Which US State Has "Yankee Doodle" As Its Official State Song?

Did You Know!

One rarely known fact about Hawaii is that the Hawaiian alphabet is one of the shortest alphabets in the world. Modern Hawaiian uses just 13 letters: five vowels—A, E, I, O, and U—seven consonants—H, K, L, M, N, P, and W—and the ʻokina, a symbol that represents a brief glottal stop in pronunciation.

The ʻokina may look like an apostrophe, but in Hawaiian it is considered an actual letter and can completely change how a word is pronounced. Hawaiian also uses the kahakō, a small line placed over a vowel, to show that the vowel sound should be held longer.

Because these marks affect both pronunciation and meaning, spelling Hawaiian place names correctly can be more important than many visitors realize. The language was once discouraged in schools, but major revitalization efforts beginning in the late 20th century helped bring Hawaiian back into classrooms, media, government, and everyday cultural life. Today, Hawaiian is one of the official languages of the state alongside English.