Did You Know?

He mau ho‘olaha kēia i hana ‘ia e ka Hale Kuamo‘o me ke kāko‘o o ka ‘Aha Pūnana Leo. He mau waihona MP3 kēia.

These are radio announcements developed by the Hale Kuamo‘o with the assistance of the ‘Aha Punana Leo. They are in MP3 format.

There is no place else but Hawaiʻi where Hawaiian is spoken.

There are approximately 7,500 people learning the Hawaiian language today.

You bear both the good and bad consequences of the poem that you write.

At the beginning of this century, Hawaiians had a literacy rate higher than any other ethnic group in Hawaiʻi.

In 1896 Hawaiian was outlawed as a language of education by the Republic of Hawaiʻi.

There different Hawaiian words for the same thing.

There are more than 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

Do you know what the kahakō (macron) does?

There is more work to be done in the Hawaiian language than there are people who qualified to do this work.

Lahainaluna was the first high school west of the Mississippi.

Hawaiian was the first indigenous language to have its own bulletin board service and World Wide Web server in its own language.

It was not the first missionaries in Hawai'i who first preached the gospel in Hawaiian.

There are more written stories about old Hawai' i than there are stories about old England, such as Beowulf.

Many famous books have been translated into Hawaiian, such as Ivanhoe, Moby Dick, and Charlotte's Web.

Niʻihau is the only island where Hawaiian is spoken by all of its inhabitants.

More than 50 different newspapers were printed in Hawaiian before the turn of the last century.

Do you know what the 'okina is for?

Hawaiian is an official language of the State of Hawai'i, along with English.

Some families have started to use Hawaiian as the language of the home.

Some businesses have begun to use Hawaiian, and checks written in Hawaiian are being accepted by most banks.

Before there was Pidgin English, there was Pigin Hawaiian.

The state Department of Education established a school program called the Papahana Kaiapuni Hawai'i where students are taught through the Hawaiian language.

The first Punana Leo preschool was opened in Kekaha, Kaua'i in 1984.

Some Hawaiian chants were very long, such as the kumulipo.

Hawaiian is a Polynesian language, like Samoan, Tongan, and Maori.

The letters H and K are pronounced differently among native speakers.

Some Hawaiian words may be pronounced differently in different areas.

The pronunciation of words in chants are frequently changed.