The Hawaiian gazette., 1874-03-11
IOoFFespOnuence OF Iu5 ua1sIVe'I
A Plea for the Hawaiian Tongue

APIea for the Hawaiian Tongue.
1t certainly is not too much to demand of one
who offers himself as a Teacher in any branch OF
study. that be be himself fairly skilled therein.
And when one ventures to publish school
book, and puts for its PREDATORY note We
don't pretend niis tcork is accurate" what are
we to think Of his good sense or Of his literary
honestly
Were the venture one in Moabite or Phenician
syntax, it might well become the modesty OF the
most skillful linguist to preface his attempts in
this manner. But for simple book for begin
ners in Hawaiian, a prefix of that sort does look
singularly strange Yet this is the preface to
"A phrase Book in the English, HdVdiiaH and
French languages, prepared for The pupils Of the
Ahuimdnu School," recently published By the
authorities Of that institution. OF this little
work some one has sent US copy. We have
looked it carefully through, sometimes with con-
tempt for the utter shallownes3 Of the compers
knowledge of the Hawaiian, sometimes with in
dignatiOn that such gross imposition should be
practiced upon Hawaiian children, and upon
those foreigners who desire method Of ready
coloquial access to the people, and always with
establishment at the effrontry that could put such
work into the market aud call it guide in col
loquial Hawaiian
Let the experiment be tried in the English
speaking world, Of book for beginners in French,
bearing the same relation to that language in its
purity, as this, to pure Hawaiian. The compiler
would be consigned too" without benefit Of
clergy ITO the limbo Of literary gnoramuses if,
in charity, he might escape the lower deep Of
literary imposters.
We speak for Hawaiians-in behalf OF their
much-abused mother tongue. We have no per-
sonal piqus to indulge, no religious animosty to
any living man to crafty, but we confess to an
earnest love for the nations birthrigt in its own
vernacuIar and as earnestly would we protest
against the ridiculous caricatures in which it is
sometimes held up to credulous public
A new book in the language is always to US
"a thing of Joy" however small its literary merits
Yet, it must be in the Hawaiian dialect pure and
simple The foreigner has no business to set
Hawaiian words in foreign idiomatic array, and
call the composition The HaWaiian language"
for it no snch thing. Nor is there at this day
any excuse for the needless deception, QOr it is q
deception, even though undesigned), since skilled
Hawaiian scholars are readily to be found, by
those who seek them. Such foreign words and
even idioms as Hawaiaus themselves are able to
appreciate and appropriate, naturally become in
tegral parts of the language. But we contend
81, of ,r;II tobo
of fancy, can add strange shapes to the Hawaiian
and these shapes be Ha,Odiidn They continue
to be- necessarily, to all intents and purposes,
like undigested masses in the human stomach
mere mechanical distractions to the wholesome
condition of the body. Whatever is to enter
into the system and become a part thereof must
do so through established physiological laws.
And in like manner. nothing can permanently
become part Of language that is not in ac-
cOrdance with the genius of that language, and
that fails to seek entrance through its natural
laws.
The great objection toItbe Book Of Phrases
named in these remarks, Is just this 1t takes
French aud English idioms and phrases and trans
fers them into literal Hawaiian dress. Out OF
about five hundred phrases one half are of this
description, and many Of them utter nonsense to
a native ear as any one can certify to himself, if
he will sit down for half hour with any intelli-
gent Hawaiian who has not been debarred the
Of his native tongue.
The natural and easy Hawaiian is the excep-
ton in the book. Much of that not in foreign
shape is stiff and bald, and such as Hawailans
would never use in their intercourse with those
versed in the vernacular.
The use also of such words as dhdHd for skill
ful, u4aeLe uniformly as though that were the
common form of the word CO." uhaHd for hama,
uimi for imi, ueu for ulCdu, Ola ana for olidnd,
eu imi, &C., indicate very shallow acquaintance
with the language and the same is true of the
constant use Of lmpersonal verbs with the regu-
lar transitive sense and still more so in the very
narrow ruts which the compiler persisteutly fol-
lows in his use of Hawaiian.
We should be glad also to call the attention Of
the compiler to the significance of the tense
signs, and especially of the use of ud. He might
study with advantage the remarks thereon by
President Alexander in his very valuable Syn
opsis Of Hawaiian Grammar"
We say nothing further than bare reference
to the taste exhibited in the attempt to put into
Hawaiian dress and introduce into the free and
easy Hawaiian mind, the strait jacketed inaDilies
Of extreme French, politeness-so called-to be
o und in this phrase book. E.B.