The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-03-25
THE LANGUAGE OF HAWAII.
An American Gives Samples of the
Words Most in Use


Writing from the Island of Maui, of
the Sandwich group, where ne has been
for several years as an employee on a
large sugar plantation. a young American
makes some interesting observations upon
the strange and mixed language which he
is obliged to use.
THE Hawaiian Islands. he says. n a
letter to a friend in Washington. have
been in the hands of the United States
citizens much longer than most people
imagine. Fhe commercial interests Of ouE
country have been dominant over the lit
tie group nearly forty years Therefore.
you can III GeTStand that the language Of
commerce ana the language of culture is
English 1 do not have much to 10 .rith
the langua5e of culture. except wheI
get out of ny overalls and into my dress
suit Mention IF a dress suit in this part
of the world where il is commonly
thought bare skin and collar button is
sufficient raiment. may sound strange.
but there is no quarter of the globe where
the red tape f social life is so much in
sisted upon as here. The least Httle
breach of etiquette receives rebuff much
more emphatic than it would receive in
New York There are d good many req
sons for this, the greatest of which is
probably the fact that we are all on sal
arg. and have nothing else to distinguish
us but our manners. Then. too. ?ge have
nothing else 70 do with our money than
spend il on clothes, and nothing to do
with out time, but spend it in society
I find myself using a peculiar COmbf-
nation of Kanaka and English. by which
make myself understood by all kinds Of
employees, Chinese or Hawaiian Kanaka
LET me- Iaf In or for -.
generic word ard does not mean Hawaii
an or Sandwich Islander, as most people
think
The Chinese easily pick up 4 sort Of
pidgin English. with which they make
themselves moderately clear It is quite
a long time before the native islander
gets sufficiently acquainted with our Ian
guage to be able to speak or understand
it It is particularly for his use that the
Kanaka-Engiish vocabulary has been c;e-
ated. I find that only a few wori Is are
really necessary. A lite bit of emphasis
and a syllable or two Of Kanaka in a
sentence Of English usually accompanies
the business The Hawaiian language
is especially adapted to be used in
fragments. because it is composed of
picture words, and words which ere eX-
pressive in themselves without anything
10 Ilv-ip lIlC ltid ziAI1LlOti ! III AL4OSL u-'--
full word OF all, and the most striking is
AIai-Tai II means good, all and any
kind of good. With every accent you give
it you can make 1t mean some new kind
Of excellence. In approving mans
ork l say 'mai-tai,' and he trcts away
smiling After d full meal pat my waist
coat and drawI marital and everyone
knows what 1 mean If I wish to assent
to d proposition I say 'mai-tai, quickly,
andlthe bargain is done
The word good has almost entirely
passed out Of our vocabulary here. In
the most fashionable drawing rooms OF
Honolulu, to say nothing of the parlors of
the plantation houses. 'mai-tai is on
everyOne-s tongue. The complement
TO marital is 'pilikia-' It means trout
bic, or distress OF any kind or de-
sire II hen man comes TO me and puts
his hand % his forehead he usually says
-Dilikia.' know that ne has headache,
and wants TO lay of. You can also say
that vo.- have had lot OF 'plilkla' with
Your gang. and every one viii >compre-
herd that your men have been fractions
a word that ! have found the most
useful in the field with the laborers IS
'vviki-wiki' It means quick, or hurry up,
and if You pronounce II fast l think you
will agree with me that there never was
a word better suited TO its meaning
-Wili-Wiki. there, shouted at the gang
viii set them all spading as though their
lives depended upon it II seems 10 have
a most salutary effect, and it Is certainly
expressive. With 'wiki-wiki goes hama
hama which is the Hawaiian for work
The COmbin2 ton -Wiki-wiki, hana-hana,
though il may seem a little weird, Is COM
mon everyday talk with me, for l say 1t
almost as often as / see a man in the
fields 1t is an admOnition to him TO get
10 work
And then. there's pau I send a man
off on an errand and he comes back to me
say inc FlaT &c Tsr1TE he'd
completed The men grunt 1t out as
though they did not dare open their
mouths. but it IS expressive, and very
suggestive of finality-
another short word used very fire.
quently is 'nui-' 'Nui is not a word in
itself. It is merely an intensive. It makes
any word 1t is added to mean the same
thing only little more OF II -PIiikIa
nui you can readily understand would
mean that the man had a great pain 'AlO-
Ia means q greeting. aloha nui means
i am very glad TO see you Couple il
with marital marital nUi' means very
good. 'Holo' means TO walk. holo nui
means TO run.
The Sandwich Islanders have come IN
der the influence of many countries as far
as their language is concerned The Ian
SuaSe was originally somewhat similar to
Chinese or japanese, but was corrupted
in some way, 10 my mind. for its own
good 1t Is an exceedingly picturesque
tongue. full of striking words and meta
phors, and very musical The mission
but there are evidences in it OF words
bodily transported from foreign tongue,
such as English. or German. or French
The readiness with which the resident
Americans have taken to the Eanaka
words and adopted them is surprising.
The mixed language is the one in COM
mon use here. and the words have not
even been Jabooed as slang. There are
several expressions in common use in
Hawaii which / ought 10 mention. One
Is -Wela-ka-haO,' and roughly translated
II means Hot stuff 1t was the Crv OF
a tuS-of-war team which was composed
of men from an iron foundry When
they Y ere ready to remove anv heavy
piece Of iron from the forge they shouted
'Wela-ka-haO.' (the iron is hotl. anF all
heaved together. That IS the Commoucst
slang expression in :he islands now
Everyone in Hawaii is nicknamed. and
frequently the names are rather breezy
to say the least / remember a friend of
mine who happened to have a series Of
boils on mis- face \ young lady QUICKLY
dubbed him 'PaulO Opu-Nui' tthe man
with hOilsl- He is known by that name
throughout the archipelago.
These expressions, and hundreds more
are used all the time by the American
residents in the islands, and 10 hear a
conversation in q draWiuS-rOon To a
stranger at least. would be, [ am sure.
extremely amusing.
CURRENT HUMoR.