38 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
The more intelligent among the natives, particularly 
the chiefs, frequently smile at the manner of spelling 
the names of places and persons, in published accounts 
of the islands, which they occasionally see, and doubt¬ 
less wonder how we can employ two letters of the same 
kind to express two distinct sounds, as aa , for the 
sound of a in mark, and a in make; or oo for a sound 
so distinct as u. 
The orthography employed in the native names which 
occur in the succeeding narrative, is in accordance 
with the power or sound of the letters composing the 
Hawaiian alphabet, and the words are represented as 
nearly as possible to the manner in which they are 
pronounced by the natives. A is always as a in father, 
or shorter as a in the first syllable of aha, e as a in hate, 
i as i in machine, or ee in thee, o as o in note, u as oo 
in food, or short as in bull, and the diphthong ai as * in 
wine or mine. The consonants are sounded as in 
English. 
The native words may be correctly pronounced by 
attending to the above sounds of the vowels. The fol¬ 
lowing list of the principal names will likewise assist 
in the proper pronunciation of Hawaiian words. The 
h is inserted after the a, only to secure that vowel’s 
being sounded as in the exclamation ah ! 
TLACES. 
Ha-wai, pronounced as Ha-wye-e 
O-a-hu . O-ah-hoo 
Ta.u-ai. Tow-i, or Tow-eye 
Mau-i ...... ... Mow-e 
Kai-ru-a. Ky-roo-ah 
Ke-a-ra-ke-ku-a ...... Kay-a-ra-kay-koo-ah 
