Reflection: Week 2

            This week we covered a lot of material during class. We learned things such as, Pepeke Aike ‘O, Pepeke ‘A’ano, the Pepeke Structure, P.I.N.K., Nā Hua’ōlelo, a few more Nā Helu as well as Papani, the “Golden Rule”, and lastly an oli. We reviewed Pepeke Aike He and started to get into Pepek Henua, however we didn’t fully cover it because Kumu planned to teach it to us next week. This week we really focused on the grammar side of learning Hawaiian. We learned how to create simple sentences and learned their rules/exceptions. Pepeke Aike ‘O is a specific statement sentence. Objects/subjects within the sentence in one way or another equate each other. In order to correctly have a Pepeke Aike ‘O sentence both sides of the equation (the sentence) must be equal. The ‘okina O, which is in the beginning of the sentence, only indicates that it is in fact a Pepeke Aike ‘O sentence. It does not translate/mean anything. Next, a Pepeke ‘A’ano sentence is a descriptive sentence. The sentence is set up, so that the descriptive adjective or the ‘a’ano begins the sentence while the subject/object finishes the sentence. We also learned P.I.N.K. P stands for Papani which are pronouns, such as au, ‘oe, ‘o ia. I stands for I’oa which are proper names for either places or a person. N stands for Nonoa which are possessive nouns, such as kou, ko’u, kona, etc. And finally K stands for Ka’i + kikino which are common nouns. The Ka’i always comes before for the kikino because it guides the kikino. Without the ka’i the kikino would be lost and if there is more than one ka’i than the two ka’i will fight and kill each other, leaving the kikino without a leader. Then we learned the Pepeke structure. This taught to us how to create both negative and positive sentences. The sentence structure diagram kind of resembles an octopus (he’e) but with a piko. With the po’o of the he’e there lies the ‘okena, which is the object/subject/what/adjective that is being talked about. Anything that is P.I.N.K. is allowed to go into the piko. Then the in the ‘awe there is basically just add-ons to make the sentence more decorative. However an ami is needed to connect the ‘awe to the piko. Now when you create a negative sentence however this whole structure is somewhat changed. The “Golden Rule” when creating/turning a sentence negative is “lele ka papani pili me ‘a’ole.” This means that the papani (pronoun) jumps to the beginning of the sentence next to the ‘a’ole, in order to make the sentence negative. On top of learning all these grammar rules, we had to memorize a lot of vocabulary words. A total of seventy-one words to be exact. We learned words from Nā mea hale and Nā ‘A’ano. Then we had to learn how to construct numbers larger than one hundred. We learned that kaukani meant a thousand. Writing numbers after a hundred is really simple as long as you know how to construct them. Then we learned more papani, like kāua, māua, lāua, ‘olua, mākou, kākou, lākou, and ‘oukou. Kāua means you and I, it includes both the speaker and the listener. Māua means me and another, it includes the speaker and another but not the listener. Lāua means him/her and another; it includes neither the speaker of the listener. ‘Olua means you and another; it includes the listener and another however it does not include the speaker. Kākou means everyone, mākou means we and it includes three other people except the listener. Lākou means they/them this also includes three however it does not include the speaker or the listener. ‘Oukou means you and it includes three as well, however it only includes the listener and not the speaker. Finally the last thing we learned was the oli. We had to learn the Kūnihi oli. An oli is done to ask permission and is also a standard protocol. Every morning before we begin class we will have chant this oli and ask Kumu for permission to enter his classroom. We also started to learn Pepeke Henua which is a location sentence. It tells the listener exactly where to find the certain object. Pepeke Henua sentences have words like, i hope, i mua, i lalo, i luna, etc. These words tell whether an object is in front of, behind of, on top of, or below another object.

This week we learned a lot of material and I really had to focus and work extra hard in order to grasp all these concepts. The test that we had to take on Friday was really long, but if you knew the material well it was sort of easy. It still was very challenging especially when we had to create our own sentences but it was good practice. I still have some kinks that I need to fix/ work out but after I take care of those kinks I think I will be fine.