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 is similar in grammar and meaning to the ʻŌlelo Noʻeau featured on our Home Page! I'll provide a breakdown for your understanding.
- ʻUʻuku = Small, little
- Nō = Emphatic marker; does not need to be translated, but can be as "indeed," "really," "very"
- ʻUwiki = Wick; This is an older spelling of the Hawaiian word ʻuiki, which means you do not the pronounce the w as a v (if you had preferred to use this sound). It is a Hawaiianization of the English, so note the similarities in sound!
- Pipī = almost extinguished, not burning easily
- ʻā = To burn; to shine, sparkle
- ʻana = Nominalizer (makes a verb into a noun); in English, it adds a -ing to the end of a verb; more details here
All together:
The wick is very small, the burning is indeed almost exstinguished/not burning easily
The wick is very small, the shining is very dim
Note:
In English, we usually supply the word "when" to make it sound less awkward, but notice how in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau there is frequently a pattern - Adjective + Subject, Adjective + Subject - no "when," "then," or other small in-between words, this is all the information you need to get the gist of the proverb. Remember this for when you see other ʻŌlelo Noʻeau (or review some old ones), and when you are trying to translate something from English into Hawaiian!
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