THE MOTHER TONGUE

We frequently speak to our dear readers about our Mother tongue, not about our teaching them the Hawaiian language, but that the light of our beloved language from our forefathers is being extinguished.

Being that this is a new era, and we see and realize that there is a drastic reduction in the number of our generations capable in our mother tongue. There are many of our youths these days who have no knowledge of our language, but when you listen to them singing, they sing Hawaiian songs. Sometimes when our children speak Hawaiian, their production of the language is so strange, and sometimes our naau [gut, heart] aches at their mispronunciation of words.

There are many Hawaiian songs sung with incorrect pronunciation. Our children are neglecting trying to acquire knowledge and proficiency in speaking the mother tongue. Look at the other ethnicities like the Filipinos and…