Learning the Hawaiian Language

During our trip to Hawaii, we never thought their English would be different from how the people from mainland USA speak the language. In our Hawaiian vacation, we noticed that people from Hawaii have a "sweeter" English accent. And they have words we don't typically hear being used in American English.

They also have the pigeon/pidgin language. It was originally created so that immigrants, and people from Japan, the Philippines, China and Portugal, and Mainland USA and Hawaii can easily understand one another.

Nonetheless, here are some of the Hawaiian terms we learned during our trip:

• Aloha - hello / goodbye
• Mahalo - thank you
• Mele Kalikimaka - Merry Christmas
• Wahine - female
• Kane - male
• Pau - finish
• Luau - Hawaiian feast or party
• Ono - delicious
• Hau'oli Makahiki Hou - Happy New Year
• Huli huli - Hawaii's version of chicken inasal
• Cousin - they call everyone "cousin." It's like our Filipino version of dude, pare, sisters, friend.

And did you know that their written language only has 8 consonants and 5 syllables? H K L M N P W and ' (apostrophe, but they call this a glottal stop or okina). Amazing!

Till my next post. Aloha cousins!