How to pronounce Hawaiian names and words.
It’s easier than you think.
First - Slow down….
There is a famous bumper sticker in the Islands which reads:
“Slow down - This ain’t the Mainland”.
That advice also applies in pronunciation of Hawai’ian words. 
Those big long words that are full of vowels and k’s and h’s can be quite intimidating at first, but the trick is to go through the word S-L-O-W-L-Y, pronouncing each syllable separately…. and sometimes a whole syllable will consist of nothing but a single vowel !
(More on that later….)
2. - There are 5 vowels and 7 consonants
a - e - i - o - u , and h - k - l - m - n - p - w
The vowels are pronounced like the French vowels MOST of the time, and the consonants like English, except for the “W”…. you’ll see.
a: as in spa
e: as in smell
i: as in she (a female). ok, ok, ….or he (a male)
o: as in “Oh My!”
u: as in “root”
Often these vowels hang out together in a word, and each one is pronounced as a separate syllable (e.g. Ho’okipa - the famous windsurfing beach on Maui’s North Shore). Notice the ‘ between the o’o? Try to pronounce …. S-L-O-W-L-Y now….
“Ho” (as in St. Nick’s “Ho-ho-ho”)
“o” (as in “Oh My!”)
“ki” as in “key”)
“pa” (as in “Who’s yo’ Daddy?”).
Easy, yeah?
Ok, lets try the famous “Lahaina” that more often than not gets slaughtered!
“La” (as in “la-la-la-la-la”)
“hai” (ok, here the two vowels run together, but are pronounced as described above so the end result sounds like you are greeting a beloved one who you haven’t seen for a long time with a great big, openmouthed GRIN “HA-EE”
and then end with an easy “na” (as in “do you want some of this?” - “nah”)
Another formidable looking one, that’s easy once you break it down is “Hale’akala”, which means “House of the Sun”, and is Maui’s beautiful dormant volcano. Just take your time, and see if you can do this on your own…..
How’d you do?
Hale (means house) “Ha” (like you are exhaling through your mouth - “ha” actually means “Breath”. That’s going to be a whole other article), and “le” as in “pay”, but short, and clipped.
Then comes “a” (just plain “ah”)
Then “ka” (stick a “k” in front of the next “a”)
The end it all with another “la” (as we explored in “Lahaina” (above)
Cool, Yeah?
OK, the last lesson of the day will be “Hawai’i”
“Ha” (there’s the Breath again)
“wai” (like you learned in “laHAIna” - only this time there’s a “w” and it is pronounced like the softest “v” - “wai” means “water”)
‘i” (you know…. “(s)he”) . Somewhere I heard that among other things, “i” is a Hawai’ian expression for “god”.
So put it all together “Breath, Water”, “God”…. no wonder it is Paradise!
Isn’t it beautiful when pronounced the way it is meant to be?
Spread the word….
“E komo mai” - “Welcome” to Hawai’i!
Donna