The other is extended, in written form, where a horizontal bar called a kahako is over the vowel. One is regular, where the vowel is pronounced as a Spaniard would say it. There are two forms of each of the five vowels. Most linguists, however, think it is because of internal phonological processes. Some think that final vowels helped the speakers remember chanted traditional stories and genealogies. There are some who think that makes the language sound "musical". People who live on that island are the only people who still speak Hawaiian only and their dialect is the truest to its roots.Įvery Hawaiian syllable ends with a vowel. The Ni ʻihau dialect still uses some T, S, R and "hints" of B sounds. The ʻokina is written as a backward apostrophe (small numeral 6 above and before a vowel). The ʻokina is pronounced as a glottal stop, like the break in the middle of the word "Uh-oh". The ʻokina is a real letter and came from some "K" sounds in old Polynesian languages. The language has only 12 letters (A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W). However, native speakers of all these languages can still understand each other. Their languages have changed a lot over the last two thousand years or so. There are related languages in the Marquesas, Raratonga, Samoa, some islands of what is now Fiji and New Zealand.
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