Haole

Haole, (pronounced: How-leh) in the Hawaiian language, means "foreign" or "foreigner"; it can be used in reference to people, plants, and animals. The origins of the word predate the 1778 arrival of Captain James Cook (which is the general accepted date of first contact with westerners), as recorded in several chants stemming from antiquity.

Haole, in its current definition, first became associated with the children of Caucasian immigrants in the early 1820s. It unified the self-identity of these Hawai'i-born children whose parents were as much culturally different as they were similar. For Haole children whose first language was Hawaiian, their parents were either religious missionaries or secular businessmen, and hailed from both sides of the Atlantic ocean, not necessarily speaking the same language or English dialect.

With the first three generations of Haole playing key roles in the rise of the economic and political power shifts that lasted through the turn of the 20th century, Haole evolved into a term that was often used in contempt. Though its first usage in such context had to do with classist origins, it has evolved further to racial meaning, erroneously replacing "malihini" (newcomer) in addressing people who move to Hawai'i from the U.S. mainland. Today it is often applied to those who are of Caucasian ancestry, or those who think or behave in a foreign manner.

In current application, Haole is often, but certainly not always, used as a racially derrogatory word and can be used descriptively or derisively.

Origins and etymology

A common popular etymology claims that the word is derived from "hāʻole", literally meaning "no breath". Foreigners did not know or use the honi (the Hawaiian word for "kiss"), a Polynesian/Hawaiian greeting by touching nose-to-nose and inhaling or essentially sharing each other's breaths, and so the foreigners were described as "breathless." The implication is that foreigners are aloof and ignorant of local ways - said by some to be a common stereotype in Hawaiʻi.

Many linguists believe that this etymology is erroneous, however, for these reasons:

There are innumerable citations from Hawaiian showing that haole simply means "foreign." For example, haole ʻeleʻele means a dark-skinned foreigner. The term is found in ancient chants which pre-date European contact.

The word 'breath' is hā (with a macron or kahakō over the a), not plain ha. The word 'not' is ʻole, with a glottal stop or ʻokina, not ole, which means "fang." In spoken Hawaiian, vowel length is contrastive, and these are major differences in pronunciation. However, they would not appear in Hawaiian dictionaries using the older form of Hawaiian spelling, which did not use kahakō or ʻokina (considered a consonant) to indicate vowel length and glottal stops. Only modern dictionaries show the kahakō and ʻokina. It seems likely that the folk etymology was created by someone with only a dictionary knowledge of Hawaiian, using an older dictionary.

However, as the word predates the first written Hawai'ian dictionary by centuries, and pronunciations have evolved over that time, the debate continues, and each camp has its adherents. There are no alternate theories of the origin of the word haole, yet it has become a regional word in regards to non-local individuals on many of the Pacific Islands. In practice, though, the word is not so highly charged in many of the other islands, such as Guam or Saipan. Other Polynesian languages, such as Tongan and Samoan, use the word pālangi or papālangi (ultimately linked to a word meaning Western European, or a Frank, see farangi).

Sources and further reading

The Mainland Haole: The White Experience in Hawaiʻi. By Elvi Whittaker. 1986. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ohnuma, Keiko (2002). "Local Haole - A Contradiction in Terms? The dilemma of being white, born and raised in Hawai'i". Cultural Values. 6: 273–285.
Judy Rohrer. "Haole Girl: Identity and White Privilege in Hawaiʻi". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |Journal= ignored (|journal= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Pages= ignored (|pages= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)
Judy Rohrer (2006). ""Got Race?" The Production of Haole and the Distortion of Indigeneity in the Rice Decision". The Contemporary Pacific. 18: 1–31.

Origins and etymology

Sources and further reading

See also