Is it Hawaii or Hawai’i? I’ve always spelt it Hawaii but recently I’ve been seeing a lot of posts with Hawai’i with the apostrophe.
Did they change it or has it always been that way and Hawaii was just easier?
I don’t really have an opinion on it and I’ll use whichever people from there say they prefer.
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I think both are acceptable. The one with the glottal stop is more authentic, so if authenticity is important to you, feel free.
Hawaii is the state, Hawai’i is the main island
Hawai’i is the linguistically correct spelling but the government recognizes it as Hawaii
Both are acceptable, the apostrophe is the phonetically correct one tho.
“Hawaii” is how the US government refers to the state. “Hawai’i” is how locals named the largest island in the archipelago before America colonized it. Simple anglicization. Same as with last names at Ellis Island
Both are fine. It’s closer to hawai’i. But that is even misleading given that w is pronounced like v. The apostrophe gives it the break… I’m not a linguist so idk technical terms
It’s not an apostrophe. It’s an ‘okina.
Hawai‘i, not Hawai’i
“Hawai’i” is how it is officially spelled in the Hawaiian language. Here’s a [Hawaiian-language government web page](https://health.hawaii.gov/ola/%ca%bbolelo-hawai%ca%bbi-hawaiian/), you can see how it’s spelled there, but “State of Hawaii” uses the English spelling.
There are some English-language institutions that use the Hawaiian spelling, like the University of Hawai’i.
HaWhyYee
Hawaii is an anglicized spelling and the way it’s usually spelled. Hawai’i is how you spell it in Hawaiian. And different institutions in the area spell it different ways. Like it’s the State of Hawaii but their state university is the University of Hawai’i.
Spell whichever way you want
It’s historically been Hawai’i, but the US government called it Hawaii (no apostrophe) for a long time because, well, leaving out the apostrophe was just a little bit easier.
The US government was a little bit sloppy about conquering places back then and changing up their names, kind of willy-nilly. But Hawai’ians are starting to push back recently, and some of them want to use the traditional spelling again.
And I say good for them. We pretty much straight took their country from their ancestors, and the least we can do now is let them have their heritage back.
It’s Hawai’i, but I just spell it Hawaii. Partially just lazy but also to piss off my fellow Native Hawaiians.
Both are fine
Huh?why?yee
It’s spelled Hawaii in English and Hawai’i in Hawaiian. There’s a slightly different pronunciation in the different languages and the slightly different spellings reflect that.
I’ll just say it. The only people who write it with the okina, and pronounce it with the more V sound…
1. Actual native Hawaiians
2. White people trying to prove how much more cultured they are than you. You can also find them saying things like “What’s Kiev? Oh, you mean KYIV?!”
It’s posturing.
This time will be remembered as the Virtue Posture Era. Also known as the Bullshit Era.