`okina

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hindupridemn
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`okina

Postby hindupridemn » 2013-04-19, 4:03

Why do some texts omit the `okina? It's really annoying once you know it has its own sound.

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ILuvEire
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Re: `okina

Postby ILuvEire » 2013-05-14, 4:49

From what I understand, in the earlier days of the Hawaiian language being written they would semi-frequently drop the ‘okina and the kahakō because it was easier to typeset and it stuck. What publications are you finding that are doing this? Because I've only really encountered it when talking to speakers who can't/don't know how to input the diacritics from their keyboard or in newspapers from the early 20th century (but then again, basically anything I read in Hawaiian comes from Ulukau, I don't have the widest range).
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kahihi'o
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Re: `okina

Postby kahihi'o » 2013-05-28, 7:52

Yes, older texts omitted the ʻokina in most situations. Including the ʻokina and kahakō in written text is a recent innovation, and is particularly helpful when starting to learn the language. As your vocabulary grows, you will find that you know how words are pronounced without the markings, and that, through context, you can differentiate words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and mean different things. In my opinion, it is faster to write without the ʻokina and kahakō. I use the ʻokina only to differentiate between koʻu/kaʻu/oʻu/aʻu (first person singular possessive pronouns) and kou/kāu/ou/āu (second person singular possessive pronouns).
I nui ke aho a moe i ke kai, no ke kai kā hoʻi ua ʻāina.


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