Last year we launched a mobile interface for the Hawaiian dictionaries on Ulukau. The system should detect all mobile devices automatically, and for those that it doesn’t, you can simply go to m.wehewehe.org to see the mobile interface. The one limitation of this system is for Android users: Android’s default font does not have a glyph in the correct location, so Android users see a box instead of the ‘okina. We’ve looked into fixing this, but found that it would be costly to do the recoding necessary to make this work under Ulukau as it currently stands. I have been…
Hawaiian Language Support in Windows 7
This document shows which fonts on Win 7 have the ‘okina and kahakō characters used in Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages. You’ll find that only the following Windows 7 fonts have the ‘okina and all vowel-kahakō characters (at least in the standard install on our Dell): Arial, Arial Unicode MS, Calibri, Cambria, Cambria Math, Consolas, Courier New, Lucida Sans Unicode, Meiryo, Meiryo UI, Microsoft Sans Serif, Segoe UI,Segoe UI Light, Segoe UI Semibold, Tahoma, and Times New Roman Some others have some or all of the vowel-macron characters, but not all. Some fonts have none at all. This document is…
Hilo Heart Walk 2011
Yesterday Marie and I joined several hundred individuals at the Hilo Heart Walk–a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. About 30 of the walkers were from Team 365 in 2011–a group started by our friend Liana Honda. The goal of the group is to walk at least 365 miles this year. Having a group of supportive individuals–some of whom I met for the first time yesterday–is incredible motivation. That and the fact that I found a great workout tracking app for my Droid X called CardioTrainer has made a huge different. CardioTracker clocks your miles for you, keeps track of…
Hacked! Argh!!!
Last week I got a call from my ISP that my WordPress install had been hacked. I feel so exposed. Unfortunately I didn’t live up to my mantra of “backup, backup, and backup again” when it came to the blog, and my ISP’s oldest backup was done after the hack and been done. I’ve restored the blog back to last summer, but everything else is lost. I may have some of the old articles saved as text files on my hard drive and will post them as I find them. Thanks to Mark at Pacific Pro-Tech Services for all the…
Handy Font Utilities for Indigenous Language Use
I’ll probably create a page for these things I come across, but am still trying to figure out the best way to approach organizing this website. I’m frequently find myself lamenting that I don’t have a system for easily determining what default fonts on Mac OS support Hawaiian. I know a few off the top of my head – Lucida Grande, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Palatino, Courier, Didot – but not all. This is complicated by the fact that some fonts have most of the vowel kahakō combinations but not the ‘okina. A few have the ‘okina but not the vowel kahakō…
Apple Fonts With ‘Okina and Kahakō
I got tired of trying to remember every font that does and does not have the ‘okina and/or kahakō in it, so using the Apple Font Tools I came up with a spreadsheet that shows which fonts have which characters. It’s available for download at scribd.com. As always, there is no guarantee or tech support offered. Please don’t email asking why you don’t have a particular font on your system. Perhaps it’s just bad luck. Hopefully someday Apple will add all of these characters to all of the fonts that ship with OS X. Or OS XI, or… Apple Fonts…
Leokī Users: FirstClass app for iPhone/iPad/iTouch!
This is pretty cool. We’ve been using FirstClass software for the past 17 or so years to operate Leokī, which was the first telecommunications server to ever operate completely in a Polynesian or native language within the United States. It took them ages to get Unicode support into it, and just recently they released a FirstClass app for iPhone/iPad/iTouch. It seems to work flawlessly, handling the ‘okina and kahakō with no issues. I love it when a plan comes together. Unfortunately the app is not localized into Hawaiian like we’ve done for Macintosh and Windows users, but, hey, it’s a…
How To Give Good ‘Okina
How To Give Good ‘Okina I’ve been asked this question so many times I decided it was time to write an article about it. The question (and its many variations) boil down to this: “What is the ‘okina, why do I need to use it in my web pages, what is the right character to use, what fonts should I use, what should I do if the font I want to use doesn’t have that character, and what other issues are involved in using it?” Read on for the answers to these questions…
The College of Hawaiian Language Urgently Needs Your Support
Aloha kākou. This legislative session the state legislature is considering a bill which will provide funding for the construction of a new building on the UH-Hilo campus to house Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language. Currently staff and faculty of the college are spread out over three locations on the UHH campus, making it difficult sometimes for students to even locate their teachers. And we have only a single classroom dedicated for our exclusive use; every semester we must compete with other programs for adequate classrooms in which to teach our classes. Well all know the importance…
Technology In The Hawaiian Language Revitalization Movement
I was honored to be asked to speak to the Big Island Internet Society’s meeting yesterday, and was asked to put together a list of links to pages and articles that provided more information on these topics. So here are a few: Wired Magazine artice on our early efforts to establish Leokī Kualono – website of Ka Haka ‘Ula College of Hawaiian Language Ulukau– the Hawaiian Digital Library ‘Aha Pūnana Leo’s Niuolahiki online class website Unicode and Hawaiian Language ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i – A Rich Oral History, A Bright Digital Future – Article from Cultural Survival Quarterly Leokī: A Powerful Voice…