I was happy that my first peer-reviewed journal article (and first article of any type in several years) was published in Language Documentation and Conservation. I’ve had interactions with the National Foreign Language Resource Center at UH-Mānoa for many years, presented at their conferences, and have had a strong admiration for their work. The paper is entitled “Puana ‘Ia me ka ‘Oko‘a: A Comparative Analysis of Hawaiian Language Pronunciation as Spoken and Sung”, and it is a translation, distillation, and revision of my MA thesis, which was originally written in Hawaiian. It is a comparative analysis that uses recordings and…
Using ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i On Your Computer or Mobile Device
With the start of the school semester and the flow of questions coming in about the support available for ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i in various computer operating systems and mobile devices, this is a good time for me to pimp the ‘Ōlelo-Tech portion of my blog (see the menu under the masthead). There you’ll find links that describe the extent of keyboard, font and other support for Macintosh, iOS, Windows, and Android, as well as tricks to using ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i on the web and with Microsoft Word. As always, a caveat that I don’t provide tech support for any of these (unless…
Signs of ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i In The Universe
I always love running into fellow Hawaiian speakers that I haven’t met before. I often wondered how many times I’ve encountered a fellow kanaka ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, and we used English simply because we each didn’t know that the other could speak Hawaiian. I had an idea a few years ago to set up a directory of Hawaiian speakers in business so that we could seek out each other and know where we could go to order a coffee, get a hair cut, purchase a car, or just about anything using Hawaiian. I had just finished a meeting with folks from The…
Featured on Indigenous Tweets
Kevin Scannell have corresponded for many years in regards to issues that face indigenous and endangered languages and the use of technology in their revitalization. I was honored that he asked me to do this interview and talk about the work that I’ve done at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani over the years in regards to Hawaiian language and its use in technology. His website, Indigenous Tweets, keeps track of the use of various indigenous languages around the world.
MS Word Tweaks For Hawaiian
Have you ever had this happen to you when typing in Hawaiian: Nānā I ke kumu or Hawai‘I? By default, MS Word capitalizes any instances of a stand-alone “i”. You can fix this; read this to find out how.
Type ‘Okina and Kahakō in Android
I purchased a Droid X phone in July 2010 with the specific desire to see the Android operating system support Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages as iOS (iPhone/iPod/iPad) does. While Android may someday have native support for ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i like iOS, there is an interim solution to typing the ‘okina and kahakō on Android.
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…
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…