Hawaiian Bible History (3)

**List: Hawaiian Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Hawaiian... HAWAIIAN. "THE Sandwich Islands are an isolated group, lying just within the tropic of Cancer, far to the north of the Society and Marquesas Islands, and directly west of the coast of Mexico.   They are about thirteen in number; but eight only are inhabited, and some of the others are mere islets.   O'whyhee, or Hawaii, the largest island, is about 100 miles in length from north to south, and between 70 and 80 miles from east to west, embracing an area of 4,500 English square miles.    The total population of the Sandwich Islands, according to a census taken in 1849, amounted to 80,640 individuals, nearly one-third of whom were resident in O'whyhee.   Their language very closely resembles those of Tahiti and New Zealand.   It was first reduced to a written form by the American mies., who adopted the Roman letters, as the English mies. had before done in reducing to writing the dialects of the more southern islands.   The Hawaiian contains five vowels and but seven consonantal sounds, together constituting an alphabet of twelve letters.    The Hawaiian dialect of the Polynesian language is closely allied to the Tahitian; to which, as to the model of the Polynesian tongue, it bears a closer affinity than any other idiom spoken in the islands of the Pacific.    It is very rich in vowels; some words indeed contain no consonants, and whole sentences may be formed of vowels and diphthongs alone.   Like its kindred idioms, it has no gender, case, or number, properly so called; but all words, whether nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc., are alike without inflections, according to our Western notions of the term, and their relative bearing and construction is formed by particles, in which the Polynesian tongue is extremely rich.   There is, however, an indefinite article, ke, ka, and na, which together with mau, denotes the singular and plural, in like manner as e, mai, o, i, ke, etc., serve to distinguish the tenses of verbs.   But those are distinct words or particles, which leave the root or noun itself in its original state, though connected with it.   The personal pronouns have, like those of the four principal Polynesian dialects, and the Mantchoo language, a twofold dual and plural; that is, one which expresses at once whether the speaker includes himself or not among the persons to whom he alludes.   The passive form of verbs is formed by the suffix particle ía, but the only traces of any kind of conjugation properly so called is found in the combination of verbs; as for instance: ike, to see, ikeia, or ikea, to be seen, to appear, hoike, to cause to see, to show, hoikeia, to be made manifest, etc.   In general the Hawaiian language is soft, simple, easy, and remarkably sonorous.    The Hawaiian version of the Scriptures has been executed by American mies., and solely at the expense of the American Bible Society.   The Gospel of St. Matthew, of which two translations were made by Mr. Bingham and Mr. Richards, was prepared for press in 1826; and, two years after- wards, a small edition of the Four Gospels was printed in 12mo. at Rochester, New York.   The entire New Testament was first printed in 1833 in the Sandwich Islands, under the care of the mies., then twenty in number.   A revised edition was published in 1837.   During the same year, the translation of the Old Testament was completed, and portions, consisting in some cases of very small editions of separate books, were successively issued from the press.   The first complete edition of the Bible appeared in 1839.   Several large editions of both the Old and New Testaments have subsequently been printed.   Before the Word of God was thus put into circulation, the inhabitants of this large and beautiful island-group were given up to barbarism and idolatry, and were utter strangers to the blessed influence of Christianity.   Now churches, schools, and other evidences of civilisation, are to be seen at the numerous towns and villages, and an Auxiliary of the American Bible Society is in active operation among them.   In 1856, the American Society published an edition of the New Testament in Hawaiian and English, printed in parallel columns."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] HAWAIIAN.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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