Syllables
Every Hawaiian syllable ends in a vowel sound. A Hawaiian syllable never contains more than one consonant. That means every consonant goes with the vowel that follows it. Every vowel not preceded by a consonant stands alone when you break a written word into syllables (you may smooth some of them together when you speak). For example:
“Aa” consists of the two syllables a-a (it’s a kind of lava flow that’s very rough and jagged).
“Kapoho” consists of the three syllables Ka-po-ho (a village destroyed by Kilauea’s 1960 eruption).
“Naalehu” consists of the four syllables Na-a-le-hu (not just the southernmost town on the Big Island but the southernmost town in the fifty states).
“Pahoehoe” consists of the five syllables pa-ho-e-ho-e (except that it’s usually pronounced “pa-hoi-hoi”; it’s another kind of lava flow, much smoother than aa).
“Kealakekua” consists of the six syllables Ke-a-la-ke-ku-a (the bay on the Big Island where Captain Cook was slain).
“Liliuokalani” consists of the seven syllables Li-li-u-o-ka-la-ni (Hawaii’s last monarch and writer of the beloved song “Aloha Oe”).
Accent
In general, the accent falls on the next-to-last syllable for words with three or more syllables and on the first syllable for words of two syllables. For words of more than three syllables, you put a little stress on every other syllable preceding the accented one. Don’t worry about this; it seems to come naturally.
There are common-usage exceptions, such as makai (ma-KAI, with the accent on the last syllable). When you see exceptions such as those, chances are that what has happened is that European usage has fully merged two sounds into one. Proper Hawaiian pronunciation of makai would be closer to “ma-KA-i,” a three-syllable word with the last two syllables almost merging.
Hint for Longer Words: Repetition and Rhythm
Have you noticed the tendency in long Hawaiian words for groups of letters to repeat? That kind of repetition is fairly common. When you see a long Hawaiian word, don’t panic. Identify its repeating letter groups, figure out how to pronounce them individually, then put the whole word together. Chances are you’ll come pretty close to getting it correct.
For example, Mokuaweoweo might throw you (it’s the huge caldera at the summit of Mauna Loa, one of the five volcanoes that make up the Big Island). But look at the repeating letter group weo (way-o). See the word as “Mokua/weo/weo.” So, two “weo”s prefixed with a “Mokua”—that makes “Mo-ku-a-way-o-way-o.” Once you’ve identified the repeating groups, the rhythm of the word comes naturally. Try this approach for longer words, including the state fish: humuhumunukunukuapuaa: two “hu-mu”s, two “nu-ku”s, and an “a-pu-a-a.” Now try it: “hu-mu/hu-mu/nu-ku/nu-ku/a-pu-a-a.” Very good!
Makai and mauka
In Hawaii, local people often give directions or describe the location of a place as makai (merge the ai), which means “toward the sea,” or mauka (merge the au), which means “toward the mountains; inland.” I had a terrible time remembering which was which until I came up with this mnemonic:
Go makai
Where sea meets sky,
and Tom Winnett came up with:
Mauka is toward the MAUntains.
However, I still think in terms of left, right, north, south, east, and west. I don’t often use mauka and makai in this book.
Do your best, with respect
Approach the language with respect, and give it your best shot. Then be prepared to hear local people pronounce it differently. Learn from them. Maybe it’s part of our jobs as visitors to inadvertently provide a little comic relief for those living and working here as opposed to just vacationing here.
Instant Hawaiian (see Bibliography) is a useful booklet that’s a lot less frivolous than its title implies. It begins, “So you’d like to learn to speak Hawaiian—you should live so long!” I felt I’d come to the right place. Look for it when you get to Hawaii.
Hapuna Beach State Park
Geology and History, Natural and Human
First, the earth
According to the theory of plate tectonics, the earth consists of:
A rigid, rocky outer shell, the lithosphere (“rocky zone”)
Beneath the lithosphere, a hot, semifluid layer, the asthenosphere (“weak zone”)
A core that doesn’t play a part in this oversimplified discussion
The lithosphere is broken into plates that move with respect to one another. Hot, fluid material, possibly from the asthenosphere or melted by contact with the asthenosphere, penetrates up through the lithosphere at three kinds of places:
Mid-oceanic ridges, where plates spread apart
Subduction zones, where plates collide and one dives under the other (subducts)
Hot spots, where a plume of molten material appears in the middle of a plate
Next, the land
It’s believed that the Hawaiian Islands exist where the Pacific Plate, on which they ride, is moving northwest across a hot spot. An undersea volcano is built at the place where the plate is over the hot spot. If the volcano gets big enough, it breaks the ocean’s surface to become an island. Eventually, the plate’s movement carries the island far enough away from the hot spot that volcanism ceases on that island. Erosion, which begins the moment the new island appears above the sea, tears the land down.
The Hawaiian Islands are successively older toward the northwest and younger toward the southeast. Northwestern islands, like Necker, are hardly more than bits of volcanic rock now. Southeastern islands, including the major Hawaiian Islands, are still significant chunks of land. Kauai and Niihau are the oldest and the farthest northwest of the major islands. The Big Island of Hawaii is the youngest and the farthest southeast of the major islands. Southeast of the Big Island, Loihi Seamount is a growing volcano far beneath the ocean. In a few thousand years, Loihi may be the newest Hawaiian island.
The molten material—lava—characteristic of Hawaiian volcanoes is relatively fluid. The fluidity of the lava allows it to spread widely, and repeated eruptions produce broad-based, rounded volcanoes called shield volcanoes. The volcano expels not only flowing lava but volcanic fragments such as cinder and ash. Alternating layers of these materials build up during periods of volcanic activity.
Erosion has sculpted the exotic landscapes we associate with volcanic tropical islands. Waves pound the volcano’s edges, undercutting them and, where the volcano slopes more steeply, forming cliffs. Streams take material from higher on the volcano, cutting valleys into its flanks and depositing the material they carry as alluvium. Alluvial deposits form the floors of valleys like Waipio and Waimanu. New episodes of volcanism wholly or partly fill in those landscapes, and erosional forces immediately begin sculpting the new surface as well as the remaining older surface.
The Big Island is geologically an infant on an Earth more than four billion years old. Potassium-argon dating of rocks suggests that lava welled forth to build Kohala, the oldest of the island’s five or six volcanoes, beginning a little more than half a million years ago. Kohala is now extinct and is deeply eroded into spectacular valleys. Mauna Kea’s rocks overlie Kohala’s. Mauna Kea is old enough and high enough to bear the scars of glaciation during the height of the last ice age. Mauna Kea’s youngest-known lava flows are about 4,500 years old. Earthquakes still occur beneath Mauna Kea, so it’s considered dormant, not extinct. Hualalai volcano, on the west side of the Big Island,