Hawaiian through the Bible - 2

Genesis 1:1 
I kinohi hana ke Akua i ka lani a me ka honua. 

I : in - in the previous post we meet “i” as a verb marker; here is is a very general locative preposition, “in” aor “at”.

Kinohi : beginning

Ke Akua : God - literally “The God”, in Hawaiian it takes the definite article; which is “ke” rather than “ka” because the next word “Akua” begins with an “a”.

Hana : make, made

I : a third use of “i”, here is isthe direct object marker.

Ka  lani : the heaven

A me : and - “me” means “with”, so “and with”, but the combination “a me” is more usual when proceeding a noun.

Ka honua : the earth.

So “in the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth”, or “at the start, God made the heaven and the earth”.

Hawaiian though the Bible - 1

The Bible in Hawaiian, or Ka Baibala (http://baibala.org/), is a translation of the Bible into the Hawaiian language. It was originally translated by Congregational missionaries to Hawaii beginning in the year 1827, with a complete version of the New Testament being published in 1835, followed by the Old Testament in 1837, and has been corrected over time in several editions. Originally published in the old orthography, which did not show either the ʻokina (the glottal stop sign) or the kahakō (the macron, or long vowel marking), the 2012 edition was updated to the modern orthography.

As an early and extensive example of the Hawaiian language, it is a valuable resource beyond its religious nature.

DISCLAIMER : I am not a fluent Hawaiian speaker, but have done some study of the language. I am going through some of the Bible in detail to improve my own knowledge of the language. So let’s begin.

KA BUKE MUA A MOSE, I KAPA ʻIA KINOHI

Ka : the - the Hawaiian defintite article; is replaced by “ke” before the letters a, e, o, and k. This alternation is similar to the replacement of “a” with “an” before a vowel sound.

Buke : more standardly “Puke”, book : this is a borrowing from English. Hawaiian does not have a “b” sound,, and is generally replaces by “p”. The translators of the Bible did not always fully naturalize the spelling of words they had to introduce; this is an example, as is the word “Baibala” above, which is “Paipala” in fully naturalized form.

Mua : first

A : of - Hawaiian has two sets of possessives, those based on “a”, as here, and those based on “o”. Roughly, those with “a” represent a kind of alienable possession and those with “o” represent a more inalienable possession. Also, in general, the “a” possessives represent, as here, accomplishments or acheivements. As Moses is being credited with the book, it is being represented as more of an achievement than an inalienable part of him.

Mose : Moses - if fully naturalized into Hawaiian phonemics, this would be “Moke”, another example of the translators not fully naturalizing some introduces words.

I : “i” is a very common and multi-purpose word in Hawaiian. Here is is a verb marker,  introducing the verb “kapa” as a subordinate verb.

Kapa : to call, to give a name to.

ʻia : a particle which follows a verb and makes it passive, so “kapa ʻia” means “is called.

Kinohi : beginning, here “genesis.

So this can be translated as “The first book of Moses, called Genesis.