This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I am in Hawaii this week with my family, so this edition is a little shorter. If you know someone who may enjoy the newsletter, you can share it here.
Aloha from the Big Island in Hawaii 🤙
All around us people say aloha (hello) and mahalo (thank you), but I haven't heard any other Hawaiian words spoken. For today's topic we will be diving into the Hawaiian language and it's tumultuous past.
The first people walked the sands of Hawaii around 800 years ago. They arrived on boats from Tahiti. Other small surrounding islands of Tahiti came shortly after and within 50 years all the Hawaiian islands had been settled. "This rapid colonization is believed to account for the remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language". Despite the separation by sea the Hawaiian islands remained culturally connected. Unlike in the United States ((with its many tribes and nations)), there was only one group of people and not a wide variety of tribes.
Like many spoken languages, Hawaiian was originally just an oral language. In 1820, Christian missionaries arrived in Hawaii from New England. They were quick to convert a significant number of people. However, they believed to make a sustainable conversion of the Hawaiians the Bible needed to be translated into the Hawaiian language. The missionaries partnered with locals and created a written language including a new alphabet. They published the first official Hawaiian dictionary, grammar book, and finally the Bible.
Transition period
In the late 1800's many Hawaiians started to learn English. In the book "The Voices of Eden” the author Albert Schutz says, Hawaiians "took their own language for granted and wished to be able to speak and understand English as well, for although they were still fascinated with the written word in Hawaiian, this type of literacy was not an immediate stepping-stone to success and power in the rapidly changing world that intruded on their own".
In 1896 the US government backed a coup of the native Hawaiian Monarchy. When the new US backed government took hold, English became mandated as the main language taught in school. As a result, Hawaiian language was slowly dying out.
Native Hawaiian population was also declining due to diseases brought over by Europeans. Hawaii's population before the Europeans arrived in 1778 was between 300,000 and 700,000 people and by 1920 the native Hawaiian population hit an all-time low of 24,000 people.
In a bit of an ironic twist, Hawaii’s statehood into USA was the start of revitalizing the Hawaiian language.
After 60 years of suppressing the language, the US government made Hawaiian the official language of Hawaii. This was helpful, but mostly symbolic. It wasn’t until a 1970s native grassroots effort that a Hawaiian language curriculum was created and implemented in the schools. In recent decades more people are going beyond just teaching Hawaiian as an elective. They are speaking it at home and learning through immersion in school.
There is still a long way to go before it will be normal for Hawaiian to be spoken on the streets. However, considering the Hawaiian language was almost extinct a century ago, there has been a lot of progress in revitalizing the native tongue.
🎧 The Musicverse
Every Noise at Once is a sprawling collection of music genres from around the world. A few examples include Turkish reggae, troubadour, Wisconsin indie, and new weird Finland.
🦃The First Words of Thanksgiving
"When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth rock in 1620 they were cold, hungry and frightened. Imagine their surprise when on March 16 as they unloaded cannon from the Mayflower in preparation for battle an Indian walked into their encampment and asked, “Anyone got a beer?” Seriously, that’s what happened. Samoset, the thirsty Indian, had learned English from occasional fishermen".
On another note, Thanksgiving has a complicated history. This Thanksgiving we are sharing things we are grateful for, eating a ton of food, and learning more about the indigenous people of Hawaii.
Audiobook I recommend - Will by Will Smith
Will Smith's autobiography is a glimpse into one of the most dynamic entertainers in the world. From early hip-hop to I am Legend, Will Smith has lived a fascinating life.
I highly recommend the audiobook version because it is read by him and weaves in musical elements. If you liked Matthew McConaughey's autobiography Greenlights you will enjoy this. Here is my favorite quote from the book.
"In school, they teach you the lesson and then you take the test. In life you take the test and then it is on you to take the lesson".
Pic of the Week
This week so far has been a blast with my family on the Big Island in Hawaii.