Kanaka Maoli
/kəˈnɑːkə maʊˈliː/noun
A Hawaiian term meaning a Native Hawaiian person or the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi.
Did you know?Kanaka Maoli became especially significant as a self-designation during the Hawaiian cultural renaissance and sovereignty movements of the late twentieth century.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Polynesian
PPN
*taŋata
“Person or human being”
Proto-Eastern Polynesian
PEP
*taŋata
“Person or human being”
Early Hawaiian
Hawaiian
kanaka
“Person, human being; Hawaiian sound changes transformed ancestral *t into k and *ŋ into n”
Traditional Hawaiian
Hawaiian
maoli
“Native, genuine, true, or indigenous”
19th Century
Hawaiian English
Kanaka Maoli
“Native Hawaiian person or people; increasingly used in contrast with foreign settlers”
Modern English
English
Kanaka Maoli
“A Native Hawaiian self-designation and term for the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi”