What’s a humuhumunukunukuapua’a & how do you say it?
Posted on Wed, Jun 2, 2010 by Sheila
When you visit Hawaii, you may come across this gigantic word that starts with H and has a bazillion letters. That’s the word humuhumunukunukuapua’a and it’s Hawaii’s state fish. The humuhumunukunukuapua’a is a tropical reef trigger fish that you’ll likely see when you snorkel in Hawaii.
I used to think that I’d never be able to pronounce humuhumunukunukuapua’a, but it’s actually quite easy after you sound it out a time or two. Here’s how to pronounce it: “who-moo-who-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-pooah-ah” Easy, peasy, right? Okay, just in case it’s not slipping off your tongue, check out this link to a YouTube of Don Ho singing My Little Grass Shack. At about 1:10 into the video, you hear Don Ho singing humuhumunukunukuapua’a a few times. Sing along and you’ll soon be a pro.
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One time I tried to register humuhumunukunukuapuaa.com as a domain name because I thought Kalanianaole@humuhumunukunukuapuaa.com would make a cool email address to tell people over the phone.
Unfortunately it’s already taken.
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sheila Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Already taken? That’s too funny!
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Isn’t it such a feeling of accomplishment when you can finally say it!
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sheila Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Janet – it is, indeed!
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[...] you know what the state fish of Hawaii is? humuhumunukunukuapua’a. Congratulations, now say [...]