ESC101 - A Eurovision History Podcast
Jun 12, 2026 · 31 min · 11 segments
Welcome to a series exploring the languages and dialects featured at the Eurovision Song Contest. Join us in discovering the exotic sounds of Europe and beyond, learning about linguistic histories and…
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The first language we're taking a look at is Hawaiian.
Aloha.
Hawaiian is a Polynesian language from Hawaii, a series of islands in the Pacific.
It is a critically endangered language according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
That classification is one step away from extinction.
It's estimated that only 2,000 people are native speakers of Hawaiian, with another 22,000 who are fluent.
That's not a lot of people.
In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown by the Committee of Safety, a group of five Americans, one Scotsman, one German, and six American-descended Hawaiians who wanted the now-former kingdom to be part of the United States of America.
As part of the transition from Kingdom to US territory, the newly installed Hawaiian government passed a law banning the Hawaiian language from schools, punishing children who tried to speak it.
Canada did something similar with Indigenous children around the same time, attempting to force English language in culture.
The Hawaiian language was allowed back in schools in 1987, but after 91 years, the number of native Hawaiian speakers plummeted.
Thankfully, there are efforts to promote the use of Hawaiian.
I debated on whether to include this, as it only appeared in Moldova's 2026 entry with the use of aloha.
I decided to include it because it is a valid use of the language, even if it's a single word, and on top of that, it's endangered, so I wanted to include it as part of this series.
As I've already reviewed Moldova's 2026 entry as part of my coverage of this year's contest, I will play a sample and move on to the next language.
The first language we're taking a look at is Hawaiian.
Aloha.
Hawaiian is a Polynesian language from Hawaii, a series of islands in the Pacific.
It is a critically endangered language according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
That classification is one step away from extinction.
It's estimated that only 2,000 people are native speakers of Hawaiian, with another 22,000 who are fluent.
That's not a lot of people.
In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown by the Committee of Safety, a group of five Americans, one Scotsman, one German, and six American-descended Hawaiians who wanted the now-former kingdom to be part of the United States of America.
As part of the transition from Kingdom to US territory, the newly installed Hawaiian government passed a law banning the Hawaiian language from schools, punishing children who tried to speak it.
Canada did something similar with Indigenous children around the same time, attempting to force English language in culture.
The Hawaiian language was allowed back in schools in 1987, but after 91 years, the number of native Hawaiian speakers plummeted.
Thankfully, there are efforts to promote the use of Hawaiian.
I debated on whether to include this, as it only appeared in Moldova's 2026 entry with the use of aloha.
I decided to include it because it is a valid use of the language, even if it's a single word, and on top of that, it's endangered, so I wanted to include it as part of this series.
As I've already reviewed Moldova's 2026 entry as part of my coverage of this year's contest, I will play a sample and move on to the next language.
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