Do Not Abandon Your Mother Tongue

The native language of a people like the Hawaiian language to the Hawaiian people is called a mother tongue of the Hawaiians. In our understanding, how many Hawaiian youths could there be who are educated in our colleges or apart from us, and who are rich in their knowledge and preparedness in the mother tongue of their homeland.

We see in these days going by, the youth are acquiring English, and they have no intention of pursuing the native language of their land of birth. It is clear that because the Hawaiian language government schools were discontinued, the large sources of water [poowai] that fed the canals [auwai] of knowledge of that language to the youth of Hawaii were cut off.

While we support the desire to progress in speakers of English, being that it is beneficial for Hawaii’s people to become accustomed to the British language, that being English, so that the youth have a running start with the swift current of progress sweeping over the majority of the surface of the earth because of the push of English, and yet it would not be a bad thing for the young ones born here or even more so for Hawaiians to understand the language of their kupuna.

There are educated haole from other lands appearing in our neighborhoods and when they ask some native Hawaiian children about some old word they see in old Hawaiian books or old Hawaiian newspapers, they respond, “I donʻt know,” that being ”Aole au i ike.” They do not know for they are deficient in their knowledge and proficiency in their very own language.

There will come a a time when a majority of the Hawaiian words we are familiar with today will become words that are unclear to the Hawaiian youth of the future. We believe that among ten Hawaiian children attending a haole school today, there are probably not five of them that can write Hawaiian correctly.

The only places where these young ones can obtain Hawaiian language is at Hawaiian Sunday Schools, churches where Hawaiian is spoken, assemblies where Hawaiians gather, and Hawaiian books and newspapers. Associating with and talking with Hawaiians in Hawaiian in order to learn Hawaiian is the way to gain knowledge and proficiency.

(Kuokoa Home Rula, 3/22/1907, p. 1)