By: Janis L. Magin, Associated Press Writer (AP) For the first time in more than 50 years, the Hawaiian language will be regularly featured in a widely-circulated publication in the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin on Sundays.
The weekly column will be called "Kauakukalahale" -- "the rain of Honolulu" -- said Laiana Wong, who will edit the column with colleague Kekeha Solis.
The
first column was published on Oct. 27.
"The word 'kukala' is the word to announce, to proclaim. That's what news does, like a bulletin," Wong said. "Water, of course, is a source of wealth in Hawaiian, so information is the new kind of rain."
Star-Bulletin Editor Frank Bridgewater said the newspaper hopes that by promoting the Hawaiian language it will raise the level of awareness and encourage support of an official state language.
"I think it's great that they're doing it," said Jim Kelly, executive editor of crosstown competitor
The Honolulu Advertiser. "I think anything we can do to expose more people to the Hawaiian language is terrific."
The column will feature a wide range of subjects, from features about people, to news, comics, even recipes, Wong said. Readers will also be encouraged to submit pieces, he said.
"Anything that involves literacy," Wong said.
Hawaiian is currently used in newsletters and periodically in newspapers, such as
Ka Wai Ola o OHA, published by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. It has not been regularly used in either of Honolulu's two dailies, as far as editors at both the
Star-Bulletin and
Advertiser could recall.
"The last Hawaiian newspaper that was widely circulated was in 1948 or '47," Wong said. "They had been dwindling -- the big newspaper, the
Kuokoa, that paper ran from something like 1861 to 1927."
The
Star-Bulletin had special fonts created for the column to accommodate the accent marks and glottal stops used in Hawaiian words, said Bridgewater, who added that although there currently are no plans to use them throughout the newspaper, "we'll take a look at it."
The
Advertiser, which has been using the marks in its copy since 2000, currently doesn't have plans to publish in Hawaiian, Kelly said. If it ever does, the paper would offer an English translation for readers who don't understand Hawaiian, he said.
The
Star-Bulletin column will not be translated, but instead will have a synopsis telling readers in English what it is about, Bridgewater said.
"We're going to be telling them pretty much what it says," said Wong. "We don't want to be giving a translation and we're really grateful to the
Star-Bulletin for not pushing it.
"We would object to the requirement on a political level in an effort to elevate Hawaiian, to symbolically say that Hawaiian can stand on its own," Wong said.
On the Net:
http://www.starbulletin.com/http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
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