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Lieutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui
Legislature State Legislature
- Upper house Senate [’sen t]
- Lower house House of Representatives

Toponymy. "Hawaii" means "homeland". Hawaii is the only state of
the United States that is not geographically located in North America, is

completely surrounded by water, is entirely an archipelago, and does not
have a straight line in its state boundary.
History of Hawaii. Hawaii is one of four states, besides the original
thirteen, that were independent prior to becoming part of the United States,

along with the Vermont Republic (1791), the Republic of Texas (1845), and
the California Republic (1846), and one of two, along with Texas, that had
formal diplomatic recognition internationally. The Kingdom of Hawaii was

sovereign from 1810 until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown by
resident American (and some European) businessmen. It was an independent
republic from 1894 until 1898, when it was annexed by the United States as

a territory, becoming a state in 1959.
Hawaii was the target of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan
on December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor and other military and

naval installations on O’ahu, carried out by aircraft and by midget
submarines, brought the United States into World War II.
Languages. The state of Hawaii has two official languages recognized
in its 1978 constitution: English and Hawaiian.

Minority languages. In addition, 2.6% of the state's residents speak
Spanish; 1.6% speak other Indo-European languages; 21.0% speak an Asian
language; and 0.2% speak a different language at home. After English, other

popular languages are Tagalog (5.37%), Japanese, and Ilokano. Significant
European immigrants and descendants also speak their native languages; the
most numerous are Spanish, German, Portuguese and French. The Hawaiian
language has about 2000 native speakers, less than 0.1% of the total

population. Some locals speak Hawaii Creole English (HCE), often called
"pidgin".
Customs and etiquette in Hawaii. Some key customs and etiquette in

Hawaii are as follows: When visiting a home, it is considered good manners
to bring a small gift (for example, a dessert) for one's host. Thus, parties are
usually in the form of potlucks (whatever food happens to be available

without special preparation). Most locals take their shoes off before entering
a home. It is customary for Hawai‘i families, regardless of ethnicity, to hold

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