Hawaii

The Hawaiian language is so named from the name of the largest island, Hawai'i (Hawaiʻi in Hawaiian language), in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed, originally from a Polynesian language of the South Pacific, most likely Marquesan or Tahitian. The island name was first written in English, in 1778 by British explorer James Cook and his crew members. They wrote it as "Owhyhee" or "Owhyee". Explorers Mortimer (1791) and Otto von Kotzebue (1821) used that spelling (Schütz 1994:44, 459).

The initial "O" in the name is a reflection of the fact that unique identity is predicated in Hawaiian by using a copula form, ʻo, immediately before a proper noun (Carter 1996:144, 174). Thus, in Hawaiian, the name of the island is expressed by saying ʻO Hawaiʻi, which means "[This] is Hawaii" (Carter 1996:187–188). Note that the Cook expedition also wrote "Otaheite" rather than "Tahiti" (Schütz 1994:41).

The spelling "why" in the name reflects the [hw] pronunciation of wh in 18th-century English. Why was pronounced [hwai]. The spelling "hee" or "ee" in the name represents the sounds [hi], [ʔi], or [i] (Schütz 1994:61–65).

Putting the parts together, O-why-hee reflects [o-hwai-ʔi], a reasonable approximation of the native pronunciation, [ʔo hʌ.ˈwʌi.ʔi].

American missionaries bound for Hawaii used the phrases "Owhihe Language" and "Owhyhee language", in Boston prior to their departure in October 1819 and during their five-month voyage to Hawaii (Schütz 1994:304, 475). They still used such phrases as late as February 1822 (Schütz 1994:108–109). However, by July 1823, they used the phrase "Hawaiian Language" (Schütz 1994:306).

In Hawaiian, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi means "Hawaiian language". (The adjective follows the noun — Carter 1996:3 Figure 1).