Hawaiian

Ha·wai·ian

or Ha·wai'·ian H0088300 (hə-wä′yən)n.1. a. A Native Hawaiian.b. A native or inhabitant of the Hawaiian Islands or the state of Hawaii.2. The Polynesian language of Hawaii.

Ha·wai′ian adj.

Hawaiian

(həˈwaɪən) adj1. (Placename) of or relating to Hawaii, its people, or their language2. (Peoples) of or relating to Hawaii, its people, or their language3. (Languages) of or relating to Hawaii, its people, or their languagen4. (Peoples) a native or inhabitant of Hawaii, esp one descended from Melanesian or Tahitian immigrants5. (Languages) a language of Hawaii belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian family

Ha•wai•ian

(həˈwaɪ ən, -ˈwɑ yən)

n. 1. a. a member of the Polynesian people who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands. b. the Austronesian language of this people. 2. any native or inhabitant of the Hawaiian Islands. adj. 3. of or pertaining to the Hawaiian Islands, their inhabitants, or the language Hawaiian. [1815–25]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Hawaiian - the Oceanic languages spoken on HawaiiEastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic - an eastern subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian languagesAloha State, Hawaii, Hawai'i, HI - a state in the United States in the central Pacific on the Hawaiian Islands
	2.	Hawaiian - a native or resident of HawaiiAmerican - a native or inhabitant of the United StatesNative Hawaiian - a member or descendant of the indigenous Polynesian people who lived in the Hawaiian Islands
Adj.	1.	Hawaiian - of or relating to or characteristic of the state or island of Hawaii or to the people or culture or language

Translations

Hawaiian

Hawaiian,

member of the Polynesian group of the Austronesian family of languages. Of the fewer than 10,000 people who speak Hawaiian, only a few hundred are native speakers, but the language is taught in some Hawaiian schools and remains important as a symbol of ethnic identity. It also is an official language of the state of Hawaii. Proto-Polynesian, the parent language of Hawaiian, was spoken in W Polynesia c.1500–1200 B.C. Hawaiian bears significant phonological similarities to the other Polynesian languages; consonant and vowel correspondences among the languages is common. Hawaiian has five long and five short vowels and eight consonants. It differs from most of the other Polynesian languages by its lack of the consonant t, which became k in Hawaiian as it diverged from the parent language.

Hawaiian

the language of the Hawaiians, one of the Polynesian languages, which is spoken in the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiian was spoken by the entire population of the Hawaiian Islands until the beginning of heavy contact with the Europeans and North Americans (early 19th century). Hawaiian had a rich oral literary tradition which gradually began to disappear after the conversion of the population to Christianity (first half of the 19th century), although missionaries managed to transcribe much of it. In the first half of the 19th century the Roman alphabet was adapted to suit Hawaiian, and newspapers in Hawaiian were first published in 1834. After the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the USA in 1898, Hawaiian continued to be used by the ethnic group of Hawaiians, which consisted of the descendants of the earlier Polynesian population of the islands, among the prevailing majority of mixed-bloods (total population, approximately 115,000, according to a 1967 estimate). The Hawaiian language is used in everyday life, but many present-day Hawaiians now speak English.

REFERENCES

Blinov, A. I. “Iazyki polineziitsev.” In Narody Avstralii i Okeanii. Moscow, 1956.
Pukui, M. K., and S. H. Elbert. Hawaiian-English Dictionary. [Honolulu,] 1957. (With a brief grammatical sketch.)
Pukui, M. K., and S. H. Elbert. Place Names of Hawaii and Supplement to the Third Edition of the Hawaiian-English Dictionary. [Honolulu,] 1966.
Emerson, N. B. Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs of the Hula. Washington, 1909.

IU. KH. SIRK

Hawaiian

1. a native or inhabitant of Hawaii, esp one descended from Melanesian or Tahitian immigrants 2. a language of Hawaii belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian family

Hawaiian

Ha·wai·ian

Hawaiian

Ha•wai•ian

Hawaiian

Hawaiian,

Hawaiian

REFERENCES

Hawaiian

Hawaiian

Words related to Hawaiian

noun the Oceanic languages spoken on Hawaii

Related Words

noun a native or resident of Hawaii

Related Words