The Hawaiian language is a severely endangered language. There remain but sporadic communities of native speakers throughout the archipelago, the largest, most dense of which is located on the island of Ni‘ihau and on the... [ view full abstract ]
The Hawaiian language is a severely endangered language. There remain but sporadic communities of native speakers throughout the archipelago, the largest, most dense of which is located on the island of Ni‘ihau and on the west side of its adjacent island, Kaua‘i. Beyond Niʻihau, native speakers of Hawaiian have declined to less than 1,000. Since the 1970s, however, Hawaiian mobilization began to accelerate, empowering thousands of second language learners and/or neo-Hawaiian speakers (Nesmith 2002) to emerge, reclaiming Hawaiian identity in response to the ongoing hegemony of American imperialism.
To illustrate the reclamation of Hawaiian identity and, by extension, Hawaiian language, we explore the historical, legal, and individual landscapes that both support and impede language shift. C. M. Kaliko Baker, PhD, will open and close the colloquium by presenting on the establishment of Hawaiian medium newspapers as early 1834. This medium facilitated a national dialogue encompassing pedagogical practices, cultural regulation, political consciousness, proselytization, as po‘e aloha ʻāina, as stewards upon the land. Kamakakaulani Gramberg advocates a paradigm shift in Hawaiʻi’s policy and judicial implementation that regulate language rights. This would endorse moving away from tolerance-oriented toward promotion-oriented legislation. Ha‘alilio Solomon will discuss social attitudes that underpin tensions thwarting the Hawaiian language revitalization movement, underscoring the subjective impacts this bears on individual second language learners. Our conclusion reports on the current efforts in progress to revitalize Hawaiian language in light of these setbacks.
Our presentation may be classified under a few specific conference research strands. For example, the establishment of Hawaiian medium newspapers, legal status of Hawaiian, and issues in heritage language learning, will bring to light issues related to the social psychology of language communities. This frames our discussion on language attitudes held by Kānaka Maoli in terms of reclaiming and reviving our ancestral tongue. An overarching theme of our colloquium engages language shift and revitalization, not as a means to save a relic of who we were, but rather as an indication of Hawaiian language vitality and our collective resolve to pass it on to future generations.
