Thursday, December 22, 2011

Ka'uhoneokaikaikapomaikaimulani

Fertility God near Paia on Maui
A few years ago while in Hawaii I noticed a bumper sticker on a truck while walking through a parking lot on Maui.  Struck by the length of the word
Ka'uhoneokaikaikapomaikaimulani, I stood there trying to pronounce it. The owner of the vehicle arrived and I asked her its meaning which she shared with me;  "protection of the Heavens."  I am moved by the Hawaiian language and the beauty of this word. Unable to find it as one word in my Hawaiian dictionary, it appears to be made up of a variety of words and meanings.

"Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow."  
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

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