Maui No Ka Oi - Maui is the Best
by Nancy ~ February 26th, 2006. Filed under: Hawaii.We have only a few more days here on Maui this year. This is our third year of spending the winter here in Hawaii and we have certainly found that this magical place has gotten under our skin. It is so remote and beautiful in it’s own unique way. The Hawaiian songs and language are soft and repetitive. I absolutely love the rendition by Iz of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
We are not very knowledgeable in Hawaiian but here are a few phrases we have picked up ..
No Ka Oi - The Best
Aloha - hello, goodbye or feeling the spirit of love, affection or kindness
Hana - work
Hale - house or building
Hana Hou (ha-nah-HO) to do again
Haole - foreigner - specificially Caucasian
Hula - story telling dance
Kahuna - priest
Kai - The Sea
Kama’ aina - longtime Hawaii Resident
Kapu - forbidden
Kokua - help
Kona - leeward side of island -
Lanai - porch, veranda, patio
Liliko’i - passion fruit
Mahalo - Thank you
Nani - beautiful
Nui - big, important
Ohana - familiy
Ono - delicious
Pua - flower
Puka - hole
Pupu - appetizer
Wahine - woman
Wikiwiki - hurry
If it seems like only a few letters are used in these words you are right. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet - a,e,i,o, and u as well as H, K, L, M, N, P and W. When the missionaries arrived they discovered the Hawaiians had no written language so they created the written Hawaiian using the letters they heard.
February 27th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
This dictonary is very enjoyable. I was especially interested to find out about the short list of letters that the missionaries chose
and that Kahuna as in “big kahuna” most likely refers to God. I also really enjoyed the sunsets slide show and will be waiting to see a sunrise slide show. ( that is if mornings work)