The Language With Just 13 Letters In Its Alphabet

Have you ever wondered why the Hawaiian language, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, is heavily sprinkled with so many diacritical marks and other special characters? These lightly swishing symbols are there to guide pronunciation and meaning, which is especially important in a language with such a small, tightly-knit alphabet.

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With just 13 letters, the Hawaiian language is among the shortest alphabets in the world (the shortest, by the way, belongs to the Rotokas language, spoken in parts of Papua New Guinea, which uses only 12 letters). 

The letters of Hawaiian include 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 8 consonants (H, K, L, M, N, P, W, and the ʻokina (‘). The ʻokina is a glottal stop used to signify a harsh gap between sounds, such as the ohs in oh-oh. It's uttered with the audible stop and release of air from the vocal cords. There is also the kahakō or macron (–), which is placed over a vowel to roll out the sound and prolong it. 

By using the ‘okina and kahakō in different ways, it’s possible to express a plethora of things. For instance: Aʻa means “a root,” while ʻaʻa means “to dare, challenge,” whileʻaʻā means “to burn” or describes a jagged form of lava.

The language is filled with hidden depths. Even words we think we know, like aloha, carry far subtler meaning than a simple “hello” or “welcome.” Linguists often describe it as encompassing love, compassion, kindness, and a sense of connection, all in a single word that defies a direct translation into English.

Kūkamāhuākea, the name of a plain of steamy vents at the base of the volcano Kīlauea, might look like a mouthful to English speakers, but it’s actually made up of just a few base letters, with a few added markings. Broken down, it’s pronounced something like: Kū-ka-mā-hu-ā-ke-a.

Where Did The Hawaiian Language Come From – And Where Did It Go?

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is the official language of the state of Hawaiʻi, along with English. Despite this recognition, it’s considered to be one of the most critically endangered languages in the world today.

Centuries ago, the Hawaiian language was spoken across all the inhabited islands of Hawai‘i, with relatively small dialectical diversity. 

It stems from the Austronesian language family, especially those from East Polynesia. This is unsurprising given that the islands of Hawai‘i were first settled by Polynesian voyagers, likely from the Marquesas Islands around 1000 to 800 years ago, although perhaps much earlier. 

For much of its history, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi was primarily an oral language, passed down from generation to generation through speech rather than writing. It wasn’t until the early 1800s that Calvinist missionaries arrived on their shores and transcribed the language using Latin characters to represent its sounds. It's almost as if the Latin alphabet, which we use today in English, couldn’t capture the full nuance of Hawaiian pronunciation and meaning, so additional marks were introduced as backup. 

This period, however, brought significant harm to ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. Its dominance among the Indigenous population came under threat with the arrival of European colonization, which had firmly taken hold by the 19th century. 

In 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown by a group of American and European businessmen and lawyers with the aim of snatching the lucrative sugar industry. Three years later, the new provisional government launched several measures that suppressed the native language, including banning its use in schools and official settings. As the decades rolled on, the language continued to die out. By the 1980s, it’s estimated that fewer than 50 children were able to speak the Hawaiian language, according to UNESCO.

Today, however, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is experiencing a revival. Through universities, media, and cultural initiatives, thousands of young Hawaiians are now learning their ancestral language once again.