Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Hawaii-related articles

The following is a style guide for editing Hawaii-related articles. Place and people names in Hawaii follow special conventions as a result of contact between the native Hawaiian and English languages.

Orthography: special characters

Orthography refers to the correct spelling of a language. The Hawaiian language uses two special marks not used in English.

The kahakō is a diacritic, a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. It is written as a raised horizontal line, which indicates a long vowel:

(Ā ā, Ē ē, Ī ī, Ō ō, Ū ū)

The ʻokina ( ʻ ) is an apostrophe-like letter indicating the glottal stop, serving as a consonant..

Discussion may be needed to determine a consensus on use.

The standard western keyboard does not have these characters. They can be copied from the above description and pasted where needed in editing.

Use of the kahakō and ʻokina

(See below for use in article titles)

As with any letter or character, omission of the kahakō or ʻokina in Hawaiian words can change the pronunciation and often alter the meaning of the word in the native Hawaiian language. It may alter a geographical location; for example, Hawaii refers to the state, and Hawaiʻi refers to the island (see below. Kalaʻe and Ka Lae are different places. Lānaʻi is an island and has some other meanings, while lānai is a covered porch around a house, and lanai means "stiff-backed".

Use of the kahakō and ʻokina, as used in current standard Hawaiian orthography, is preferred in Hawaiian language words, names and usage in the body of articles dealing with Hawaii on the English Wikipedia. The online Hawaiian Dictionary or a similar reference work should be used as a guide for proper spelling and diacritic usage. The {{Hawaiian Dictionaries}} template is useful for citations. Please see the sections below for more guidance on a few special cases or specific topics.

In the body of the article, if you are using a wikilink to a term that should have the special characters but does not, it will be a "piped link", using the spelling that follows the standard Hawaiian orthography on the right side of the pipe. For example:

''[[Kau, Hawaii|Kaʻū district]]'' results in: Kaʻū district.

Avoid linking extra words that do not have direct meaning to the link.

In general, follow the orthography of use for the kahakō and ʻokina wherever possible when using Hawaiian words and phrases.

Article titles

The Wikipedia policy for article names provides the general guidance that special characters should not be employed in article titles. The Wikipedia naming conventions page provides more specific guidance.

• Use the most commonly used English version of the name of the subject as the title of the article, as you would find it in verifiable reliable sources (for example other encyclopedias and reference works). For example, use Pearl Harbor rather than Puʻuloa. This makes it easy to find, and easy to compare information with other sources. Wikipedia disambiguation pages are also used to help the reader find the desired article if several have similar names. For example, see Waimea.

Some existing titles might have an apostrophe, other approximation of an ʻokina or kahakō in them. Use redirect pages to make sure the title without any special characters can also be used. The move function should in many cases automatically leave such a redirect, but mass moves are generally discouraged. Spend your time improving content instead.

Italics

Foreign words and phrases in the English Wikipedia are italicized in the running text and in the article title except for proper names. Loanwords or phrases that have common use in English, such as "Hula", are also not italicized. WP:ITALICTITLE states that: "Italic formatting cannot be part of the actual (stored) title of a page; adding single quotes to a page title will cause those quotes to become part of the URL, rather than affecting its appearance. A title or part of it is made to appear in italics with the use of the DISPLAYTITLE magic word or the {{Italic title}} template. In addition, certain templates, including Template:Infobox book, Template:Infobox film, and Template:Infobox album, by default italicize the titles of the pages they appear on; see the pages for those templates for details. For details, see Italics and formatting on the technical restrictions page."

Hawaiian and Hawaii

"Hawaiian" is always capitalized. Do not insert the ʻokina between the two "i" characters; "Hawaiian" not Hawaiʻian, since an English word ending indicates it is being used as an English word. When describing persons, "Hawaiian" refers to persons descended from the aboriginal peoples of Ancient Hawaiʻi. The article describing the people is Native Hawaiians, but that term can be ambiguous, and the people call themselves Kānaka Maoli. When referring to residents of the state in general, "Hawaii resident" is preferred, unless it is clear from the context that the person in question is of Hawaiian descent. Distinguishing between people who are "Hawaiian" or "Native Hawaiian" versus people who are "Hawaii residents" or "islanders" is also recommended by the AP Stylebook.

The word "Hawaii" appears in most English dictionaries, so either spelling can be appropropriate. The modern US State is usually just "Hawaii". The ʻokina is often used when talking about the ancient culture, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, or the island of Hawaiʻi in the body of the article.

Geography

A good source for geographic names is the Geographic Names Information System, a resource developed by the United States Geological Survey. Many of the island names have the special characters in them, but the major ones are likely to appear in English dictionaries, so both forms are acceptable (for example, Oahu or Oʻahu). The "Place Names of Hawaii" and "Hawaiian Place Names" databases in {{Hawaiian Dictionaries}} are also good sources.

Honolulu

Honolulu is the largest city and capital of the state of Hawaii, covering the southeastern coast of Oʻahu. The City and County of Honolulu is the governmental entity which covers the entire island of Oʻahu. There are no separate city or town governments in the entire state.

Roads

Generally names are used by local residents for roads instead of numbers. However, state highways and "inter"-state highways are also given numbers. According to highway naming guidelines, articles should be given titles of either the name of the road, or "Hawaii Route 19" for example, but just use "Route 19" in the body.

Census data

Census Bureau policy in 2000 and earlier did not allow special characters in Hawaiian place names. Place names for the 2000 census were submitted by state officials in 1998, before the GNIS was updated to include the marks. This restriction was rescinded for the 2010 census. The United States Census Bureau attempted to have the CDP and GNIS names agree as much as possible for the 2010 census. The Hawaii Board on Geographical Names, under the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, has been working with USGS to use special characters in place names as appropriate.

Biography

Avoid literal translation from Hawaiian language sources. For example, instead of:

He was born, the son of Aliʻi Hoʻopuʻulani and Aliʻi Kalanianuiapui....

All people are "born", and the use of "he" makes it clear he was a "son" so those words convey no information. On the other hand, it was not clear which parent was his father and mother, since both use similar titles. A better wording might be:

He was born in the late 18th century. His father was High Chief Hoʻopuʻulani and his mother was High Chiefess Kalanianuiapui....

Dates

Although two styles of dates are allowed by the general date style guideline, the "month day, year" style is used almost exclusively within Hawaii, and with most sources (published in the islands or the U.S. mainland). Therefore the "month day, year" style is preferred.

Ancient names

As stated above, use kahakō and ʻokina in the body, but avoid them (and apostrophes) in the article titles. The older style of using hyphens is more popular for pre-historic figures, and may be mentioned for clarification.

Hawaiian monarchs

In article titles for Hawaiian monarchs and members of the royal family, use the reign name (and ordinal as appropriate); e.g. Kamehameha III.

• Do not use Christian names in the article title, nor the pre-reign name. Examples:
  • Kamehameha II, not Liholiho.
  • Kalākaua, not David Kalākaua.
• Avoid "of Hawaii" in the article title; the names of royalty are mostly unique to Hawaiʻi. Example: Kamehameha I, not Kamehameha I of Hawaii. One exception is Queen Emma of Hawaii.
• Avoid the words "King" "Queen" "Prince" etc. in the title, since that can change through a person's life.
• Refer to other given names in the article lead and body.

Use redirects as appropriate for alternate names. In the body of the article, refer to the name generally used by the person at the time the event is being discussed, being careful to explain when names change, such as when Prince Lot Kapuāiwa became King Kamehameha V.