Welaahilaninui
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Welaahilaninui | |
|---|---|
| Father | Iwahinakiʻiakea |
| Mother | Lohanakiʻipapa |
| Wife | Owe |
| Issue | Kahiko |
In Hawaiian mythology, Welaʻahilaninui (“Wela’ahilani the Great”) was a god or the first man, the forefather of Hawaiians.[1][2] He is mentioned as an ancestor of Hawaiian chiefs in the ancient Hawaiian chant Kumulipo.[3]
Wela’ahilaninui’s name can also be spelled as Wela-Ahi-Lani-Nui. Wela means “heat” or “lust”,[4] whilst ahi means “fire”.[5] Lani is a word for sky.[6] Nui means “the great”.
An alternative (or secondary semantic layer) to “fire” is “one”, or “first” as with kahi. This is possible through a phenomenon known in linguistics as t-glottalization or glottal replacement, which occurs when the letter “t” shifts to become the glottal stop, or okina. This is a pattern frequently seen in many languages, such as the Cockney form of the English language [7][8] While “kahi” does not have an onset “t”, it should be recognized that “kahi” and, from the Samoan language, “tasi” share a common origin as both mean “one”, or “first”.[9]
Thus Wela-Kahi-Lani-Nui may allude to “the great, original burning fire in the heavens”.