Spoken Hawaiian

by Samuel H. Elbert

This Hawaiian language text, intended for self-learning as well as classroom use, presents the principal conversational and grammatical patterns of the language in 67 lessons, each containing English-Hawaiian dialogues. Emphasis is given to idiomatic speech, and a vocabulary of approximately 800 words, selected on the basis of frequency of usage and cultural importance, is introduced.

The frequent humor of the lessons makes Elbert's Spoken Hawaiian an enjoyable learning experience. Also noteworthy is the author's inclusion of old Hawaiian in the text - legends, songs, stories - to enable the student to read the rich Hawaiian traditional literature in the vernacular language.

The illustrations by noted artist Jean Charlot are a charming and amusing complement to the text.

Spoken Hawaiian will help the student not only to read and speak the language, but at the same time to appreciate the rich heritage of the Hawaiian past and its literature.
of the sixty-seven lessons is a sample dialog in Hawaiian with English translation.

266 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1970

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important and necessary book for anyone studying or learning ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i.

Spoken Hawaiian predates the adoption of the Pepeke grammar system adopted by more recent texts like “Nā Kai ‘Ewalu”.

Nonetheless, it is a critical language resource for learning the language itself, and understanding the different cultural assumptions and contexts between Hawaiian and English.

[Teango · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this book! However, I did this after establishing a solid foundation in the language, having read other course books first. I like the way it offers loads of dialogues and stories, gaining in complexity as they go along, and that it identifies words that have been repeated five times throughout the book (I wish other course books would follow suit and focus more on repeating and highlighting core words in a similar fashion). I think the reason I enjoyed this book so much is because it was so easy to read at the intermediate level, whilst also filling in or reviewing important aspects of grammar along the way. The only real drawback is that the book is over 40 years old now, so the writing conventions can be quite different to modern Hawaiian in some parts, e.g., spacing between words, use of kahakōs and ʻokinas, use of relative particles, etc. (hence the 4 stars, rather than 5).