Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 May 19

= May 19 =

Hawaiian language
if the Hawaiian language are speaking only 24.000 people, why does the police departmens in hawaii have to have all police brands, the paperwork the signs inside a building, and the inscriptions on buildings be in both languages? Why does the Serial "hawaii five o" has to make every titel in the original language, if this language is spoken by 24.000 and of this 24.000 people maybe only 300 do have internet or the possibility to view the movie? There are made very very big steps for nothing, while other, "more necessary and more important" languages are dying. --Ip80.123 (talk) 03:59, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Where did you get that 24000 number from ? That might be just people who speak it as their main language, with many more speaking it along with English.  So, providing both languages allows them to communicate in whichever they prefer.  Also note that the language is a big tourism attraction, so they want to keep it going for that reason, too.   Hawaii is expensive and distant compared with other tropical tourism destinations (like the Caribbean), so without it's "unique flavor", visitors would go elsewhere.  StuRat (talk) 04:40, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The Wikipedia article, which has references for the number, at Hawaiian language states that number. Languages_of_the_United_States has an (unreferenced) statement that says it may be as high as 27000.  -- Jayron 32 12:09, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Ip80.123, if the relevant authorities in Hawaii stopped making these "very very big steps", to what other "more necessary and more important" languages" do you think their efforts should and could be redirected? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 13:55, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia has an article titled Language preservation which may help in the OPs research as well. -- Jayron 32 14:20, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, also Endangered_language. Suffice it to say, not everyone thinks that the value of a language is determined by its number of speakers. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:36, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Here is an additional resource that might help explain why the governmental agencies in question want to conserve the language, and what legal arguments have been used to justify these actions.  SemanticMantis (talk) 22:35, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * If the Hawaiian language died out, there would be nore more Wiki wikis.--178.106.99.31 (talk) 23:17, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * As for Hawaii Five-0, the episode titles are in Hawaiian just because it makes the show feel exotic. It's not a serious attempt to preserve the language, any more than Rome putting many of its episode titles in Latin was. Smurrayinchester 08:13, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * More to the point either it's poor English or the OP is seriously confused. Even if Hawaii Five-0 did have some noble aims which as you said, they surely don't, there's no "required" involved. Whatever the reasoning it's surely a voluntary choice by the producers, not something forced on them by the government or anything like that. Nil Einne (talk) 20:51, 22 May 2016 (UTC)