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From the Zippys.com website: Did you know that Hawaiʻi is the only US state to have two official state languages - English and Hawaiian ('Ōlelo Hawaiʻi)? The month of February is designated as "Mahina 'Ōlelo Hawaiʻi" (Hawaiian language month) by the Hawaiʻi State legislature, various county councils around Hawaiʻi, and by other organizations. The purpose for the month is to celebrate and normalize the use of 'Ōlelo Hawaiʻi in everyday life, as well as to perpetuate the Hawaiian culture. Zippy's is proud to celebrate all of the cultures in Hawai'i that make our home a special place in the world. For the month of February, Zippy's is supporting Mahina 'Ōlelo Hawaiʻi Month by giving you an opportunity to learn a little bit of the language and to see what the Zippy's menu looks like in 'Ōlelo Hawaiʻi! Check out the Papa Kuhikuhi Mea`ai o ka Hale `Aina `o Zippy's in PDF form here. (Makemake `o Kumu Cowell i ka Pā Zip!)

House Bill 157, introduced by State Representative Diamond Garcia, proposes requiring and implementing the teaching of the Hawaiian language, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, for public school students grades K through 12. The proposal would appropriate $5 million to create ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi curriculum and hire teachers to implement the program. The state Department of Education said in a statement they strongly support expanding ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in public schools. The DOE currently offers it as a language course at 32 of its 64 high schools and Hawaiian language immersion is an option at 22 of its schools statewide. DOE officials say they would need to look at their ability to teach ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi at every grade level in all schools because qualified Hawaiian language teachers are already a high-need area with recruitment challenges.

Languages often adapt naturally to the world around them. Speakers create new words to communicate new concepts. But when a language isn't spoken widely enough to adapt on its own - as with Hawaiian - it may need help to move things along. The Hawaiian language has nearly 30,000 words. But up until the late 1980s, the language didn't have words for subjects like soccer, computer or recycling. So a group of linguists and language advocates formed a lexicon committee in 1987 to invent new words. The committee has created at least 7,500 new words since its inception. Many of the committee's entries have been published in a modern Hawaiian language dictionary called Māmāka Kaiao. Much of the group's work helped to make Hawaiian teachable in language immersion schools. But some are skeptical of the committee's work. One interviewee noted that there is a small group creating words that we "need" now, but it's unclear why that word was chosen or how. Even the pronunciation of new words can be confusing, she adds. Disagreements among Hawaiian speakers may seem like bad news for spreading the language. But Larry Kimura, UH-Hilo Hawaiian language professor, says it's a sign that the language is growing. He said the lexicon committee helps speed up what would have been an otherwise natural process of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi adapting to the world around it.

Increasing demand is sparking conversations around Hawai`iʻs constitutional duty to provide access to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian language education. It's been three years since the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled that the state has a constitutional duty to provide immersion education. The case involved Chelsa-Marie Kealohalani Clarabal. She wanted an immersion education for her daughters on Lānaʻi where there was no such program. "The legal landscape at the time was there was no case law that we could cite," said Honolulu attorney Sharla Manley who represents the Clarabal ʻohana. "There were three provisions of the state constitution - one being the official languages provision, the other provision being the Hawaiian education provision and thereʻs the provision for traditional and customary practices," Manley told HPR. But no court had enforced any of these provisions when it came to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi until the Clarabal case.

The growing number of Hawaiian language accounts on social media is sparking discussions on how ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi can take advantage of platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Traditional approaches to language revitalization, like classroom instruction, have been fruitful, but using social media may help raise the visibility and accessibility of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.

This website comprehensively lists events associated with Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Month). Feel free to participate and attend!

Like the Islands themselves, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian language) is a living, breathing part of the native culture. This reflection of the two, the symbiotic relationship between land and language, is displayed in details such as how many words and terms exist in Hawaiian for rain alone: more than 200.

Sherry Broder, local attorney, speaks about the legal status of Hawaiian as an official language and the 2018 arrest warrant issued for a Maui professor who spoke Hawaiian in court and the debate over using Hawaiian Language in court. Currently the state is not legally required to provide court interpreters for people who prefer to use `Ōlelo Hawai`i but who can also speak English.

One could argue that Niʻihau Hawaiian is the closest we've got to early forms of the language spoken in the islands. However, the language may be dying out. One interviewee noted the more frequent use of English amongst younger Ni`hau residents and expressed worry that when young speakers use English, they'll start to think in English, possibly leading them to abandon the Hawaiian way of thinking, and perhaps the language. Niʻihau speakers don't use diacritical marks like ʻokina (glottal stop) and kahakō (macron), which have become invaluable aids for language learners. They do, however, use "t"s and "r"s in place of "k"s and "l"s (e.g. ke aloha= te aroha, Ni`ihau style) - something that isn't taught in universities and immersion schools. Hawaiian language scholar Keao NeSmith says there's a history there. He says missionaries were confused by the Hawaiian language when they arrived. They were determined to translate the Bible into Hawaiian, but they couldn't figure out when to swap the "t" for the "k" and the "l" for the "r". So they created a standardized alphabet that dropped the use of "t'"s and "r"s. NeSmith says Niʻihau speakers chose not to alter their spoken language. But the missionary system gained a stronghold in the rest of the islands through the 1800s. Many of the Hawaiian language documents developed during this period, including newspapers, would become a go-to repository for the revitalization of the ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi a century later as the number of native speakers began to decline.

This paper is about the Hawaiian language in the form of education in our islands. It analyzed how attending a Hawaiian language immersion school affects students. After interviewing students who attend Papahana Kaiapuni (a Hawaiian immersion school), they found that students were more invested in practicing traditional Hawaiian values, and influenced cultural pride among family members. Attending the school also positive community views and about both Hawaiian language and cultural revitalization efforts.

Hawaiian culture and traditions are being preserved in many different ways, most of which are showcased at the Merrie Monarch Festival every year. Hula is one of the main traditions practiced, but hula can only exist if the Hawaiian language does, as the dance is a performance of oli and mele. Before westernization, the Hawaiian people did not write down anything, but rather passed down stories through oral traditions such as oli and mele. ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, an official state language, is required to be taught in public schools now.