Hawaiian Pronunciation Converter

Convert Hawaiian words to phonetic pronunciation.

Hawaiian Alphabet

12 letters: a, e, i, o, u, p, k, h, l, m, n, w (plus space and apostrophe)

Pronunciation Rules

Vowels

• a → ah
• e → eh
• i → ee
• o → oh
• u → oo

Consonants

• p, k, h, l, m, n: Same as English
• w at start of word: 'w'
• w after a, u, o: 'w'
• w after i or e: 'v'

Diphthongs (Vowel Pairs)

• ai, ae → eye
• ao, au, ou → ow
• ei → ay
• eu → eh-oo
• iu → ew
• oi → oy
• ui → ooey

Constraints

• No .replace() method
• Only arrays (no maps, vectors)
• Use size_t for loop indices when comparing with string.size()

Output

• All output is lowercase regardless of input case
• Invalid characters produce: {input} contains invalid characters.

Examples

• aloha → ah-loh-hah
• Maui → mow-ee
• humuhumunukunukuapua'a → hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-poo-ah'ah