Talk:Hawaiian Alphabet

First it says 12 letters and one mark, then it goes on to describe two marks. Are there two or does one not count? Which one is the mark in question?


 * The glottal stop (&#8216;) is letter-like in that it represents a particular phoneme that stands on its own, but it doesn't seem to generally be regarded as a letter per se, probably because it's not one of the original Latin letters or a derivative. The macron is a diacritical mark which modifies letters, not a standalone letter or letter-like symbol. --Brion VIBBER 12:24 Aug 9, 2002 (PDT)

And are we sure it has twelve letter because 13 is unlucky? I thought that was a European superstition

- i heard thats why it had only 12 letters. Possibly and this is only a guess the alphabet arrived because of european traders. tell me if i am wrong. - fonzy


 * Sounds like a silly urban legend / e-mail forward useless "fact" to me. If you have a source, please cite it. --Brion VIBBER

- i got the fact from a book i read ages ago (not a joke book) a decent factual book. Altough could be one of those things that ppl mistake. Like when people think SOS means Save Our Souls (which it doesn't). I will try to find the name of the book. - fonzy--

- I'd say an urban legend. The number of letters was determined by early missionaries from (mostly) New England. I doubt these were people promoting superstitions. Marshman

Okay, this line:
 * Native Hawaiians had no written language.

Surely you want to say that they had no written language until such-and-such a date. The whole article is about writing, after all! Obviously, NO one had a written language until they did -- the only reason to make this point is to specify when the writing system developed. Also, I understand that "native" Hawai'ians is meant to distinguish them from Whites, Chinese, and others -- but the article should be consistent. Either always say "native Hawai'ian," or always just say "Hawai'ian" (as in language, alphabet, whatever.)Slrubenstein

Come to think of it, is there any real reason for this to be a separate article? The same subject is covered in Hawaiian language, and I don't see much point in duplicating it. --Brion 18:45 Aug 29, 2002 (PDT)

I agree. This material can be easily merged into the Hawaiian Language page. When I have time I will send to VfD Marshman 18:25, 1 Aug 2003 (UTC) Actually, the more I look at it, the more it seems there is little justification for an alphabet page about an alphabet that is not Hawaiian (the alphabet comes from New England missionaries). Not a candidate for VfD, just a candidate for editing/moving and redirect.Marshman