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- "ʻO wai kou inoa?"
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In previous examples, it seemed like the Hawaiian "w" is pronounced like the German "w" or English "v".
However, this sounded more like an English "w" to me. Am I mishearing this or does the Hawaiian "w" make more than one sound?
From what I understand "w" can be pronounced either way and it doesn't really matter which way you pronounce it.
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I understand it depends on the vowel after it. A after W makes W sound like V, for example.
This is correct. However, /a/ is the vowel which makes 'w' sound like /w/ whereas other vowels give it more of a /v/ sound. "Hawai'i", for example, is typically pronounced with /w/.
It's a little more advanced, but Hawaiian has 2 classes of words A class and O class... O class are things you were born with and have no control over, your name, mother, father, etc. Also things you go into or ride, like a car, canoe, clothes, etc. A class is everything else... So depending on the subject, kāu is used like kou and kaʻu is used like koʻu and kāna is used like kona... I don't expect to see this in these early lessons though...
That sounds really interesting! I hope the course gets into that at some point down-the-line :)
You also say "who is your name?" In indonesian (nama kamu siapa?). Using "what" will sound impolite & confrontational. Idk if that's also the case in hawaiian
One of the form of "You" in indonesian = "kau". Which sometimes pronounced as "kou" in spoken indonesian.
The similarities don't end there. Indonesian also use "who" to ask someone's name. "Nama kamu siapa?" = Who is your name (lit.)
No, because the word "inoa" is in there which means "name". But I think if you just said "'O wai kou" then that would be like saying "Who/what are you"
In another Austronesian langauge (Indonesian) "Your" is "Kau"...
