Harold Winfield Kent

Dr. Hyde and Mr. Stevenson


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vowel sounds, hard for one to catch, whose tongue has been trained to the use of consonants. There is a guttural hitch or catch, which is cognizable rather by the throat in utterance than the ear in hearing."

      On his first trip to any of the other islands he visited Maui and Hawaii. It was in August 1878 and was a hurried trip which could have almost been termed a "dictionary" trip. The venerable "Father" Lorenzo Lyons of Waimea, Hawaii, had, with the assistance of an old native over a three-year period, entered correct accents which had been entirely omitted by the Rev. Lorrin Andrews in his enlarged 1865 dictionary of the Hawaiian language.16 Dr. Hyde had his own copy of the Andrews dictionary rebound with blank pages inserted among the printed pages and at Waimea spent seven ten-hour days copying the accents. His biographer son comments that "these blank pages are now well filled with the finest of writing, containing words not incorporated in the Andrews edition, together with derivatives and shades of meaning. Every word of which he had made a study is marked and there are few words without these pencil notations. Some of the results of this language study he embodied in a Hawaiian Grammar published in 1896."17

      His scholarly insight into the origins, the meanings of roots, the values of accent and elision, is nowhere more clearly evidenced than in his two-part paper in the short-lived Hawaiian Monthly, "Random Notes on the Hawaiian Language." Here he presents useful comparisons of root meanings, points out errors in accepted versions of definitions, and discusses double meanings. He characterizes the language as "not monosyllabic like the Chinese, nor inflectional like the English. It belongs to the second great division of languages, the agglutinative, called Turanian by some philologists."18

      The efforts seem prodigous when it is realized they were expended in the interstices of activity-filled days. ". . . I have completed a full catalog of all publications in the Hawaiian language. My intention is to assign some of these books to each student for private reading in additon to the regular studies of the Institute. I wish them to be especially well informed in Biblical knowledge. I intend now to prepare some elementary treatises on subjects not yet put into shape in the Hawaiian language, publish them in a series of newspaper articles and then preserve some copies in scrapbooks for the students."19

      He reviewed the program of studies at the end of December 1878 and described a new use for the Hawaiian language. ". . . On Tuesdays, a translation from English into Hawaiian. I am pressing into this service in the way of translating Moody's Gospel Hymns two of the students who have some knowledge of music and metre. The translations are of such pieces as are suitable for publication in the native newspaper . . . Thursdays we translate Hawaiian into English, using for this purpose the Hawaiian textbook on Moral Science."20

      The translation of hymns did not much involve him until the death of Father Lyons in 1886. Lyons, known as Laiana, and Miss Ella H. Paris, known as Hualalai, in the credits at the tops of their respective hymn pages, were the most prolific translators in the Hawaiian hymn field.21 In a comment in an ABCFM letter Dr. Hyde said, "The students sang finely melodies adapted to and arranged for male voices only. The words were translations that I made myself. Now that Father Lyons has gone his work of translation has thus developed upon me in addition to my other work."22

      As he gained facility in the language he applied use of it in new directions. He prepared an essay on Hawaiian literature for a YMCA Quarterly Meeting February 21, 1879 on which the Friend commented:

      . . . The main feature of the evening was the reading of an essay by Dr. Hyde on the subject of Hawaiian literature, which consisted mainly of the Doctor's notes and comments in making up a catalogue of all the works published in the Hawaiian language. Of these there are 107, but only one collection comprises them all, and some copies of early editions of the Bible, primers, maps and engravings, which attracted much attention.23

      By the end of August 1880 he was on another path:

      . . . I hope now to be able to write for newspapers in Hawaiian, having Mr. Forbes revise my work. I want very much to prepare a Sunday School Paper, that shall be wholly religious in its subject, language, illustrations, and without advertisements. My idea is to publish one paper for children on the first of each month—I want to furnish the papers at 25C each year if it is possible to do so—I want to take this year to prepare materials, and begin publication Jan. 1, 1882. . .24

      1882 letters to the American Board referred to other beginnings in language employment. "I am beginning," said he, "also a collection of Hawaiian meles [songs], traditions and legends."25 Again, "I have also annotated, amended, and enlarged Andrews' Hawaiian Dictionary which has 30,000 words alphabetically arranged . . ."26 He was off a bit on his word count. The figure was closer to 15,000.

      "I am making up now," he went on, "a set of laws and government reports. These would be of no special value in your library but they help me in mastering the language. I am gathering also old Hawaiian newspapers but this work goes on very slowly. I doubt whether a complete set can be picked up. I have just written to the Rev. S. J. Whitman of Samoa, inquiring about his projected Cooperative Polynesian Dictionary and offering to help on furnishing lists of Hawaiian words. I early began keeping a classified list and find it a great help . . . "27

      Practical results of classroom motivation were reported; "And that reminds me of one of the exercises I have given to the students to rouse their intellectual abilities . . . to write out some of the sayings that are popular among the Hawaiians and suitable for use in sermons or addresses. I have now a collection of over 250. From these, I have prepared an article which is to appear in Thrum's Hawaiian Annual for 1883 . . . It classifies some of them in order to give in this way some idea of Hawaiian modes of thought and speech . . ."28

      He was definitely taken with the importance of preserving the pure Hawaiian tongue. It is therefore understandable that he would firmly stress the study of it in the public schools. In a long letter to the Gazette he said:

      The greater number of new and commodious schoolhouses, the increasing number of able and faithful and acceptable teachers, are evident facts that redound greatly to the credit of the present Board. But some, who are interested especially in the welfare of the Hawaiians, have been led to query, whether the present policy is as advantageous in some respects, as it certainly is intended to be, to the best interests of the Hawaiian children.

      Mr. Knudsen has had most favorable opportunities for personal knowledge in regard to the Hawaiians on Kauai . . . In the letter from him recently printed in your paper, he deprecates the exclusion of the Hawaiian language from the schools for Hawaiians. In this particular, I wish to express my concurrence with his opinion and view of the situation, rather than with the stand taken by Principal Scott in his reply . . . It is not so much the study of English exclusively, which marks the divergence of views in regard to the policy of the Board, as the exclusion of the Hawaiian language from the schools, in which according to the last census Hawaiians and halfcastes constitute 81 per cent of the school population. The question is not merely in regard to the superiority of one language over another as a medium of instruction, nor to the superior economical view of the English in a business point of view. No one can deny the immeasurable advantage of the English language . . . no sane person would think of insisting on making Hawaiian the language of the schoolrooms, and require the teachers that came from the States to acquire the Hawaiian language . . .

      But the fact is as stated by Mr. Knudsen, a condition of things to be deplored and remedied that the present generation of Hawaiian youth is growing up in ignorance of their own language, unable to read or write it properly. And they are also growing up without that knowledge of the rudiments, the fundamental principles and facts in mathematics, geography, grammar, history and physical science, such as would better fit them to be intelligent and capable members of civilized society . . . the policy of the Government should be to encourage and strengthen, not throttle, the Hawaiian element in our heterogeneous population.

      The charge has often been made, unjustly, so any well informed observer would say, that those who came from the States to Christianize the Hawaiians, tried to make them over in a cast from a mould of New England pietism. It seems to me that our modern scientific humanitarians in the policy they are adopting, are trying to make over the Hawaiians after the prevailing standards of