Languagle #32: Hawaiian
I ka ʻōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ʻōlelo nō ka make
I ka olelo no ke ola, i ka olelo no ka make
"In speech there is life; in speech there is death."
What it means
Words have power: they can give life, and they can destroy, so be careful what you say. It is one of the best-known ʻōlelo noʻeau, the Hawaiian proverbs and poetic sayings.
How to say it
ee ka OH-leh-lo NOH keh O-la, ee ka OH-leh-lo NOH ka MA-keh
The ʻokina is a little catch in the throat, like the break in 'uh-oh'. A line over a vowel makes it longer. Every vowel is said, so make has two syllables: MA-keh.
Word by word
- I ka ee ka: in the
- ʻōlelo OH-leh-lo: speech, language, word
- nō noh: indeed (it adds emphasis)
- ke ola keh O-la: life
- ka make ka MA-keh: death
Where it was found
Hawaiian calls a wise saying an ʻōlelo noʻeau. This one is from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.
Similar sayings
- The Bible (Proverbs 18:21): Death and life are in the power of the tongue
How to recognise Hawaiian
Hawaiian uses just thirteen letters: the vowels a, e, i, o and u, the consonants h, k, l, m, n, p and w, and the ʻokina (ʻ), a glottal stop. Long vowels carry a line on top called a kahakō, as in ō. Every word ends in a vowel and two consonants never sit side by side. Samoan also uses the ʻokina but has g, s, f, t and v, and Māori has wh, ng and r.
About the Hawaiian language
Hawaiian, or ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, is a Polynesian language and an official language of the state of Hawaii. After Hawaiian was banned as a medium of school instruction in 1896, the number of native speakers fell sharply; since the 1980s, immersion preschools and schools have been bringing it back. It has one of the smallest sound inventories of any language, with 13 letters, including the ʻokina, a glottal stop that looks like a reversed apostrophe.
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