I am stumped. Lately I have seen words with the ` (okina) attached to them. Take Ma`ili for instance. When I was growing up it was Maili. Did we get lazy with the correct pronunciation and enunciation?
So, I grew up in Kaimuki. However, I see Ka`imuki and Ka`imu ki. Which is correct...
Gary already axed. It is as always been Māʻili. Street and place names were always misspelled until the language department lobbied for and got the city and state to spell Hawaiian with all the marks in the words to help pronunciation. These marks are relatively new though and have been carefully considered for use by many of the language instructors of the day. I could venture to say that Emily Hawkins as president of ʻAhahui ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi made many recommendations toward standard spelling of Hawaiian words. One may peruse the Elbert/Pukui dictionary for spelling of words.
Hawaiian spelling
Posted - 12/17/2010 : 7:59:49 PM
