Q 01/05

Which Hawaiian word for 'quick' did Ward Cunningham borrow in 1995 to name his user-editable website?

A) Hele

B) Wiki

C) Pono

D) Lani

Answer · why

B) Wiki

Wiki came to Ward Cunningham from the Wiki Wiki Shuttle, a bus that runs between terminals at Honolulu's airport. He preferred it to calling his inven...

Q 02/05

Which small instrument, based on Portuguese immigrants' guitars, has a Hawaiian name meaning 'jumping flea'?

A) Ukulele

B) Autoharp

C) Mandolin

D) Steel guitar

Answer · why

A) Ukulele

Ukulele roughly translates as 'jumping flea', perhaps for the way a player's fingers leap across the strings. It grew out of the machete and other sma...

Q 03/05

Hawaii's state fish, the humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, has a Hawaiian name describing a snout like which animal's?

A) A dog

B) A rat

C) A pig

D) A parrot

Answer · why

C) A pig

A pig is the animal in the name, which means 'triggerfish with a snout like a pig'. The reef triggerfish even grunts like one when someone holds it.

Q 04/05

Mele Kalikimaka, the title of a 1950 Bing Crosby recording, is the Hawaiian way of saying which English phrase?

A) Happy New Year

B) Season's greetings

C) Happy birthday

D) Merry Christmas

Answer · why

D) Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas becomes Mele Kalikimaka because Hawaiian has no R or S sound and never lets two consonants sit side by side. L and K stand in, and ext...

Q 05/05

How many letters are in the modern Hawaiian alphabet, which American missionaries trimmed down in 1826?

A) 6

B) 13

C) 26

D) 52

Answer · why

B) 13

13 letters are all that written Hawaiian needs, and one of them stands for the glottal stop. The first printed version of 1822 had more, including B, ...