A Timeline of Revitalization

1814

ʻŌpūkaha‘ia, a Hawaiian living in New England, writes his own spelling book, grammar, and dictionary for Hawaiian, then an unwritten language. ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia had become a Christian and studied Hebrew and Latin in order to begin his translation of the Bible into Hawaiian. He invites missionaries to join with him to travel back to Hawai‘i. He dies and his books are lost before missionaries leave for Hawai‘i in 1819.

1822

The first printing of the Hawaiian language occurs with eight pages of a spelling book. The writing system is similar to that already used by missionaries in Tahiti.

1822-1824

King Liholiho sends out Hawaiians to teach the new skill of reading into the country districts. Teachers such as Kaomimoe, establish schools based on the model of the traditional Hawaiian hālau hula (hula schools) and Hawaiian traditions of teaching reading and writing through chanted syllables (hakalama) develop even before Hawaiians convert to Christianity.

1826

Missionaries standardize the Hawaiian alphabet into its present form and order to include vowels followed by indigenous consonants and then consonants used in words borrowed from other languages.

1831

Lahainaluna established as a teacher training college taught through Hawaiian. It is the first college west of the Mississippi River and eventually subjects such as trigonometry, anatomy, world geography, Greek and English are taught there through Hawaiian.