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- Topic: Hawaiian >
- "ʻO wai kona inoa?"
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In english, plural pronouns are sometimes used as gender neutral singular pronouns:
1) When the gender is unknown:
e.g.
Q: Where is Alex?
listener does not know/is not sure whether Alex is male or female.
A: They (=he/she) are at the park.
2) When something applies to both genders:
e.g.
They (=he/she) should earn their (=his or her) own money.
Can you give them (=him/her) their (=his/her) money.
There is a lot of debate on this usage of the plural pronouns.
The use of their as a gender neutral singular third person possessive is colloquial. Standard English would still be to use his or her. That said, when teaching the basics of a language giving their which is typically considered a plural possessive instead of his/her as the corresponding singular possessive would confuse learners, particularly non-native English speakers.
I believe it to be best to leave the possible answers as What is her name? & What is his name? Native speakers could easily understand the implication of the natural ambiguity of the word kona and its upcoming pair käna in regards to the use of their.
The words 'ō and 'o ( 'O ) are different. A sentence in Hawaiian cannot start with a definite noun or article or name alone.
Before the interrogative pronoun wai, before names like Keoki, before definite nouns like ke keiki for example, you need to start the sentence with 'O. It has no meaning in English.
This particle is common in Polynesian languages.