“An Irish-speaking school has reportedly joined the list of the top-10 feeder schools for Trinity College Dublin ahead of some of Ireland’s best-known fee-paying institutions.” This is similar to our experience. Nearly every 12th grade student that has graduated from our laboratory immersions school, Ke Kula ‘O Nawahiokalani’opu’u has been concurrently enrolled in university classes during their senior year in high school, and a very high percentage (in the 90% range) has continued into college. We heard critics for years telling us that our children would not be able to function in college if they received their elementary and secondary…
When are people going to learn that it is not ‘finders-keepers’ when it comes to Hawaiian remains and relics?
An Orange County man agreed to plead guilty to trying to sell a Hawaiian skull over the Internet.
A hui hou e Alana…
I did my last regular appearance on Alana I Kai Hikina last night, but may return periodically as a guest or part-time DJ. Alana founder Makela Bruno-Kidani has returned from a few months off, allowing me to enjoy my Sunday evenings at home again. I’ll miss the comradery, though.
3rd Annual Hawai’i International Conference On Arts & Humanities.
I’ll be presenting at this conference on Thursday with my colleague Kiele Akana-Gooch. We’ll be discussing the development of the Ulukau Hawaiian Language Digital Library project, which seems to grow each day in breadth and depth.
Idiots and cowards, to boot.
Honolulu Police are looking for the person(s) responsible for setting off an improvised explosive device on New Year’s evening that severely injured an 11-year old girl. The suspects in the case have hired lawyers and refused to cooperate with police. I saw a TV interview with the girl and it was heart-wrenching.
And I used to like John McCain.
He says that he will oppose legislation that would allow Native Hawaiians to seek federal recognition, and claims that “when Hawai’i became a state there was an implicit agreement at that time that Native Hawaiians would not receive the same status as Native Americans.” Bullshit. Did Native Hawaiians agree to that? How exactly was it implied to them, Senator? Was it also implied to native Alaskans when Alaska was admitted as a state, just prior to Hawai’i?
Language Log reports Dr. James McCloskey’s reaction to the rebounding of Irish.
His observation of Irish gaining strength among second language learners (such as myself) but shrinking in the Gaeltacht is similar to our situation with Hawaiian, through we have only one “Gaeltacht” – the Ni’ihau community. I read and enjoyed Dr. McCloskey‘s book “Voices Silenced – Has Irish a Future?” An extract from his book is available online. I can add my own observations after spending three weeks in Glenn Colm Cille, Co. Donagal. My wife and I did not observe any younger people using Irish few women in their early 20s who worked at Oideas Gael, either for the school…
Bringing Back A Lost Language
[ From the San Jose Mercury, registration required ] With help from linguists, the decendants of the last speaker of Chochenyo are trying to revive the language, and our looking toward our efforts to revitalize Hawaiian for inspiration.
Language Log is a quite entertaining and informative collaborative blog on languages.
It includes a number of of great language blog links that will keep me busy over the Christmas holiday. There was an interesting post that discussed spelling mistakes in a recent article about our college. I’m curious regarding their use of the word “Hawai’ian” for Hawaiian, and emailed our thinking on the the issue. First, Hawaiian words cannot end in consonants, so it’s not a Hawaiian word. As far as I know the glottal is not written in English, so I don’t believe it is an accurate spelling for an English word, either. I don’t know any Hawaiian language instructor…
Inaugural Hawaiian Grammy Finalists.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Scienes has announced the finalists for the 2005 Grammy Awards, and it includes the finalists for the first ever “Hawaiian Grammy.” Nothing really surprise, though a bit of disappointment at the failure of a few outstanding releases to make the cut. More to come on NahenaheNet.