Olelo Hawaii, or the Hawaiian Language is was one of the oldest living language in the world. Before Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Language was a strict oral language.
Hawaiian was an oral language. The 19th century missionaries, however, were supposed to teach their converts to read the Bible, and created a writing system with an alphabet of only twelve letters for words of indigenous Hawaiian origin. The Hawaiian language became the language of the government, remained the most commonly used language in daily life, and was used between the numerous different ethnic groups who had all arrived here to work the plantations.The alphabet was later expanded to allow for two unique characteristics in the Hawaiian word that the missionaries had missed. First, there was the unnoticed consonant, a glottal stop. The 'okina symbol (') now indicates this stop. Secondly, the five vowels could all function as longer sounds, now symbolized with a short line above the vowel. It became clear that Hawaiian was just as diversified and complete as the familiar European languages.
Captain Cook and his companions recorded the Hawaiian language for the first time in Kaua'i, in 1778. They immediately noticed the great similarity to Tahitian and Maori. In communicating with the Hawaiians they used Tahitian words and gestures. The arrival of American Protestant missionaries (from New England) in 1820 marked another new phase in the development of the Hawaiian language. 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. This is the 115-year 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 vocabulary grammar and dictionary 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."In spite of a huge decline in the use of Hawaiian, compared to the era of its peak, those fears have never been realized.
Hawaiian was the primary language in Hawaii for many years. After the annexation of Hawaii as a territory of the United States in 1898, the language was officially banned from schools and the government. Use of the Hawaiian language was even banned at the Kamehameha Schools. It is important to note that this ban of the Hawaiian language was not made against the language in general. People were still allowed to speak Hawaiian on a daily basis. In fact, there were fourteen separate newspapers that were printed in Hawaiian. Notables are the Ka Lama Hawaii and Ke Kumu Hawaii, which began as early as 1834 and the Ka Nupepa Kuoka, which had a 66-year-run from 1861 to 1927.
In 1978, the Hawaiian language was recognized as the official language of the state of Hawaii. Federally funded language immersion programs began in 1989. Many students are choosing to study Hawaiian as their required language in college. Today, there are about 1,000 Native Hawaiian speakers plus over 8,000 people who can speak and understand the language fluently. It is a far cry from the original 500,000 Native Hawaiian speakers that were on the island during the time of Captain Cook, but it’s a good start at resurrecting a dying language. The numbers are continually growing.
