Aloha and Aloha Spirit

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant. Thanks for having me on.

My name is Kate Berrettini, and I’m from Folly Beach, South Carolina.

South Carolina. Welcome to the show, Kate. Glad to have you. What’s up?

Well, I had a wonderful trip to the Big Island of Hawaii a few years ago.

And my friend, and just even prior to that, people had always talked about, like, the aloha spirit.

And, you know, I was sure it was probably a cool thing.

But after being there, I realized that it is definitely a thing.

And the whole time I was like trying to figure out what it was.

And I kind of came away with feeling like it is a deep respect between humans and land or really every living thing.

I guess every living and non-living thing.

And a friend of mine who I was staying with told me that Aloha actually means like literally everything breathing.

And so I feel like that kind of goes with the respect part of everything.

And I’ve always been curious if there are other words throughout history and other languages, just anywhere in the world that had a similar meaning and feeling.

Yeah, I like this. It’s kind of a great example of the best of human thinking, isn’t it?

Yeah.

Martha, what do we know first about Aloha?

Well, I’m really glad you asked this question.

And of course, what would be ideal is if we had native islanders who could speak for themselves.

But my understanding of it is that, first of all, there are forms of this words in various Polynesian languages.

But in Hawaii, it’s taken on a special meaning, much like what you described, you know, sustaining harmony in a multicultural community and honoring connections that extend beyond generations, beyond boundaries.

And like you said, you know, beyond humans and their environment, kind of a shared life force.

And what really interests me about this term is that there was actually a definition of it written into Hawaii state law a few years ago that describes it as a coordination of mind and heart within each person.

And this passage in Hawaiian state law says that it’s more than a word of greeting or farewell or a salutation.

Aloha means mutual regard and affection and extends warmth and caring with no obligation in return.

That it’s the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence.

And I just think that that’s such a lovely thing to put into your law.

That that’s what it goes on to say that when government officials are exercising their power on behalf of the people, that they need to contemplate and reside with the life force.

And give consideration to the aloha spirit. I think that’s so lovely because I think,

You know, I think for some of us, the word has been a bit diluted. You know, you think about

Aloha shirts those Hawaiian shirts and you go to Hawaii and and everybody says its it’s hello and

Goodbye but it’s so much more than that right oh yeah was that your experience for sure oh it’s

Interesting to have such a an emotional warm feeling for something like aloha and aloha spirit

And yet we’re citing Hawaii revised statutes five through seven and a half right yeah I want to go

Back to a couple linguistic things on this. One is, Kate, although the idea that it’s from

Two words meaning face and breath is really common, it’s a folk etymology. And actually,

It’s a single indivisible word and is not made of the words for face and breath. And we know this

Because of what Martha said, that there are all these similar words in other Polynesian languages,

Such as Maori and Samoan and Taishan and a bunch of others throughout the Pacific.

I don’t know if you were aware that many of the Polynesian languages are related

And can be proven to be related, which shows great travels in ancient days across the big ocean.

So that said, it doesn’t take anything away from Aloha and the idea.

I want to go back also to, you mentioned who else has this?

Well, it is incredibly common for the great thinkers of many cultures to come up with an idea of unity and respect for each other and respect for the earth and respect for all life.

But I think the most similar to me, Martha, would be in Hebrew and Arabic, the shalom and salam, both of them meaning peace, basically, and used for hello and goodbye, like aloha.

Wow, that is so beautiful.

Holy smokes.

But, you know, even a variety of African languages and in Sanskrit and a bunch of Native American languages often have many ideas about unity and family and mutual respect.

And it’s, you know, all the great thinkers of the world and every culture have eventually come to the same conclusion.

And sometimes it’s expressed easily and sometimes it’s more complex.

Thank you both so much.

Thank you.

Take care now.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

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