w-glide are pronounced exactly the same, whether or not the w-glide is spelled in the word. Two example of words that can be spelled with or without the w-glide are auē / auwē (oh dear!) and uē / uwē (to cry) and both spellings are acceptable.

y-glide Y-glides are natural occurrences of the spoken Hawaiian language, but are never spelled in a word. I have not done a count, but it seems to me that y-glides are far less numerous than w-glides. Haupia (coconut pudding) is an example of a word that has a y-glide. There is a y-glide that follows the letter i in haupia, so that the last syllable represented by the letter a is pronounced kind of like yuh.



A list of the principle resources used to construct the glossary.
This is not a complete list of the books, websites and language instructors used to construct the glossary.

Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English and English-Hawaiian, Revised and Enlarged Edition
By Mary Kawena Pukui; Samuel H. Elbert
University of Hawai‘i Press; 1986
ISBN-10: 9780824807030
ISBN-13: 978-0824807030

Illustrated Hawaiian Dictionary
By Kahikāhealani Wight; Illustrated by Robin Yoko Racoma
Bess Press; 2005
ISBN-10: 1573062391
ISBN-13: 978-1573062398

Ka Lei Ha‘aheo: Beginning Hawaiian
By Alberta Pualani Hopkins
University of Hawai‘i Press; 1992
ISBN-10: 082481259X
ISBN-13: 978-0824812591

Mamaka Kaiao: A Modern Hawaiian Vocabulary
By the Hawaiian Lexicon Committee
University of Hawai‘i Press; 2003
ISBN-10: 0824827864
ISBN-13: 978-0824827861

Place Names of Hawaii, Revised and Expanded Edition
By Mary Kawena Pukui; Samuel H. Elbert; Esther T. Mookini
University of Hawai‘i Press; 1974
ISBN-10: 9780824805241
ISBN-13: 978-0824805241

Pocket Hawaiian Grammar
By Albert J. Schütz; Gary N. Kahaho‘omalu Kanada; Kenneth W. Cook
Island Heritage Publishing; 2005
ISBN-10: 1597001767
ISBN-13: 978-1597001762

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