Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Hawaii-related articles

Orthography refers to the correct spelling of a language. The Hawaiian orthography has two characteristic features: the kahakō (macron), a vowel diacritic, and the ʻokina (glottal stop), a consonant letter.

Kahakō is the Hawaiian term for the macron, a short line added above a vowel letter to indicate that it represents a long vowel:

Ā ā, Ē ē, Ī ī, Ō ō, Ū ū.

The ʻokina is a letter of the Hawaiian alphabet that looks more or less like a turned apostrophe and indicates the glottal stop, which is a consonant in the Hawaiian language:^[1]

ʻ

An apostrophe or quotation mark should never be used in place of the ʻokina, even if one is used in the source. The official Unicode character U+02BB ʻ MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA should be used instead. In article titles, the Unicode character needs to be used directly, but for article text the {{okina}} template was created for this purpose. The template should be used in text to make the ʻokina visibly distinct to other editors from punctuation marks. The kahakō does not have a template but ā, ē, ī, ō, ū are available in the Latin section of the list of symbols in the editing box.

{{lang|haw|HAWAIIAN TEXT HERE}}

The Wikipedia policy for article names provides general guidance on naming. The Wikipedia naming conventions page provides more specific guidance. This page provides guidance for where the practice for Hawaiian articles differs from that of these universal Wikipedia conventions.

For place names, use the most common name of the subject as the title of the article, as you would find in reliable sources. For example, use Pearl Harbor rather than Puʻuloa. If the common name is of Hawaiian origin, follow the correct orthography as outlined in the Hawaiʻi State Board on Geographic Names.

When a non-Hawaiian name is used for the article, use the {{langx}} template to list the Hawaiian name in the lead, and include the Hawaiian name in the infobox as appropriate. However, do not use the lang and langx templates to differentiate the orthography. For example,

Pearl Harbor (Hawaiian: Puʻuloa) is... Y

Lānaʻi (English: Lanai) is... N

You should create redirects from common alternative names and spellings. This makes the article easy to find, and easy to compare information with other sources. Wikipedia disambiguation pages are also used to help the reader find the desired article if several have similar names. For example, Waimea.

Hawaiian-language sources, such as newspapers, books, journals and online references, may be used to source Hawaiian related articles. However, Wikipedia's Verifiability policy on non-English sources notes that "because this project is in English, English-language sources are preferred over non-English ones when they are available and of equal quality and relevance" and quotates from Hawaiian should be accompanied by a translation into English.

"Hawaiian" is always capitalized; do not use an ʻokina, as it is not a Hawaiian word. When describing persons, "Hawaiian" refers to persons descended from the aboriginal peoples of Ancient Hawaiʻi. The article describing the people is Native Hawaiians, but that term can be ambiguous, and the people call themselves Kānaka Maoli. When referring to residents of the state in general, "Hawaii resident" is preferred, unless it is clear from the context that the person in question is of Hawaiian descent. Distinguishing between people who are "Hawaiian" or "Native Hawaiian" versus people who are "Hawaii residents" or "islanders" is also recommended by the AP Stylebook.^[7]

Either the spelling "Hawaii" or "Hawaiʻi" can be appropriate. The US State and the archipelago are usually spelled "Hawaii", though there are exceptions with proper names such as the University of Hawaiʻi. The ʻokina is generally used when talking about the ancient culture, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, or the island of Hawaiʻi.

A good source for geographic names is the Geographic Names Information System, a resource developed by the United States Geological Survey.^[8] Another is the Hawaiʻi State Board on Geographic Names. Many of the island names have the Hawaiian letters in them, but the major ones are likely to appear in English dictionaries, so both forms are acceptable (for example, Oahu or Oʻahu). The "Place Names of Hawaii" and "Hawaiian Place Names" databases in {{Hawaiian Dictionaries}} are also good sources.

Census Bureau policy in 2000 and earlier did not allow non-English letters in Hawaiian place names. Place names for the 2000 census were submitted by state officials in 1998, before the GNIS was updated to accommodate Hawaiian names and orthography. The United States Census Bureau attempted to have the CDP and GNIS names agree as much as possible for the 2010 census. The Hawaiʻi Board on Geographical Names, under the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, has been working with USGS to use proper orthography in place names.^[9]

Avoid literal translation from Hawaiian-language sources. For example, improvements could be made to the passage: "He was born, the son of Aliʻi Hoʻopuʻulani and Aliʻi Kalanianuiapui." All people are "born", and the use of "he" makes it clear he was a "son" so those words convey no additional information. On the other hand, it would not be clear which parent was his father and which his mother, since they have similar titles. A better wording might be: "He was born in the late 18th century. His father was High Chief Hoʻopuʻulani and his mother was High Chiefess Kalanianuiapui."