Expert: Malia - 4/30/2009

Question
i looked up my name in hawaiian and it came out to be alawelinika and my daughters is apailiele. Would you be able to tell me how these are pronounced? My name is alvernita and hers is abrielle.

Answer
Aloha,
I love your name Alvernita, so pretty.
The names you mention are the Hawaiian form of names, not necessarily true Hawaiian names, just to let you know.
There is one way of translating a name, which is using the 13 letters the Hawaiian language uses, or then finding the true meaning of one's name and then finding a similar meaning in Hawaiian, often resulting in a completely different name than one's original name.
For now your names would be pronounced the following way:

A-la-we-li-ni-ka

the Hawaiians pronounce every syllable separately:
A= like the a in tra la la
la=like the la in tra la la
we=like way but the w like a v
li=like the Lee in Bruce Lee
ni=like the ni in Nissan
ka= like the the ca in Africa

A-pa-ili-ele

A=like the a in tra la la
pa= like papa
ili=the i like an e in English and li like the lee in Bruce Lee
ele=like the ele in elevator but the e even more pronounced like an American a almost



Let me know if this is clear enough, if not I will try to rephrase.
Malia