Seven constants: h, k, l, m, n, p, w and the vowels: a, e, i, o, u make up the Hawaiian alphabet. What could be easier? But there's a twist - Hawaiian along with several Polynesian languages, uses two diacritical marks to change the pronunciation and meaning of words.

The kahako is a macron, a short, horizontal line that is used over vowels. It indicates to the speaker to slightly draw out the sound of the vowel that it appears over. The final "o" in kahako has a macron above it.

The 'okina is the single, open quote that appears frequently before vowels. It indicates a glottal stop or clear break between vowels, such as in the english phrase "uh-oh".

The 'okina is easy to duplicate in type using the single apostrophe. But, when used on a website it can cause difficulty with Internet search tools. For example, a search on "Hawai'i" and "Hawaii" do not always return the same results. The macron is impossible to implement with current technology, except with downloadable fonts. But using these fonts would make our pages inaccessible to users without the latest graphic oriented browsers. So we have chosen to use the correct diacritical markings for all graphics, but are unable to use them in regular text.

Please use the following graphic as an introduction to the correct spelling of some of our plants, animals and places.


Hawaiian consonants are pronounced like they are in American English. The Hawaiian vowels are similar to the following:

A=Ah, like the A in "Another"
E= long A, like the A in "Ace"
I= long E, like the E in "Eagle"
O= standard O, like the O in "Ocean"
U=a short oo, like the U in "Tune"


Mahalo, for your understanding as we try to marry the Hawaiian language and current browser technology.