On this Hawaiian butter mochi the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. In 1896, the Republic of Hawaii established English as the official language in schools.

The number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. Nevertheless, from around 1949 to the present day, there has been a gradual increase in attention to and promotion of the language. The first students to start in immersion preschool have now graduated from college and many are fluent Hawaiian speakers. Some linguists, as well as many locals, argue that Hawaiian Pidgin is a dialect of American English. The island name was first written in English in 1778 by British explorer James Cook and his crew members. They wrote it as “Owhyhee” or “Owhyee”. The initial “O” in the name “Oh-Why-hee” is a reflection of the fact that Hawaiian predicates unique identity by using a copula form, ʻo, immediately before a proper noun.

The Cook expedition also wrote “Otaheite” rather than “Tahiti. American missionaries bound for Hawaiʻi used the phrases “Owhihe Language” and “Owhyhee language” in Boston prior to their departure in October 1819 and during their five-month voyage to Hawaiʻi. They still used such phrases as late as March 1822. However, by July 1823, they had begun using the phrase “Hawaiian Language. Hawaiian is a Polynesian member of the Austronesian language family.