“Happy Birthday” translates to “Hau`oli Lā Hānau” in Hawaiian. “Hau`oli” means “Happy, glad, gay, joyful,” “Lā” means “Day, date” (as well as “sun, sunny”), and “Hānau” means “To give birth; to lay (an egg); born.”
Note that the first “a” in both “Lā” and “Hānau” include the kahakō, or a macron, a Hawaiian diacritical mark indicating a long vowel sound.
See Also:
- Hawaiian Dictionaries (ULUKAU: The Hawaiian Electronic Library)
- Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian, Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, University of Hawaii Press, July 1, 1986.