[Ads-l] "hafu"

Benjamin Barrett gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Sun May 31 02:16:16 UTC 2015


I know nothing about this, but Googling, it seems not.

I see that Dave Wilton(!) has a 2003 blog entry with a date of 1919 for 
hapa and perhaps knows more:
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/919/

http://bit.ly/1cqAIFh says that fractions were introduced into Tahitian, 
and that "hapa" was introduced into Hawaiian, acquired the general 
meaning of "part" and was extended for use in fractions.

http://bit.ly/1RA9AU0 says that a pidgin was in use in the first half of 
the nineteenth century and referred to as hapa haole.

FWIW
Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home
> Joel Berson <mailto:berson at ATT.NET>
> May 30, 2015 at 5:43 PM
> Does "hapa" suggest an origin not from English "half" but from a Polynesian=
>   language (particularly if "hapa" can also mean "portion", and given the ot=
> her comments about "hapu")?=C2=A0 Or at least a branched derivation from En=
> glish "half" to both Polynesian "hapu" and Japanese "hafu"?Joel
>        From: Benjamin Barrett<gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>   To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
>   Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2015 4:09 PM
>   Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "hafu"
>    =20
> The "New Pocket Hawaiian Dictionary" (1992) says "hapa" is of mixed=20
> blood and "hapa haole" is part-white. Both definitions are for people as=20
> well as things (hapa also meaning portion, fragment). BB
>> May 30, 2015 at 12:40 PM
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header=20
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Jim Parish<jparish at SIUE.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: "hafu"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>> If I recall correctly, when I lived in Hawaii (mid-'60s), as often as
>> not the phrase was "hapa haole" - "half white", with the implication
>> that the other half was Asian or Pacific Islander.
>>
>> Jim Parish
>>
>
>
>
> Benjamin Barrett <mailto:gogaku at ix.netcom.com>
> May 30, 2015 at 1:09 PM
> The "New Pocket Hawaiian Dictionary" (1992) says "hapa" is of mixed 
> blood and "hapa haole" is part-white. Both definitions are for people 
> as well as things (hapa also meaning portion, fragment). BB

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