Hawaiian language

Hawaiian (ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, pronounced [ʔoːˈlɛlo həˈvɐiʔi]) is a critically endangered Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, originating in and native to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the historic native language of the Hawaiian people. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi. King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian-language constitution in 1839 and 1840.

In 1896, the Republic of Hawaii passed Act 57, an English-only law which subsequently banned Hawaiian language as the medium of instruction in publicly funded schools and promoted strict physical punishment for children caught speaking the Hawaiian language in schools. The Hawaiian language was not again allowed to be used as a medium of instruction in Hawaii's public schools until 1987, a span of 91 years. The number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. English essentially displaced Hawaiian on six of seven inhabited islands. In 2001, native speakers of Hawaiian amounted to less than 0.1% of the statewide population.

Nevertheless, from around 1949 to the present day, there has been a gradual increase in attention to and promotion of the language. Public Hawaiian-language immersion preschools called Pūnana Leo were established in 1984; other immersion schools followed soon after that. Most of the first students to start in immersion preschool have since graduated from college, and many are fluent Hawaiian speakers. However, the language is still classified as critically endangered by UNESCO.

A creole language, Hawaiian Pidgin (also called Hawaii Creole English, or HCE), is more commonly spoken in Hawai‘i than Hawaiian.