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Hawaiian Translation
History of use
Before 1820
In Hawaii
For roughly eight centuries (AD 1000 to 1778), Hawaiian was the only language ever used in the Hawaiian archipelago, and it was used nowhere else. In 1778, British English arrived via explorer James Cook and crew. During the next forty years, the sounds of Spanish (1789), Russian (1804), French (1816), and German (1816) arrived in Hawaii via other explorers and businessmen (Schutz 1994:3140).Hawaiian originated as the Marquesan or Tahitian of the era AD 1000, when the Polynesian speakers of that language made the first Polynesian discovery of Hawaii and colonized the archipelago, establishing permanent settlements. Upon the permanent separation of those Polynesian colonists from their foreign homelands, their language began to gradually change, thereby developing into one that is distinct from the centuries old Marquesan or Tahitian.
Before AD 1000, the language was various stages of Proto Polynesian. Going back farther in time and space, the language is that of the Philippine Islands, and it is ultimately descended from an ancient Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan about 6000 years ago. The geographically most distant relative of Hawaiian is Malagasy, spoken in Madagascar, nearly at the opposite point on the globe from Hawaii.
The old Marquesan or Tahitian developed into Hawaiian in isolation from the rest of the world, for approximately 700 to 800 years. In AD 1778, British explorer James Cook made the first European discovery of Hawaii, and that marked a new phase in the development and use of Hawaiian. During that period, up to 1820, Hawaiian began to take form as a written language, but largely restricted to isolated names and words, and word lists collected by explorers and travellers.
Abroad
The people responsible for "importing" those languages were also responsible for "exporting" the Hawaiian language into new territory, because there were some adventurous native speakers of Hawaiian who opted to do some exploring of their own by leaving Hawaii and sailing off to "see the world" aboard the wooden ships of the Caucasian explorers (Schutz 1994:4344). Although there were not enough of these Hawaiian-speaking explorers (and apparently no females) to establish any viable speech communities abroad, nevertheless, there were a few here and there, in various parts of the world, who may be said to have spread the use of the language, at least a little bit. One of them, a male teenager known as Obookiah (`Opukaha`ia), had a major impact on the future of the language. He sailed to New England, and eventually became a student at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. He inspired New Englanders to support a Christian mission to Hawaii, and provided information on the Hawaiian language to the American missionaries there prior to their departure for Hawaii in 1819 (Schutz 1994:8597). Some adventurous native speakers of Hawaiian worked aboard American and/or European ships of that period, thereby expanding, albeit slightly, the geographical area in which Hawaiian could be spoken. However, no viable Hawaiian speech communities were ever established abroad.
1820 to 1887
In Hawaii
The arrival of American Protestant missionaries (from New England) in 1820 marked another new phase in the development of the Hawaiian language. Their evangelical mission had been inspired by the presence of several young Hawaiian males, especially Obookiah (?Opukaha?ia), at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. The missionaries wanted to convert all Hawaiians to Christianity. In order to achieve that goal, they needed to learn the Hawaiian language so that they could publish a Hawaiian Bible, preach in Hawaiian, etc. To that end, they developed a successful alphabet for Hawaiian by 1826, taught Hawaiians to read and write the language, published various educational materials in Hawaiian, and eventually finished translating the Bible. Missionaries also influenced King Kamehameha III to establish the first Hawaiian-language constitutions in 1839 and 1840.
Abroad
Adelbert von Chamisso might have consulted with a native speaker of Hawaiian in Berlin, Germany, before publishing his grammar of Hawaiian ("Uber die Hawaiische Sprache") in 1837 (Elbert & Pukui 1979:2). When Hawaiian King David Kalakaua took a trip around the world, he brought his native language with him. When his wife, Queen Kapiolani, and his sister, Princess (later Queen) Liliuokalani, took a trip across North America and on to the British Islands, in 1887, Liliuokalani's composition Aloha Oe was already a famous song in the U.S. (Carter 1996:7, 169 example 138 quoting McGuire).
1834 to 1948
In Hawaii
This is the 115year period during which Hawaiian-language newspapers were published. Missionaries introduced newspaper publishing in Hawaiian and in English, and played a significant role in publishing a grammar (1854) and dictionary (1865) of Hawaiian. Literacy in Hawaiian was widespread among the local population, especially ethnic Hawaiians. Use of the language among the general population might have peaked around 1881. Even so, some people worried, as early as 1854, that the language was "soon destined to extinction" (quoted in Schutz 1994:269270). In spite of a huge decline in the use of Hawaiian, compared to the era of its peak, those fears have never been realized.The increase in human travel to and from Hawai?i during the 19th century was the means by which a number of diseases arrived, and potentially fatal ones, such as smallpox, influenza, and leprosy, killed large numbers of native speakers of Hawaiian. Meanwhile, native speakers of other languages, especially English, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Ilokano, continued to immigrate to Hawaii. As a result, the actual number, as well as the percentage, of native speakers of Hawaiian in the local population decreased sharply, and continued to fall.
As the status of Hawaiian dropped, the status of English in Hawai?i rose. In 1885, the Prospectus of the Kamehameha Schools announced that "instruction will be given only in English language" (see published opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Doe v. Kamehameha Schools, case no. 0415044, page 8928, filed August 2nd 2005).
For a variety of reasons starting around 1900, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian diminished from 37,000 to 1,000; half of these remaining are now in their seventies or eighties (see Ethnologue report below for citations). There has been some controversy over the reasons for this decline.
One school of thought claims that the most important cause for the decline of the Hawaiian language was its voluntary abandonment by the majority of its native speakers. They wanted their own children to speak English, as a way to promote their success in a rapidly changing modern environment, so they refrained from using Hawaiian with their own children. The Hawai'ian language schools disappeared as their enrollments dropped: parents preferred English language schools.
Another school of thought insists either that the government made the language illegal, or that schools punished the use of Hawaiian, or that general prejudice against Hawaiians (kanakas) discouraged the use of the language. (See below, "Banning" of Hawaiian)
A new dictionary was published in 1957, a new grammar in 1979, and new second-language textbooks in 1951, 1965, 1977, and 1989. Master's theses and doctoral dissertations on specific facets of Hawaiian appeared in 1951, 1975, 1976, and 1996.
1949 to present
In 1949, the legislature of the Territory of Hawai?i commissioned Mary Pukui and Samuel Elbert to write a new dictionary of Hawaiian, either revising the Andrews-Parker work, or starting from scratch (Schutz 1994:230). Pukui and Elbert took a middle course, using what they could from the Andrews dictionary, but making certain improvements and additions that were more significant than a minor revision. The dictionary they produced, in 1957, introduced an era of gradual increase in attention to the language (and culture).Efforts to promote the language have increased in recent decades. Hawaiian-language "immersion" schools are now open to children whose families want to introduce Hawaiian language for future generations Warner (1996). The local NPR station features a short segment titled "Hawaiian word of the day" and a Hawaiian language news broadcast. Additionally, the Sunday editions of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, one of Honolulu's two major newspapers, feature a brief article called Kauakukalahale written entirely in Hawaiian by teachers, students, and community members.
Today, on six of the seven inhabited islands, Hawaiian is largely displaced by English, and the number of native speakers of Hawaiian is under 0.1% of the state-wide population. Native speakers of Hawaiian who live on the island named Ni?ihau have remained fairly isolated and have continued to use Hawaiian almost exclusively (Lyovin 1997:258).
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