The most common I hear on the Big Island is: Ha-wah-ee. It represents what's called a glottal stop. That little mark is called the ' okina, and it's actually an official consonant in the Hawaiian language.
Subsequently, question is, is there an Okina in Hawaiian? Similarly, when did Hawaii become Hawai i? August 21, 1959 Thus, the name of the state is Hawaii, while the name of the island of the same name is Hawai'i. The name of the state, Hawaii, is not written with an 'okina between the two 'i', because our Statehood Act in 1959 used the spelling ' Hawaii.' An Act of Congress is required to ' correct' the name of the state to Hawai'i. In this way, what is the proper spelling of Hawaii? “Officially,” in the Hawaiian language, it's actually spelled with an okina ('), not an apostrophe ('). What is the state's official spelling, ' Hawaii' or 'Hawai'i'? It's neither.
