• Clay_pidgin
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      1 year ago

      Right.

      Leaving out the ʻokina and kahakō changes the sound significantly. The ʻokina represents a glottal stop, the sound in the middle of “uh-oh”. In Hawaiian, it’s a letter of the alphabet. The kahakō (macron, the horizontal line over a vowel) means the vowel is long - as in pronounced for a beat longer. What we call long and short vowels in English should be considered different vowels because they are different sounds.

      Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopʻo

      Is

      Hohh nah oo nah oo Nahh pohh ohp oh

      It’s hard to transcribe, I hope that’s of interest to someone. He haumana a ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi au. I’m still early in my learning.

      • Clay_pidgin
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        1 year ago

        We use them all the time but we’re generally unaware of it. Like in “uh-oh”.

        That’s leaving aside that Hawaiians ARE Americans, thanks to the Dole fruit company.