Quote:
Originally Posted by erimir
Oh, I had the opportunity to go to Honaunau-Napoopoo. But I didn't.
But apparently the name is not technically pronounced or spelled like English "poopoo", it's Hōnaunau-Napoʻopoʻo, with the ʻ being a glottal stop. The ʻokina tends to be left out of US government documents, but Hawaiian road signs and things would include the proper Hawaiian spelling.
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My very lay person understanding is that with Hawaiian words, when you have a double-vowel, you pronounce each vowel. So, yeah, one would have to pronounce a ' stop between the pairs of O's in Napoopoo to break up the sound.
Even in the word Hawaii (Hawai'i), both I's are pronounced, though the first I gets mushed into the AI diphthong. So it's Hawai-ee, as opposed to Hawah-ee. Meanwhile Kauai is just Kauai, not Kauai-ee like I hear a lot. When in doubt, sound it out people!
My other favorite example is the town of Kaaawa (Ka'a'awa), where each A is pronounced seprately, like Kah-ah-awa.
