January 17, 2004

• I’m going to give a brief lesson in the Hawaiian language, in hopes of helping people with pronouncing Hawaiian words found so much nowadays in the media.

  
  

  To start out with, the Hawaiians had no written language when the Spanish missionaries first came to ‘help’ the Hawaiian people into becoming ‘civilized’ & pushing them into Christianity. The Spanish language is the biggest influence on the written Hawaiian language. Therefore, those of you who have even a moderate understanding of the Spanish written text will easily grasp what I’m saying here.

  
  

  
  
  • There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet… a, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, u, w
    
  • ALL letters within a word are pronounced! This means if there are 2 o‘s together, both are pronounced separately, not as a new vowel sound as in English ‘ooh’
    
  • The pronunciation of the vowels are the same in Hawaiian as in Spanish… ah, aye, eee, oh, oooh
    
  • Sometimes, the ‘w’ is pronounced as a ‘v’, like in Ha’vai’ee (Hawaii)
    
  • Since there is NO ‘s’ in the Hawaiian language, the words used can mean singular OR plural, as in the word ‘lei’. They specify multiple by additional words in the phrase, such as ‘Mau’ meaning ‘many.’

  
  

  There are hundreds of rules for the Hawaiian language, for which there are excellent books available. Many Hawaiian/English dictionaries cover basic rules as well as providing correct pronunciation of the words, brief descriptions of the meanings & sample usage. Here’s an online one:  http://nahoahoa.olelo.hawaii.edu/~keola/php/search_dict.php

  
  

  Why do I go into all of this? Because so many have difficulty pronouncing my username, as well as mangling what it stands for. Pronounced peh-kah-kee, the word is the name of a very popular & fragrant flower here in Hawaii, used in making lei. It is a member of the jasmine family, native to India, & is the source of the jasmine teas & jasmine rice.

  
  

  Here’s a pic of the flower (I ‘borrowed’ this, since my pikake plants aren’t blooming at this time).

  
  

  

  
  

  Besides their wonderful fragrance in the lei, it is also a wonderful perfume, consequently, MY FAVORITE! I’ve tried several manufacturer’s versions, but the one put out by Royal Hawaiian Perfumes Polynesia is the best. It’s available through many online stores. Here’s the manufacturer’s own site:  http://www.royalhawaiianperfumes.com/perfumes/1.2.3.pikake.shtml

  
  

  There are a few different types of pikake flowers used in lei. The one above is the one they call ‘lei pikake.’ There’s another they call ‘rose pikake’ here, which, like the rose, has layers & layers of petals. It’s more durable, with the flowers lasting longer before wilting or falling apart. The lei pikake pictured is very delicate & difficult to string into a lei. I have about 4 varieties of pikake jasmine in my yard, as well as night-blooming jasmine.

  
  

  The latter becomes obnoxious when the blossoms open at night & the bush is loaded with them! I used to have a hedge of them, until the over-powering, sickeningly sweet scent made me sick to my stomach! I yanked them all out (with help), giving several old bushes away. All I kept was one bush (near my living room window!) & some cuttings I poked in dirt with the thought in mind to sell. I keep butchering all of them back, especially when the blooms proliferate & make me ill.

  
  

  The night-blooming jasmine to me is a weed. It is VERY prolific & fast-growing! It appears to love the heavy rainfall we have in my area, along with the acid soil & excellent drainage.

  
  

  Anyway, back to the pikake… Here is a pikake lei pic (also borrowed):

  
  

  

  
  

  And a page with several styles pictured:  http://www.hawaiibride.com/customs/lei2.html

  
  

  Also a page which has loads of fresh, REAL flower lei that can be ordered & shipped almost anywhere. The pikake ones are about a third of the way down the page.  http://www.leisofhawaii.com/fresh.htm

  
  

  Finally, a song about the pikake lei:

  
  

  MY SWEET PIKAKE LEI
  
  ©
  Lyrics & Music:
  
  Sheet Music:
  
  Recordings:
  78: Charles K. L. Davis (Everest Records)
  
  More beautiful than pearls
  My sweet pikake lei
  I string each tiny flower
  With love, Hawaiian way
  
  More eloquent than words
  My white pikake lei
  A perfume of the gods
  Will speak for me today
  
  More binding than a vow
  My sweet pikake lei
  A chain of memories
  If you should go away
  
  More haunting than a song
  You know, but cannot play
  A song you can’t forget
  My sweet pikake lei
  More delicate than lace
  My white pikake lei
  You dance and strands of white
  Around your shoulders sway
  
  More subtle than a sigh
  My sweet pikake lei
  As every little breeze
  Grows scented on its way
  
  More haunting than a song
  You know, but cannot play
  A song you can’t forget
  My sweet pikake lei

  
  

  
  

  ---

  Well, my son made the front page, sorta, again, connected with the Pahoa skate park project. They’re trying hard to get the funding together to get the building of the park started. They have matching ‘funds’ available from the County, in the form of materials. I’m not sure how much more they need to get started, but they hope to begin construction in March of this year. The site for the park has already been set aside for this project by the county. What’s really neat is that the woman who is doing so much to get this off the ground has secured a $1k grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation!

  • 1:10 am
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