ʻŌlelo Noʻeau are Hawaiian proverbs that often offer wisdom for a person to live by. The ones chosen are intended to apply particularly to your learning of the Hawaiian language in hopes to keep up your motivation.
This month's proverb makes use of Locatives. I'll provide a breakdown for your understanding. This one is fairly popular, so you might see it around!
- ʻO = Marker for an Equational Sentence ("is"). Learn more about this structure here.
- Kahua = Foundation, base, site, field; as a verb: to build the foundation
- Mamua (now written as two words: ma mua) = First, before, in the front
- Mahope (now written as two words: ma hope) = Last, after, behind, in the back
- Kūkulu = Building, structure; as a verb: to build a structure
All together:
The foundation/base is first, after is the building.
Building the foundation is first, after is building the structure.
Note:
If you added o in the second half of the sentence (mahope o ke kūkulu), it changes the meaning of this proverb entirely. Do you know why? Tell us in the comments!
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