AI Ōlelo Tools
There have been many advances in the world of machine learning and AI, such as ChatGPT and LLama and similar generative AI technologies that have shown to be powerful tools for many interesting problems. This website aims to use these tools and other technologies to help 'Olelo learners (Hawaiian language) learn quicker and with more powerful tools.
These tools are free of charge, but you are required to login in order to prevent abuse. Running machine learning models is expensive and we want to make sure everyone that wants access can have access.
Some of these tools were create for and with the help of Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, the makers of wehewehe.org. Some features, like Word Lookup is powered by their dictionaries.
Source Text to Modern 'Olelo Converter
When working with old text written in Hawaiian language, also called Source Text, it's common to find it's missing kahakos and 'okinas, which makes it hard to read for most modern learners/readers. It's often not trivial to add the correct ones in the text because the same word can have different meanings depending on where the kahako and 'okina are located. However this is a normal machine translation problem, since it's similar to translating English to French, it's not a 1:1 translation, and you have to take in context and translate the words in a way that makes sense for the modern reader.
This tool takes any existing source text and tries to translate it to modern 'olelo. It's not 100% accurate, not even humans can get 100% on these tasks commonly, but it speeds up the process of the conversion. It's great for scholars, geneology researchers, and students.
Example Source Text
2 Ua hanauia nana ehiku mau keikikane, a me na kaikamahine ekolu.
3 O kana waiwai, ehiku tausani hipa me na kao, ekolu tausani kamelo, elima haneri bipikaulua a elima haneri hoki wahine, a he nui loa kona poe ohua; nolaila, ua oi aku ke koikoi o keia kanaka mamua o na kanaka a pau o ka hikina.
AI Based Conversion
2 Ua hānau ʻia nāna ʻehiku mau keikikāne, a me nā kaikamāhine ʻekolu.
3 O kāna waiwai, ʻehiku tausani hipa me nā kao, ʻekolu tausani kāmelo, ʻelima haneri bipikaulua a ʻelima haneri hoki wahine, a he nui loa kona poʻe ʻohua; no laila, ua ʻoi aku ke koiʻoi o kēia kanaka ma mua o nā kanaka a pau o ka hikina.
Human Conversion
2 Ua hānau ʻia nāna ʻehiku mau keiki kāne, a me nā kaikamāhine ʻekolu.
3 ʻO kāna waiwai, ʻehiku tausani hipa me nā kao, ʻekolu tausani kāmelo, ʻelima haneri bipi kaulua, a ʻelima haneri hoki wahine, a he nui loa kona poʻe ʻōhua; no laila, ua ʻoi aku ke koʻikoʻi o kēia kanaka ma mua o nā kānaka a pau o ka hikina.
Translate and Explain
It's often useful to not only have a translation of a bit of text, but an explanation of why this is the translation and the meaning behind it. Often times the translation is not 1:1 and automated systems might miss some context. Having the system explain it's logic to you helps the learner and also ensures that the translation makes sense.
This tool first translates the provided text, then breaks it down to further improve learning.
Example Text To Translate
AI Based Translation
Here is the breakdown of the translation:
"E o e nā ʻoiwi ʻolino" can be translated as "Oh, descendants of Hāloa". "E o e" is an expression used to call attention or address a group, "nā" is a plural marker, and "ʻoiwi ʻolino" refers to the descendants of Hāloa, the first human according to Hawaiian creation mythology.
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Terms of Use
This website and the tools are on are for use by students, teachers, and researchers of Hawaiian language. It is not for commercial use. If you are interested in using these tools for commercial use, please contact us at Alex Petrescu and we can discuss it.