Love affair with
By Msgr.Charles Kekumano
the Hawaiian languageMY grandfather was full-blooded Hawaiian, with a tremendous respect for everything that was Hawaiian. I remember, for example, when I was 5 years old. My cousins and I were taken to Kona to visit our great-grandmother. But we were schooled before we left Honolulu by our grandfather as to how to address her in Hawaiian. We learned a few expressions to say to her very politely and with respect.
So very early in my life, I was very interested in Hawaiian words -- the way you used them and the differences of speaking to someone who's of the family, someone your own age, someone who has earned respect, and so forth.
The Hawaiian vocabulary is so limited. It has only 12 letters and, therefore, it's the shortest alphabet in the world. The possible combinations are very limited.
I guess it would be more correct to describe the Hawaiian language more as a notional language.
There is no word for coffee cup. There is no word for drinking glass. But you have a container for drinking, so they do it by circumlocution. And when you do it by circumlocution, it opens up various possibilities -- what words you would use under certain circumstances.
For example, is it your grandmother's favorite coffee cup as distinguished from a new coffee cup on the shelf?
My grandmother spoke Hawaiian. In fact, the elders spoke Hawaiian only among themselves when they didn't want the children or grandchildren to know what they were talking about.
Consequently, we never learned conversational Hawaiian as children, but I enjoyed the pronunciations and the flow of Hawaiian words. To this day, I recall the way my grandmother said certain words or what words she used with regard to certain individuals.
I remember being over in Kona. The two Aiu sisters had this little shop in their home. They sold lauhala things and other knick-knacks.
In those days, the early 1950s, the tourist population was not that heavy in Kona. But nevertheless, I was visiting them one day and, at noontime, we were sitting out on the porch talking.
A tourist lady from Iowa or Nebraska or wherever came down the street from the Kona Inn dressed in a bikini.
She came onto the property -- right in front of us -- picked quite a few plumerias from the tree, put them in her hair, turned around without a word and walked to the Catholic church next door.
There must have been four, five or six of us sitting there, but none of us said a word. Complete silence.
After a little while, one of the older ladies said, "Mahaoi," which is the Hawaiian word for cheeky, brassy, bold. That's all that was said.
Nobody agreed with her. Nobody dissented. Nothing was said again for several more minutes, which was typically Hawaiian.
That one word covered the whole thing and it was not said to the tourist herself.
There was no confrontation. They didn't scold her and didn't go into a long diatribe among themselves. But everybody understood just the one word.
That kind of thing is rarely seen these days. But once in a while, you do see it -- where the Hawaiians just have a word or two that says it all.
This excerpt is from a 1986 interview conducted by
Alice Sinesky with Monsignor Charles Kekumano for
the Watumull Foundation’s Oral History Project.
Governor Cayetano ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff
today in honor of Kekumano, who died Jan. 19 and whose
funeral services were scheduled to be held today at noon.
The community and spiritual leader was 78.