"My name is Kaʻiulani."
Translation:ʻO Kaʻiulani koʻu inoa.
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Itʻs hard to represent Hawaiian sounds without using the international phonetic alphabet. Hereʻs a rough equivalent.
- a = father
- i = eat
- o = nope
- u = rude
The okina (looks like an apostrophe) is a quick break in your voice, like when saying "uh-oh". When an okina is placed in front of a vowel, you start pronouncing it abruptly (like the -oh in uh-oh).
ʻO Kaʻiulani koʻu inoa = -oh Kah-iyulanee koh-u eenoah
I tried "'O ko'u inoa 'o Ka'iulani" because that is the sentence order DL gave me (My name is ...). I thought 'O has to precede the subject noun with or without a possessive (ko'u). Can someone say if my sentence actually wrong, or simply not the preferred format? Mahalo.
The writers are Kamehameha schools teachers, Ekela Kaniaupio-Crozier who also did the Kulaiwi video series from the 1990s, and others. I would think there are no teachers of Hawaiian language who teach a person to say his or her name in Hawaiian as Ka‘iulani ko'u inoa instead of ‘O Kaiulani ko‘u inoa.