An Introduction to Kāhulu

Introduction

There are many types of words in Hawaiian language, but the ones that contain most of the “content” when we are speaking, listening, reading, or writing are the memeʻa, iʻoa, and papani. When it comes to memeʻa, we often find ourselves wanting or needing to add some description to them in order to point out a character or trait, or to differentiate the thing from some other similar thing. For example, we might have four boxes: a big box, a small box, a koa-wood box, and a mango-wood box. As you can see, if I were to simply point to the four boxes on a table and say to someone, “Please hand me the box”, the listener would need some further description in order to know which one to give me.

Thus we find that adding an additional word or words to the item allows us to be more specific about that thing, or to add interesting information about it. In English, we typically add that description before the noun we are describing, as with the box examples just mentioned.

In Hawaiian, however, we add the description after the thing we are describing. So in the case of those boxes, we would say the following (the describing words are underlined):

English	Hawaiian
a big box	he pahu nui
a small box	he pahu liʻiliʻi
a koa-wood box	he pahu koa
a mango-wood box	he pahu manakō

In Hawaiian grammar, we call these kinds of describing words “kāhulu”.

Two Easy Ways to Use Kāhulu

There are many wonderful ways in which kāhulu can be used in Hawaiian. But we will start out with the two easiest first.

First are the kāhulu memeʻa. All you do is use one or more memeʻa to further describe something by putting them one after the other following the leading memeʻa. Examples:

1. Kāhulu Memeʻa

Hawaiian	kāhulu word type	meaning
ke keiki liʻiliʻi	ʻaʻano	the small child
ke kupuna aloha	hamani	the loving grandparent
ke kupuna aloha keiki liʻiliʻi	(combination)	the little-child-loving grandparent
nā lei pua	kikino	the flower lei
nā pua lei	kikino	the lei flowers
he paniolo holo lio	hehele + kikino	the horse-riding cowboy

We can use kāhulu in any part of a pepeke. For example:

Note that when translating from Hawaiian to English, you can simply read backwards from the final kāhulu word back to the leading memeʻa to get to English.

Hawaiian						English
ka	hale	hoʻoponopono	kaʻa	kahiko	>>	the	old	car	repair	shop
kaʻi	memeʻa	kāhulu 1	2	3		kaʻi	3	2	1	memeʻa

2. Kāhulu Iʻoa

You can use a name as a kāhulu too. Sometimes you simply use the name as the kāhulu, and other times, you can put an “ ʻo” before the name if you are noting the name of something which was mentioned immediately before as a kaʻi+memeʻa. Here are some examples:

Combining Both Kāhulu Types

It is possible to combine both different types of kāhulu in the same place. Here are a couple of examples:

The Meaning of the Name Kāhulu

The name “kāhulu” is a relatively new word coined by kumu Pila Wilson of UH Hilo. It means “being like a feather” or “working like a feather” on a bird. The “bird” is the thing which the kāhulu is modifying; and the “feather” or “feathers” is/are the words that add more description to the main word.

Here we have “kahunapule” as the main memeʻa and then the kāhulu words “ ʻoluʻolu”, “lokomaikaʻi”, and “ ʻo Kahu Dana” adding information that helps identify this particular pastor. Note that this last kāhulu iʻoa is used following “pastor” in English as it is in Hawaiian.

Compound Words Are Often Made with Kāhulu

Compound words in Hawaiian are often made by having one memeʻa at the start and then one or more other memeʻa added on as kāhulu. Here are some examples (kāhulu underlined):

Compound	Meaning	Made from
hopenapule	weekend	hopena (ending) + pule (week)
halepule	church	hale (building) + pule (to pray)
keikikāne	boy	keiki (child) + kāne (male)
lolouila	computer	lolo (brain) + uila (electric)
kelepona paʻalima	cell phone	kelepona (telephone) + paʻalima (in the hand)
paʻalima		paʻa (held tight) + lima (hand)
hoaaloha	friend	hoa (companion) + aloha (with aloha)
hoahānau	sibling (original); cousin (modern)	hoa (companion) + hānau (in birth)

Hawaiian doesn’t differentiate between the use of a kāhulu as either an adjective or an adverb. Just add the description to any other content word to use it as a kāhulu. When you translate into English of course, you have to pay attention to the correct form.

We can use just about any content word or even a name as a kāhulu.

The meaning of kāhulu is the FUNCTION of the word, not the TYPE of word that it is.

ʻŌlelo Online Virtual Classroom · kumu Kaliko Beamer-Trapp · Lesson revision 4 (November 2024) · This is a work in progress; feedback is welcome.