(CNN) -- Many Google users probably didn't notice this month that they can now display their search tips in the Hawaiian language.



Hawaiian is one of more than 125 "interface languages" now available on Google.



Wedged between Hausa and Hebrew, Hawaiian is one of more than 125 "interface languages" now available on Google. The list also includes some humorous twists on English, including "pirate," "Klingon" and "Elmer Fudd."



But for Hawaiian educators, the addition of Hawaiian is a small step toward legitimizing a language that is considered "critically endangered" by the United Nations.



"It's the capstone of a lot of work," said Keola Donaghy, an assistant professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii-Hilo.



"We've been doing this work for 18 years, simply trying to make it easier for people who speak Hawaiian to use these kinds of technologies."



It marks the first native American language available through the "Google in Your Language" program.



Getting started



It took Donaghy several years to get the project off the ground through the "Google in Your Language" program, which was launched by the California-based company not long after it was founded in 1998.



"The idea was to enable users worldwide to be able to access Google in the language of their choice, and if it wasn't available, to enable users to help make it so," Google spokesman Nate Tyler said. "Why limit users to a set of dominant languages if they were willing to help make Google their own?"



The results of the search are still in English, although the user can select a preference for Web pages written in more than 40 other main languages.



Google works with linguists like Donaghy who are interested in translating search instructions into their language.



"Volunteers sign up on their own to provide translation," Tyler explained. "They simply sign themselves up, declare a language proficiency, and then start translating or reviewing the products that are available for volunteer translation.



"When the translations are completed, we make the product(s) available in that language. Recent other languages like this include Maori language."



It was the Maori project, launched last year, that actually helped get Donaghy's initiative off the ground.



Three years ago, Donaghy started e-mailing and calling Google about a Hawaiian language project, but he got no response. He put the project on hold until last year.



"When I heard the Maori version came out, I asked Google about it," Donaghy said. "Apparently the original (language) coordinator had gone and as soon as a new coordinator was brought online, they set up the system."



Donaghy began working on the massive translation project sometime late last year.



"It was whenever I could find an hour or two in between teaching or other duties," he said. "It was a combination of personal and work time."



He spent more than 100 hours translating the search terms that appear on the Google page into Hawaiian through the program.



"I did the actual translation from beginning to end, and then I consulted with my colleagues at the university who have worked on these projects in the past," Donaghy said.



"I wanted to be very consistent -- such as how you say 'Go to this menu and select this' -- or people may become confused."



What's Hawaiian for 'browsing' the Web'?



Some of the Hawaiian words for terms such as "links" or "Web browser" had already been established when Donaghy and others worked on translating the Netscape Navigator search engine in 1997.



"Over the years, we usually face the debate of do we want to 'Hawaiianize' an English word, or take an old Hawaiian word and give it a new meaning," he said.



He explained some of the challenges in translating terms, such as "browsing" or "surfing," into Hawaiian.



"People use the term 'surf the Internet'
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