I was just wondering if anyone knows how the word onaona is commonly pronounced when speaking 'olelo? In singing, I have heard both pronunciations depending on the meter of the mele.
I had a long conversation with Kihei de Silva about this. He said for a while the trend was that"oh-now-na" was the true, correct and proper way to pronounce the word. But then research showed that true kupuna who were native language speakers frequently pronounced it as "ona-ona" and the trend was heading back toward leaving it alone and not tsk tsking if it was pronounced "ona-ona". The caveat is that sometimes academicians in their overzealousness may sometimes go by the "book" when it is best sometimes to go by the spoken word.
I had a long conversation with Kihei de Silva about this. He said for a while the trend was that"oh-now-na" was the true, correct and proper way to pronounce the word. But then research showed that true kupuna who were native language speakers frequently pronounced it as "ona-ona" and the trend was heading back toward leaving it alone and not tsk tsking if it was pronounced "ona-ona". The caveat is that sometimes academicians in their overzealousness may sometimes go by the "book" when it is best sometimes to go by the spoken word.
Is it o-na-o-na or o-nao-na?
Posted - 10/23/2010 : 08:28:58 AM
