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Hawaiian - Context is everything
Posted: 08 November 2005 06:29 PM   [ Ignore ]
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The October 2005 issue of "Northwest Hawaii Times" states that "In the Hawaiian dictionary NA’AU has many meanings, "intestines, guts, bowels, mind, affection, of the mind and heart, mood, temper, feelings" . You could say the same thing about other Hawaiian words especially the famous ALOHA which has been translated variously as "love, hello, goodbye and compassion" depending on how it is used. A Hawaiian girl I know at work tells me that ALOHA can be used to describe anything that is positive in Hawaiian. I asked her if it would also be the Hawaiian equivalent of saying "Have a good day" or "Have a nice day" and she said "Yes."

Of course, context matters to some extent in every language as to the meaning of certain words (In Latin ‘familia’ sometimes referred to a slave staff rather than a real family; we’ve all heard the Mafia occasionally referred to as "the family" etc.)  but overall, Hawaiian seems to have a lot more words than most other languages where the context is important to the meaning of the word.  8)

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Posted: 08 November 2005 11:29 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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I lived in Hawaii for a couple of years and noticed that locals who work in the hospitality business, and are thus restrained from upsetting tourists, use "aloha" to say "f*ck you" to haoles.

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E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

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