Hawaiian alphabet Hawaiian alphabet The Hawaiian alphabet (in ) is an alphabet used to write Hawaiian. It was adapted from the English alphabet in the early 19th century by American missionaries to print a bible in the Hawaiian language. In 1778, British explorer James Cook made the first reported Europe voyage to Hawaii. In his report, he wrote the name of the islands as "Owhyhee" or "Owhyee". In 1822, a writing system based on one similar to the new "New Zealand Grammar" was developed and printed by American Protestant missionary Elisha Loomis. The original alphabet included five vowels and twelve consonants: and
Phonological history of English high back vowels Old English texts). There was also a pair of back vowels of mid-height, and , written (the longer one often in modern editions). The same four vowels existed in the Middle English system. The short vowels were still spelt and , but long came to be spelt as , and as . Generally the Middle English vowels descended from the corresponding Old English ones, although there were certain alternative developments – see Phonological history of Old English#Changes leading up to Middle and Modern English. Due to Middle English open syllable lengthening, short was mostly lengthened to (an opener back vowel)