Hawaiian swear words and mothers
Harold Hindemith
Eddie in San Jose brought up the subject of swearing in Spanish.
In Spanish, Ebonics, Hindi, and undoubtedly in many other
languages, insults can involve sexual violation of a person's mother
or sister. (I imagine that in Arabic it's powerful enough to incite
murder.) But growing up in Hawaii, I never heard the equivalent
in any of the languages spoken there. And in Hawaiian, specifically,
I don't recall there being any insulting phrases which involved a
person's mother or sister. Is this really the case, or was I just not
exposed to enough spoken Hawaiian?
_HINDEMITH_
Alvin E. Toda
Harold, the English is so much more vivid. But as I
recall much of the sexual guilt stuff is foreign-- from
the missionaries.
I would guess even traditional words like "mahu" (for
effeminate homosexual ) could take one new meanings for
insults. But it still doesn't have the shock value of
the English obsenity. And I've also heard that the more
traditional term "aikane" for male-male sexual practice
has taken on the new meaning of friend in the present
day. I don't think there even was a traditional term
for homosexuality. Like both the Greeks and Romans,
I've read these ancient "sinful" Hawaiians were pretty
indesciminate. BTW, there was even once a disc jockey
who called himself an "aku-head". But it was more a
joke than an obsenity.
--alvin
Harold Hindemith
"Alvin E. Toda" mentioned:
> there was even once a disc jockey
> who called himself an "aku-head". But it was more a
> joke than an obsenity.
Oh, I forgot the "J." - Aku's full nom de jock was
"J. Aku Head Pupule". The J. didn't stand for
anything. Hal said it just sounded better.
He sometimes referred to himself as "Your
Uncle, J. Akooo" when introducing the Kiddies
Korner, a verbal reading of the comic strips
at 7:00 a.m. each weekday morning.
_HINDEMITH_
Lana
"Harold Hindemith" <HHind...@HotMail.com> wrote in message
news:1045639...@news.lava.net...
I dont know of any insulting words in Hawaiian probably because Hawaiians
dont think that way of their women. One word that I can think of is "momona"
but even then its use is not necessarily in a vulgar or disrespectful way
towards women. "Mane'o" is also another word which means "itchy (for men or
women respectively)" but even then its not directed towards a person's
mother or sister. Its probably because the mindset of Hawaiians is to
respect people, places, and things which transcends itself to our language.
Harold Hindemith
"Alvin E. Toda" wrote:
>
> Harold, the English is so much more vivid. But as I
> recall much of the sexual guilt stuff is foreign-- from
> the missionaries.
>
> I would guess even traditional words like "mahu" (for
> effeminate homosexual ) could take one new meanings for
> insults. But it still doesn't have the shock value of
> the English obsenity. And I've also heard that the more
> traditional term "aikane" for male-male sexual practice
> has taken on the new meaning of friend in the present
> day. I don't think there even was a traditional term
> for homosexuality. Like both the Greeks and Romans,
> I've read these ancient "sinful" Hawaiians were pretty
> indesciminate.
I guess you're right. Where there's no taboos (and thus
no guilt) about sex, sexual insults go pretty flat.
> BTW, there was even once a disc jockey
> who called himself an "aku-head". But it was more a
> joke than an obsenity.
"And now, the KIDdieeees, uh-KOrrrrNERRRR!" :-)
Hal Lewis named himself "Aku Head Pupule" after a
listener said he looked like an aku head (tuna fish head).
It was because his Jewish nose gave him (in profile)
that appearance, but I doubt that the listener knew the
ethnicity of Hal's nose. Although it was a mild insult, Hal
thought it was funny and adopted the moniker, adding
"Pupule" to "Aku Head". Hal had four kids, two
of whom still live in the Islands.
_HINDEMITH_
Eddie
On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 06:35:02 -0000, "Harold Hindemith"
<HHind...@HotMail.com> wrote:
>
>
> "And now, the KIDdieeees, uh-KOrrrrNERRRR!" :-)
> Hal Lewis named himself "Aku Head Pupule" after a
> listener said he looked like an aku head (tuna fish head).
> It was because his Jewish nose gave him (in profile)
> that appearance, but I doubt that the listener knew the
> ethnicity of Hal's nose. Although it was a mild insult, Hal
> thought it was funny and adopted the moniker, adding
> "Pupule" to "Aku Head". Hal had four kids, two
> of whom still live in the Islands.
When I was living there, I occasionally listened to his talk show, and
latter found out that he was the highest paid talk-show host in the
US. I think he was earning the princely sum of 200K per year. Not
bad for the early 70's.
Eddie
>
>
>_HINDEMITH_
>
>
Alvin E. Toda
On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Harold Hindemith wrote:
Wow, this is so nostalgic. I used to like the phone
calls he used to make all over the country. People in
the mainland used to think he was for real, simply
because he started his name with the "J".
--alvin
Alvin E. Toda
Unfortunately, IIRC it was reported that he did not
hear, or did not follow good financial advice, and his
money went to a number of risky ventures that went
bust. A free-spirit and colorful guy to the end.
--alvin
Harold Hindemith
"Alvin E. Toda" wrote re Hal Lewis, aka J. Aku Head Pupule:
> Unfortunately, IIRC it was reported that he did not
> hear, or did not follow good financial advice, and his
> money went to a number of risky ventures that went
> bust. A free-spirit and colorful guy to the end.
True. As successful as his career was, he did not
die a rich man. But colorful to the end, he died with
his well-known golfing hat on.
_HINDEMITH_
Smithfarms Pure Kona
On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 00:50:23 -0000, "Alvin E. Toda" <a...@lava.net>
wrote:
I remember him as " J. Akuhead Pupule" and iirc, he started the
"coconut wireless" term, or at least he said it often:0. He was a
great radio personality. aloha, Thunder
http://www.smithfarms.com
Farmers & Sellers of 100%
Kona Coffee & other Great Stuff!
Harold Hindemith
"Smithfarms Pure Kona" wrote:
> I remember him as " J. Akuhead Pupule" and iirc, he started the
> "coconut wireless" term, or at least he said it often:0. He was a
> great radio personality. aloha, Thunder
Hal Lewis also had a TV show for a while, and he was an active
golfer. His son Tracy lives in Hilo, I believe, and he owns an office
building there on the east side of town named The Tracy Lewis
Building.
_HINDEMITH_
Chuck Foy
Aloha,
Hal Lewis (aka J. Akuhead Pupule) was a great guy to work for. I was a
member of the show (Otis) in 1972-1973 along with 'Courteous Courtney'
Harrington (News & Traffic), and Agapito.
We had a great time working together - and I learned a great deal from
him.
Chuck Foy
aka 'Otis'
Smithfarms Pure Kona
Tracy used to be a realtor. Aku's wife (and not necessarily Tracy's
mother because I don't know) was the wonderful singer Emma Veary.
aloha from Kona
Alvin E. Toda
On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Harold Hindemith wrote:
> Hal Lewis also had a TV show for a while, and he
> was an active golfer. His son Tracy lives in Hilo, I
> believe, and he owns an office building there on the
> east side of town named The Tracy Lewis Building.
I once knew a Lewis. Never thought to ask her about the
connection. I guess his kids and grand kids don't look
Jewish anymore???
--alvin
Alvin E. Toda
On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Smithfarms Pure Kona wrote:
> I remember him as " J. Akuhead Pupule" and iirc, he
> started the "coconut wireless" term, or at least he
> said it often:0. He was a great radio personality.
> aloha, Thunder
>
> http://www.smithfarms.com
> Farmers & Sellers of 100%
> Kona Coffee & other Great Stuff!
I don't recall the "coconut wireless" until he came
along. What a wonderful and vivid way to describe our
local "grapevine"!
-- uncle al
Harold Hindemith
"Smithfarms Pure Kona" wrote:
> >
> Tracy used to be a realtor. Aku's wife (and not necessarily Tracy's
> mother because I don't know) was the wonderful singer Emma Veary.
The mother of Aku's kids moved back to San Francisco after their
divorce.
_HINDEMITH_
Harold Hindemith
"Alvin E. Toda" wrote:
> I once knew a Lewis. Never thought to ask her about the
> connection. I guess his kids and grand kids don't look
> Jewish anymore???
All 4 kids look/looked (one has died) Jewish. I haven't
seen the grandkids. The younger daughter, Randy,
started out as the dolphin trainer at the Kahala Hilton
and now lives on the mainland, still in dolphin training,
I believe.
_HINDEMITH_
Alvin E. Toda
I think Emma Veary and Aku made a wonderful couple. Too
bad they had no kids. But she had her own carreer too.
--alvin