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- "ka ʻai a i ʻole ka iʻa"
16 Comments
2024
I wondered about that, too. According to Wiktionary, ' ʻai ' just means any food that isn't fish, whereas poi in particular is indeed 'poi'.
2024
Thanks for this information. I don't have a proper Hawaiian dictionary; Wiktionary is pretty reliable for major languages, but less so for more minor ones.
It's interesting that a general word for food has acquired a more specific meaning—usually, this happens the other way round.
That is exactly the idea of how Duolingo approaches teaching languages. It's just like how children learn (with the exception of tips & notes).
Another good question. Poi is a food, a paste made from the pounded corm of the taro plant. Taro is a very important plant in Hawaiian culture. It is seen as the older sibling of the Hawaiian people, and nourishes us as an older sibling would. It is traditionally the staple crop, and because of this, the word "ʻai" which means food in general can also refer to taro or poi.