"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
thanks! i've been having a hard time pronouncing the okina when it's at the beginning of words, and that is helpful ! :)
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.
It is grammatically correct, but if you have a proper name or pronoun, that usually goes first in an 'O... sentence.
You would not say Kaiulani au. If anything you could say ‘O Ka‘iulani au which means I am Ka‘iulani. Nevertheless, usage of the words ko‘u inoa (my name) increases vocabulary and helps delineate the o-class vs a-class possessives.
I don't know what Hawaiian teachers wrote this. But i have never said O' before my name
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.
Can you explain what the "O" means or how it helps? Not trying to challenge, just understand.
In this case the word ‘O is used in a verbless sentence to start the sentence before a definite noun (the, this, my, etc.) or a proper noun. It has no meaning in English, but it is needed.
There is no pronoun in both the English and Hawaiian. There is the possessive adjective, though. ko'u = my
