What does the accent mean in Hawaiian language?

Answer 1

Aloha, I am a fluent Hawaiian Language speaker and have lived in Hawaiʻi my whole life. To start off, there are two different symbols used in the Hawaiian Language:

1. Kahakō: The kahakō is the symbol you see just above the ʻOʻ in "Kahakō." It elongates a vowel sound and can ONLY be placed over vowels. Just by putting one over a vowel could change the meaning of a word or may be a nonexistent word. Some refer to it as "Kō." However, "Kō" also means sugar cane...

2. ʻOkina: An ʻokina is the symbol used just before the ʻOʻ in "ʻOkina". I like to think of it as a backwards apostrophe. Because an ʻokina and apostrophe are facing different directions. It can only be used before a vowel or between two vowels. An few examples are koʻu, paʻakikī, and ʻike. As you can see with ʻokina and ʻike, it can also be put at the beginning of a word. In Hawaiian, it is considered a letter. The letters are: A E I O U H K L M N P W ʻ. In English, an ʻokina is called a glottal stop. It has a distinct sound.