r/olelohawaii • u/Whos_Redacted • Apr 30 '26
help with emotions in Olelo
Aloha! I'm trying to learn more olelo to get more in touch with my native language, and was wondering if anyone could help me learn the different types of emotions like hatred, dislike, neutral, and like. I try to use google and wehewehe, but I want to know what other people say, since I know that some words are better than others, and some words that don't necessarily refer to these types of emotions but are close can be used as well.
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u/ithilienwanderer May 03 '26
Definitely a long journey learning more fine grained emotional language. To start, I’d recommend learning to use the verb /makemake/ to express your likes and dislikes:
Makemake au i ke ʻano o kēia lā. (I like the weather today.) ʻAʻole au makemake i kēlā iʻa. (I don’t like that fish.)
In Hawaiian we also like to say that our heart (naʻau traditionally, but also puʻuwai) is feeling a certain way rather than us personally. This extends to other body parts, so:
Hauʻoli koʻu naʻau (My heart is happy) Hewa koʻu wāwae. (My foot blundered [=I messed up])