Hawaiian Influence on English

[javawizard]

Do you know any expressions that came from Hawaii, which are
interesting additions to the English language? I'm think of things
like "You want beef?" or "Howsit?" but better. Anything good I'll be
glad to add to www.clip-text.com
Thanks,
- Jeff

[Keith]

I was working and was almost finished and my boss looked at me and said
.
pau? go help dakine with dakine!
.
I latter learned he was asking me if im done and that I should help
whats his face with what he is working on
.

[Keith]

also the use of the word one
.
like hey bra just bought ONE pineapple
.
the word One has very little to do with the quanity
.
the responce may be ... really how many did you get?

[Lawrence Akutagawa]

Well, there Hawaiian words that many non-Hawaiians know. Here's brief list
to get started, to which you can probably add -

Hawaii
Oahu
Maui
Kauai
Aloha
Hula
Luau
Lei
Ukulele
Kilauea
Mauna Kea
Honolulu

[Leon R Livingston]

Hey, you don't have to explain.

[-]

[art...@gmail.com]

Isn't WIKIpedia from WIKI WIKI?

[Niu-boy]

I see that someone has already mentioned "wiki" from Wikipedia which
is from the hawaiian wikiwiki which means fast or quick.
Other hawaiian (or polynesian) words that have made their way into the
standard english lexicon include:
1. Taboo
2. Tattoo

Anyone know of any others?

Niu-boy
All my alohas have been sanitized for your protection...

[Niu-boy]

On Aug 4, 6:08 pm, "Lawrence Akutagawa" <lakuNOS...@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

Hi Larry,

I'll add to the list:
puka
Lani
poi
ahi
pali
Pele

Many native English speakers know these and other common Hawaiian
words, but they can't be said to be in the standard lexicon as they
are acknowledged to be non-English words to begin with. Only three
words, to my knowledge, have been so accepted: taro, taboo and tatoo.
Wiki comes close, but still seems too exotic to be standard English.
The haunting strains of the "Wiki Wacky Hula" still resonate that
point. For a while I thought that the word lava was one, but it seems
to have originated from a European source, according to the
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1).

All my best,

[Niu-boy]

Keith,
Sorry, but get ONE disagreement with you on this one. I think the use
of the word "one" in this case is as a definite article and should be
better translated as "a" in standard English as in, "Hey, Bro, I just
bought A pineapple." The definite article does deal with quantity
insomuch as it indicates ONE of a particular thing, such as one
pineapple. I suspect that from early on, Hawaiian speakers confused
the definte article A with the singular quantity ONE and it just stuck
as part of the "dialect". While the grammatical construction sounds
foreign to a standard English speaker, it is still very
understandable.

Best regards,

[Niu-boy]

A pidgin speaker would probably say, "You like beef?" rather than "You
want beef?". Howzit is a good one. "What? I owe you money?" when
someone is looking at you is another one. "Wassamatta you?" is
another favorite. There is an old joke from the days when automobiles
were first introduced to Hawaii that goes something like this: Two
drivers crash into each other at an intersection. The first driver
gets out of his vehicle hopping mad, storms over to the other driver
and, pointing at the damage to his vehicle, says, "Wassamatta you?" To
which the second driver replies, "Wassamatta you wassamatta me. You
wassamatta!" Pidgin, if nothing else, is a very economical way of
talking. It's also hecka funny. When I first read the Peppo books I
about busted my guts laughing. One of my all-time favorites:
"Charleen, going go?" It says it all, yeah? When I was a kid my
cousins from Kalihi side could only speak pidgin.
My mother was a stickler for the King's English, as she called it, so
we spoke standard English at home, but I had plenty of practice
speaking pidgin on the outside especially with my cousins. We had
lots of good times back then.

[Keith]

I lived in Hawaii in the 80's I worked for Mid Pacific Airlines before
they went bankrupt forcing me to return to the mainland
.
I am as white as they come but I love hawaii and I want to move back and
do everything I can to blend in and be excepted as a friend in your
opinion would trying to speak like the local's be a good thing or will
it just make me look like a fool
.
I presently live in south florida and I see people from new york coming
here and trying to change florida to be more like new york so I know how
rude and annoying that can be .
.
My goal is to adapt to the ways of the hawaiian islands
and be a kamaina <--- I hope I spelled that right rather than a %^&*
haole <---
mahalo I now return you to your discussion on hawaiian words in the main
stream

[Dan Birchall]

javaw...@aol.com (javawizard) wrote:
> Do you know any expressions that came from Hawaii, which are
> interesting additions to the English language? I'm think of things
> like "You want beef?" or "Howsit?" but better.

Not expressions per se, but the Hawaiian words "a'a" and "pahoehoe"
are used internationally as terms for the two main types of lava. So
if you're talking about pahoehoe lava in English, it's "pahoehoe" and
in Spanish it's "pahoehoe" and in French it's "pahoehoe" and in German
it's "pahoehoe" and so on. :)

--

[Alohacyberian]

"Dan Birchall" <nob...@imaginary-host.danbirchall.com> wrote in message
news:slrngu80q3...@my-286.westell.com...

> Yep, named after the shuttles at Honolulu airport. (Really.)
>

Shoots! "Wikiwiki" means quick. Dakine slangs are da bomb. Sit on da
Lanai at your hale with your ohana and teenk about it. You'll teenk of
choke examples before you're pau. KM
--
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