HISB94H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Austronesian Languages, Society Islands, Lexicostatistics
Document Summary
The hawaiian language takes its name from the largest island in the hawaiian state, hawaii (hawai i in the hawaiian language). The island name was first written in english in. 1778 by british explorer james cook and his crew members. Explorers mortimer (1791) and otto von kotzebue (1821) used that spelling. The initial "o" in the name is a reflection of the fact that hawaiian predicates unique identity by using a copula form, o, immediately before a proper noun. [11] thus, in hawaiian, the name of the island is expressed by saying o hawai i, which means "[this] is hawai i. The spelling "why" in the name reflects the [hw] pronunciation of wh in 18th-century english (still used in parts of the english-speaking world). "ee" in the name represents the sounds [hi], or [i]. Putting the parts together, o-why-(h)ee reflects [o-hwai-i], a reasonable approximation of the native pronunciation, [o h w i i].
