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Original Post By:
Hikingstevo
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Date: 6/22/2009 12:17:40 AM |
| I was at an ukulele class at the local Folk Festival and someone said it was a legend that ukulele means jumping fleas. |
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Posted By:
foolish jac
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Date: 6/22/2009 1:01:29 AM |
i found this:
http://www.geocities.com/~ukulele/history.html
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Posted By:
ToeBone
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Date: 6/22/2009 1:31:01 AM |
John King wrote that it has also been translated as (something like) "a gift from afar"
Since there is no documentation, you could say that the meaning is not really known. As far as being a legend, I don't think there is any real story-telling legend associated with it. Most interpretations come from parsing Hawaiian language for a meaning rather than attributing meaning to some oral or written history.
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Posted By:
Ed B.
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Date: 6/22/2009 1:16:36 PM |
Interesting. I hadn't heard any translations except the "jumping flea" one, but it's fun to hear other possibilities.
One thing to note is that the word uku (payment) is spelled differently from the work 'uku (flea). That 'okina (that character that looks like an apostrophe) in front of the word is important. And since the Hawaiian spelling for the instrument in question is 'ukulele rather than ukulele, that's one indication that the "flea" translation is more likely than the "gift" translation. Of course, there's always the possibility that we might be misspelling it as well as mis-translating it!
Also, in Pukui and Elbert's Hawaiian Dictionary (considered to be the most authoritative), the word uku means payment or wages, more in the sense of something earned than the sense of a gift.
Finally, Pukui and Elbert's dictionary doesn't seem to show a definition for "lele" as meaning "from afar", so I'm not sure where that part of the translation may have come from. It would be interesting to know John King's sources for his translation. He was such a careful scholar that you would assume his translation would have a solid basis.
But ultimately, ToeBone is right that we don't really know. Lots of times, a story is created after the fact to explain a word origin, when in fact that story is nothing more than someone's guess as to what might have happened. This "folk etymology" is certainly present with many of the derivations for the word ukulele. Jac's reference above shows how many different versions there are for the origin of the word -- and at most, one of them is right.
An interesting topic! Any other possibilities for a translation?
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Posted By:
Craig Robertson
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Date: 6/22/2009 2:17:38 PM |
| Sure. I had always heard that "ukulele" meant "one who stands on the edge of a cliff and tries to catch a butterfly". But, of course, I could be wrong.
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Posted By:
Shelley
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Date: 6/22/2009 4:00:37 PM |
| Lele means to hop or jump and no one wants an 'uku (fleas or bugs) in their hair! Yes, 'ukulele means jumping flea.
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Posted By:
Ukester Brown
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Date: 6/22/2009 7:29:56 PM |
| Well, when I tell my wife I'm gonna play my ukulele she interprets it as I'll be leaving her alone for awhile so it could be cultural too.... haha...
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Posted By:
Jim T.
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Date: 6/22/2009 11:44:00 PM |
The earliest definition of 'ukulele in print I have seen is from story on Hawaiian music that appeared in the Sunday Inter Ocean of Chicago on March 6, 1892. The newspaper's correspondent translated it as "jumping flea." Jean Owen's 1898 book, "The Story of Hawaii," gives the same translation. The first 'ukulele method, Ernest Ka'ai's "The Ukulele: A Hawaiian Guitar, and How To Play It," translates 'ukulele as "bouncing flea," a term used the following year by Birkel Music Co. in its advertising for "the most charming of all the Hawaiian instruments" -- the first mainland 'ukulele advertisement that has come to light.
How the name 'ukulele was applied to the Madeiran machete is the subject of a number of accounts, all of them after the fact and all of them unverifiable, at least so far.
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Posted By:
jeff mercer
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Date: 6/23/2009 1:56:42 AM |
This from "The 'Ukulele;A Portugese Gift to Hawaii" pub.1980 ( & which John King pointed out contained some inaccuracies)..
"A certain army officer { Edward Purvis }who early in the (18)80's came to make the islands his home, took a keen interest in Hawaiians & Portugese alike,& having noted the little " Rajao" ( actually the "Braguinha"),and being an apt musician, he adopted it with the same pleasure as the natives."
"He soon became a master of it & was seldom seen without it"
"..The Hawaiians loved him and gave him the affectionate nick-name of 'uku-lele, literally, the jumping flea.."
"..The instrument became known as 'Uku-lele's instrument and later the name was transferred to it.
Apparently, Queen Lili'uokalini preferred the translation to to mean "uku" ( the gift), and "lele" ( to come)...
So who really knows where our little buddy got its name ? Just glad they exist :)
p.s
Jim T..are you Jim Tranquada ? If so, my condolences on the loss of John..You guys did research on the uke that will always remain..
My very best to all,
Jeff.
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Posted By:
Jim T.
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Date: 6/23/2009 11:42:59 AM |
Jeff, thank you.
The story about Edward Purvis being "ukulele" first surfaced in Helen Roberts' "Ancient Hawaiian Music" (1926), 40 years after Purvis resigned as vice chamberlain to King Kalakaua. Purvis was the suspected author of two notorious burlesques on the Kalakaua monarchy, "The Grand Duke of Gynbergdrinkenstein" and the "Gynberg Ballads." It seems unlikely that a man who sought to undermine the king in the months prior to the imposition of the so-called Bayonet Constitution of 1887 would have been applied to an instrument favored by native Hawaiians, the vast majority of whom supported the monarchy. This seems even more unlikely given that Manuel Nunes and Augusto Dias were advertising "machets" in O Luso Hawaiiano, Honolulu's Portuguese-language newspaper, just 12 months before Purvis' resignation. The earliest known appearance of the term ukulele in print is 1889; Purvis died in Colorado in 1888.
Jim Tranquada
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Posted By:
Bill1
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Date: 6/23/2009 6:09:57 PM |
Isn't it amazing that the name appeared such a relatively short time ago, and already is clouded in mystery.
When did the "ukelele" spelling originate?
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Posted By:
BeachBumTom
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Date: 6/23/2009 8:16:29 PM
(Updated: 6/23/2009 8:18:07 PM)
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| I know! I'll run over and ask venerable Bill Tapia......he was there when it was named. Well, actually close, but no cigar. Bill, at 101 1/2 years old, was born in 1908, a couple decades after the first Portuguese "thingy" was walked off the boat. But he did buy his first (by then named) "ukulele" from "old man Nunes" (for 75 cents!). What a truly, wonderful world. BBT
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Posted By:
ToeBone
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Date: 6/24/2009 10:16:14 AM |
Very cool to read that there are still some great ukulele historians about.
I find time to annoy Jeff with my "grasshopper" questions and he is always generous with his knowledge.
Jim, could I trouble you for an email address? You can email me by clicking on the blue "ToeBone" at the top of this entry. I have been developing a keen interest in ukulele history and am trying to catalog it.
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Posted By:
jeff mercer
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Date: 7/2/2009 10:09:12 PM |
ToeBone,
Your questions are NEVER annoying !
I get a kick out of sharing what (limited) knowledge I have, so fire away anytime you like, mate...
The sadly missed John K's, along with others like Jim T( hope you guys hook up, Jim really knows his stuff ), Chuck, Tom Walsh etc. have always freely & openly shared info, & to me, that's what it's all about..when you think about it, it's kinda useless keeping it to yourself :o)
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