Humuhumunukunukuapuaa Dethroned in Hawaii

[tocqueville]

By TARA GODVIN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 28, 6:58 AM ET

HONOLULU - Everyone thought the humuhumunukunukuapuaa was Hawaii's state fish. As it turns out, the brightly colored fish with the excessively long name has been dethroned.

The news shook the world of Rep. Blake Oshiro, who found out the designation was no longer official from Joel Itomura, a 6-year-old fish-loving son of a friend and constituent.

"I was really surprised," said Oshiro, who has drawn up a bill that would make humuhumunukunukuapuaa — also known as the rectangular triggerfish or "humuhumu" for short — the official state fish for the islands.

The stubby-nosed, brightly striped and slightly aggressive little fish whose name few tourists even try to utter (it's pronounced HOO-moo-HOO-moo-NOO-koo-NOO-koo-AH-poo-AH-ah) is commonly believed to be the state's favorite. The fish figures into tourist trinkets, broadcast commercials and a much-beloved song about a little grass shack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060128/ap_on_re_us/dethroned_fish

[KamaAina]

1. That's "humuhumunukunukuapua'a" to you

note the 'okina (') between the two "a"'s at the end. The 'okina is considered to be a consonant in 'olelo Hawai'i; its sound is similar to that in the middle of "uh-oh", or what an East Coaster might put into "Trenton" or "New Britain". It can distinguish between two different words, for instance "pau" (done, finished) versus "pa'u" (a horse-drawn carriage).

Then again, older Hawaiian texts usually onitted the 'okina, since its presence can be inferred whenever a vowel is doubled.

[ZombieNixon]

2. It is the sound of the (necessarily) unvoiced glottal plosive.

And it's very easily overlooked by English speakers, and by speakers of Indo-European languages in general.

[momophile]

3. there's one in Tongan too called...

a fakau'a. My daughter has one in the middle of her name.