The okina () is the letter that transcribes the glottal stop consonant in Hawaiian. It does not have distinct uppercase and lowercase forms, and is represented electronically by the modifier letter turned comma: .
A phonemic glottal stop exists in many other Polynesian languages as well; these are usually written by a similar apostrophe-like letter.
Names
Following are the names of the glottal stop consonant in various Polynesian languages, and notes on how they are represented in text.
Language Vernacular name Literal meaning Notes Hawaiian Separator; cutting; breaking The okina is often replaced in computer publications by the grave accent (), the left single quotation mark (), or the apostrophe (), especially when the correct typographical mark () is not available. Samoan "Inverted comma"—inverted () comma () Often replaced by an apostrophe in modern publications, recognized by Samoan scholars and the wider community. Use of the apostrophe and macron diacritics in Samoan words was readopted by the Ministry of Education in 2012 after having been abandoned in the 1960s. Tahitian = to hardenTongan (honorific for ) Throat maker Typeset by the same character () as the okina.Rapa Nui In electronic texts tends to be written with a (always lower-case) saltillo . (41st page of the downloadable PDF file) Cook Islands Māori or "hamza" or "hamza mark" Not commonly used in daily writing. The 2014 Revised New Testament Bible models the use of the Saltillo character to mark the glottal stop. The okina is also used in some contemporary writing. Wallisian By throat Not used in daily writing. Various graphic forms are used.
Appearance
In many typefaces, the symbol for the ʻokina looks identical to the symbol for the curved single opening quotation mark. In others (like Linux Libertine) it is a slightly different size, either larger or smaller, as seen in the adjacent image.
The phrase illustrated is surrounded by single opening and closing quotation marks. There is one ʻokina before the Ō and another one before the last i. These are slightly smaller than the quotation marks in the first line and slightly larger in the second.
Case The okina is treated as a separate letter in the Hawaiian alphabet. It is unicameral—that is, it does not have separate uppercase (capital or majuscule) and lowercase (small or minuscule) forms—unlike the other letters, all of which are basic Latin letters. It is used only before vowels: a, e, i, o, u. For words that begin with an okina, capitalization rules affect the vowel: for instance, at the beginning of a sentence, the name of the letter is written "Okina", with a capital O.
Geographic names in the United States The United States Board on Geographic Names lists relevant place names both with and without the okina and kahakō (macron) in the Geographic Names Information System. Colloquially and formally, the forms have long been used interchangeably.
Computer encoding
Apostrophes and quotation marks In the (limited) ASCII character set, the okina was typically represented by the apostrophe character (), conventionally a straight typewriter apostrophe, thus lacking the curve of the okina proper. In some computer fonts, the ASCII apostrophe is rendered as a right single quotation mark, which is an even less satisfactory glyph for the okina—essentially a 180° rotation of the correct shape.
Many subsequent "extended ASCII" character sets expanded on the overloaded ASCII apostrophe, providing distinct characters for the left and right single quotation marks. The left single quotation mark has been used as an acceptable approximation to the okina, though it still has problems: the okina is a letter, not a punctuation mark, which may cause incorrect behaviour in automated text processing. Additionally, the left single quotation mark is represented in some typefaces by a glyph shaped like a mirrored miniature (rather than like a ), and thus unsuitable for the okina.
Unicode
In the Unicode standard, the preferred character for the okina is ().
See also Ayin, pronounced as a glottal stop in some languages
, which has a Unicode codepoint that is also used for the umlaut (diacritic)
References
External links Apple compatibility with Hawaiian added in OS 10.2 "Apple Computer Includes Hawaiian Language Support With Latest Operating System". () Honolulu Advertiser (September 2, 2002): "I mua! Macintosh 'speaks' Hawaiian" Starbulletin (September 16, 2002): "Macs upgrade to isle punctuation" () SFGate (September 9, 2002): "Hawaiian language advocates applaud new Mac operating system". Honolulu Advertiser (June 28, 2004): "Hawaiian spellings catch on, but slowly". (On slow progress in using proper Hawaiian spellings instead of makeshift English spelling.) Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Library: Browser information for viewing Hawaiian characters () The Okina in French Polynesian , a graphic example on the top of the page of the official website of the commune of Faʻaʻā, capital of the French Polynesia (this explains why the INSEE still encodes it like the French apostrophe). Polynesian Font hints and information on encoding .