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john commented on the word mele kalikimaka
“On ‘Good Morning America,’ de Nies, who grew up in Honolulu, tasted a traditional plate lunch that Obama is said to favor. She and Miller also recruited a local ukulele player to sing ‘Mele Kalikimaka’ (the Hawaiian translation for ‘Merry Christmas’) on camera.�?
The Washington Post, Life's Not Necessarily A Beach for Press Corps, by Philip Rucker, December 26, 2008
December 27, 2008
rolig commented on the word mele kalikimaka
I wonder if "Mele Kalikimaka" is really a translation. I would guess that it rather represents the rendering of the English words "Merry Christmas" into Hawaiian phonology, with the r-sound turning into the l-sound, /s/ turning into /k/ and the insertion of extra vowels to keep consonantal sounds apart. Similarly, though with different rules, the Polynesian toponym Kiribati derives from Gilbert.
December 27, 2008