What is Harriet in Hawaiian?
Harriet is Haliaka in Hawaiian, said hah-lee-AH-kah.
How Harriet became Haliaka
Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Harriet R became L, T became K, the doubled consonant was written once, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end. Hawaiian never writes a consonant twice, so the pair collapses to one. Hawaiian does not run two consonants together, and every syllable ends on a vowel. A Hawaiian word cannot finish on a consonant, which is where the last vowel comes from.
Haliaka has a page of its own as a Hawaiian given name, with its popularity and the names it is usually paired with.
How to say Haliaka
Say it hah-lee-AH-kah, leaning on AH, sounding every vowel: a as in “father”, i as “ee”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.