Hawaiian Words

A word bank for our time living in Hawai'i.

aloha: love (also used as greeting/farewell)
aina: land (especially ancestral Hawaiian lands)  

ahupua'a refers to the original divisions of lands- pie slices from mountain to sea.

e komo mai: welcome
e'o: exclamation- win/victory
hana: work
hale: house (especially traditionally built houses)
haole: usually white people. sometimes a term of contempt. means foreign
I'o: a Polynesian name for God, refers to the Breath

Jesu: a name for Jesus (pronounced Ye-su, same as Hebrew)

kanaka: native Hawaiians (like many indigenous languages, simply means the people.)
kane: men

Ke Akua: a Hawaiian name for God
keiki: children

kiai: guardian, maintains balance 

kuleana: responsibility, what you owe to care for land and people

kupuna: elders
lanai: porch, patio
laulima: cooperation

ma ka hana ka ike: to learn by doing
mahalo: thank you (nui loa very much)
mele: music (specifically chat or music for hula)
ohana: family

‘ōlelo: language
pau: finished, done
pule: pray
pu: shell (can be used as instrument. a bamboo instrument is also called pu)
pono: good, righteous
tutu: grandfather, grandmother

Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono: the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
wa'a: canoe
wahine: women

pronunciation: similar to Spanish, every letter is pronounced.
vowels have a consistent sound:
A- ah
E- ay
I- ee
O- oh
U- oo

Sometimes an apostrophe is used to indicate separation between sounds: 

Hawai'i is three syllables: Ha - wai - i
(W is pronounced with a V sound! Blame the Polish/German explorers who wrote down the Hawaiian language.)
Without the apostrophe, some vowels create diphthongs ai, ao, etc.