Banner Logo
Home
The Real Kato
About Me
Twitter
Facebook
Frozen Lunches
Links
Kottke
Daring Fireball
Amalah
Secret Agent Josephine
Dooce
Contact



Archives
Most Recent

2024 March
2006 April
2006 March
2006 February
2006 January
2005 December
2005 November
2005 October
2005 September
2005 August
2005 July
2005 June
2005 May


Categories
All Categories 

bloggers 
books 
commentary 
dating 
food 
funnyhaha 
interesting 
life 
movies 
music 
politics 
reviews 
science 
site-business 
sports 
style 
techwatch 
television 
theater 
travel 


Recent Comments
On College Football 2022: Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Pre...
Ken said:
Yeah, we've both had our share of hope and disappointment in this game. Let's just hope for a good b...
On College Football 2022: Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Pre...
Dan* said:
I'm not sure how I feel about this game. On one hand, I feel pretty optimistic that we have the tale...
On College Football 2022: Week 1 Preview
Dan* said:
Glad to see you'll be back writing football again, Ken! Congrats on the easy win today. You didn't ...
On College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 P...
Ken said:
Yeah, sorry one of our teams had to lose. I've come to appreciate Penn State as a classy and sympath...
On College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 P...
Dan* said:
Hey Ken, congratulations on the win yesterday! Some really odd choices by our coaching staff in that...


<< Previous: Television: Idol Upd... | Next: Happy Birthday, Jen >>

Humuhumunukunukuapuaa
Wednesday, 2006 April 19 - 8:32 pm
No, really. Humuhumunukunukuapuaa.

Yesterday I read an article about a drive to reinstate the rectangular triggerfish as Hawaii's official state fish. The fish's Hawaiian name is "humuhumunukunukuapuaa", so I kept repeating that to myself over and over for the rest of the day. It's really not as hard to say as it looks. If you break it down, it's "humu-humu... nuku-nuku... a-pua-a". Say it to yourself. You'll enjoy it.

I have a Hawaiian-English dictionary that I picked up in Hawaii when our family went there on vacation, when I was a kid. There's a section in it that lists the Hawaiian equivalents for common English names. The names don't always translate directly because Hawaiian has only seven consonants. (Well, eight if you count the glottal stop.) "Ken" translates pretty cleanly to "Keni"... which also happens to mean "small change" in Hawaiian. If you ever want to give me a new nickname, I suppose you can call me Small Change.

In college, we had great fun with the fact that "Brad" becomes "Palaka" in Hawaiian. The word means "indifferent", which isn't all that crazy... but the word just sounds so funny that if you know someone named Brad, you just itch to call him Palaka. And sure enough, the guy in the dorm room next door to mine was named Brad, and we mercilessly called him Palaka for an entire year.

There was another guy I knew in high school and college named Jon Uy. "Uy" is pronounced "wee"... or more like oui for you French-speaking types. His middle initial was "P", though, and he would often insist on using the initial on papers and his signature and such. So of course, we started calling him "Pee Wee". He sure did hate that nickname at first, but it stuck. After about three years, he even started calling himself Pee Wee. Maybe he got tired of having people say "Jon Who?" when he called them on the phone. "Jon Who?" "Jon Uy." "We who?" "Not we, me." "You?" "Oui." "What?"
Permalink  4 Comment   Bookmark and Share
Posted by Ken in: funnyhahainteresting

Comments

Comment #1 from Jen (Guest)
2006 Apr 19 - 11:25 pm : #
In elementary school, my friend Matthew and I both had salt-water aquariums, including triggerfish. We loved humahumanukanukaapuah, and said it all the time. We thought we were very cool.

I had completely forgotten about that. Thanks for "triggering" the memory. Yes, groan.
Comment #2 from JuanC (Guest)
2006 Apr 20 - 9:38 am : #
You know, Brad is a bit indifferent sometimes...
Comment #3 from Javi (Guest)
2006 Apr 20 - 11:30 am : #
i think malkovich gave a great performance as humuhumunukunukuapuaa in the hitchhiker's movie.
Comment #4 from Amy (Guest)
2006 Apr 25 - 8:36 am : #
Did you know the official fish of New York is Abe Vigoda?

Comments are closed for this post.
Login


Search This Site
Powered by FreeFind