Need some help with 'Olelo Hawai'i

[AlaskaDave]

Aloha!

I'm a graduate student in Linguistic Anthropology at University of Alaska Fairbanks. I study dying and endangered languages, and my main interest is with Polynesian languages. I speak a fair number of languages competently, and have been teaching myself Hawaiian for maybe 8 or 9 months now. I speak Tagalog and some Maori (distantly related languages) and travel to Hawai'i every year and have purchased some great language learning books down there (will be applying to UHM for my PhD).

However, I was wondering if there was anyone on this board (Mamo?) that would'nt mind helping work some stuff out. Being a linguist, I tend to have a good amount of questions that someone who speaks the language could answer for me quite easily.

So if anyone wouldnt mind kindly helping me, I'd be greatful!

Ma Hawai'i ku'u pu'uwai!

[Nero]

I don't know much hawaiian, but it's good that you already know Maori. If you just change the Hawaiian consonants ( glottal stop -> k, k-t, l->r) you'll usually get a Maori word from the Hawaiian one - and vice versa.

'A'ole -> Kaore, for example. Both mean the same thing

Hele au ki ka moana -> Haere au ki te moana

Et cetera.

[AlaskaDave]

Thanks for the reply mate!

I have noticed that, as well, although "ki" in your Hawaiian example should be "i"

My Maori isn't so hot, but I speak a pretty good amount of Hawaiian, probably a second year collegiate amount. Perhaps I will just PM Mamo or one of the other kumu - seems like somewhat of a quiet forum!

[kahihi'o]

If you have any questions, I check in here every once in a while. I'm not a very active member, but I'll help with what I can when I have spare time.