Hawaiian Loanwords

[David Robertson]

Klahowya, LaXiyEm, pi Hi,

Shame on this linguist for not having a good English-language dictionary
at my desk, but I'll go right ahead and say I've long assumed that "Hi" is
derived from "How are you" > "How a' ya" > "Hiya" > "Hi".

And BTW this has none more than an incidental relation to "Hawaii" and the
postal abbreviation for that state.  :-)  Not a loan!

If I had that hypothetical good dictionary here, I'd love to check the
etymology of "uh-huh" and "uh-uh".  You've really got me intrigued there.

Good cheer,
Dave



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