Hawaiian grammar
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This article provides a brief sketch of grammar in the Hawaiian language.
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[edit] Syntax
Hawaiian is Verb Subject Object (VSO). The only exception to this rule is if the sentence has a negative mood and the subject is a pronoun (e.g. ‘a‘ole ‘oia e puka ana 'he won't graduate'). Within the noun phrase, adjectives follow the noun (e.g. ka hale li‘ili‘i 'the small house'), while possessors precede it (e.g. kou hale 'your house'). Hawaiian, like English, is a non-pro-drop language. Nonetheless, there is an exception with commands, where the use of subject pronouns is optional, but is usually never used if the context deems it not necessary (e.g., E hele i ke kula 'Go to school').
[edit] Nouns
[edit] Gender
In Hawaiian, there is no grammatical gender. The word for she, he, or it, for example, is simply ‘oia or ‘o ia.
[edit] Deixis
| Demonstrative determiners | close to speaker | far from speaker and listener | far from speaker, close to listener |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | kēia | kēlā | kēnā |
| Plural | kēia mau | kēlā mau | kēnā mau |
[edit] Number and articles
In Hawaiian, the noun does not change form to determine the number. Rather, the article changes to determine the number.
The singular definite articles are ke when the noun begins with the letter k, e, a, or o and ka when the noun begins with any other letter. The plural definite article is nā. The singular indefinite article is he. Examples:
- ka puke (the book) vs. nā puke (the books)
- ke pākaukau (the table) vs. nā pākaukau (the tables)
- He kanaka maika‘i ia. ('A-person-good-s/he.' S/He is a good person.)
To pluralize nouns marked with a possessive, add mau between the possessive and the noun.
- ka‘u mau puke (my books)
- kona mau peni (his books)
[edit] Case
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st incl. | 1st excl. | 2nd | 3rd | interrogative |
| Nominative | au | ‘oe | ‘oia, ‘o ia |
kāua (2) kākou (3+) |
māua (2) mākou (3+) |
‘olua (2) ‘oukou (3+) |
lāua (2) lākou (3+) |
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| Genitive | ko‘u, ka‘u, ku‘u | kou, kāu, kō | kona, kāna | kō/kā kāua (2) kō/kā kākou (3+) |
kō/kā māua (2) kō/kā mākou (3+) |
kō/kā ‘olua (2) kō/kā ‘oukou (3+) |
kō/kā lāua (2) kō/kā lākou (3+) |
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| Accusative | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Dative | ia‘u | iā ‘oe | iā ia | iā kāua (2) iā kākou (3+) |
iā māua (2) iā mākou (3+) |
iā ‘olua (2) iā ‘oukou (3+) |
iā lāua (3+) iā lākou (3+) |
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