Ka Pi’apa: letters and pronounciation
In ‘Olelo Hawai’i, there are 12 letters plus the ‘okina (‘) and the kahako (-). The ‘okina looks like an apostrophe and is pronounced as a glottal stop. The kahako is a macron that goes over the vowel in certain words to elongate the sound of the vowel…The macron is not always shown….The 12 letters are: a,e,i,o,u,h,k,l,m,n,p,w. These are pronounced: a= ah, e=eh, i=ee, o=oh, u=ue (long u sound), h=he, k=ke, l=la, m=mu, n=nu, p=pi, w=ve, okina=’
