Say it with me.
“Humu-humu nuku-nuku apoo aa-aa”

Try to say it as fast as possible! Hehe!

It’s actually Hawaiian. Grace Siromani taught me this phrase – humuhumunukunukuapua’a – right after she came back from her industrial training in Sea World, Hawaii… or was is Sea Park? [sorry Grace, can't really remember the name].

It’s the name of a fish. And humuhumunukunukuapua’a ’s name, after translating it to English, is ‘the little fish that looks like a pig’! The English name of the fish is the Hawaiian Triggerfish or Reef Triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus) It was the state fish of Hawaii long ago. Was, then wasn’t, and now it IS the state fish again. Many Hawaiians still assumed humuhumunukunukuapua’a as their state fish even when the state government didn’t.

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a isn’t indigenous to Hawaii. Humuhumunukunukuapua’a can be found in many places. But I guess the Hawaiians made humuhumunukunukuapua’a the state fish because is has a cute name.

This is a picture of humuhumunukunukuapua’a. You can read more about the humuhumunukunukuapua’a here and Wikipedia

I love saying this phrase. Sounds cute and funny. And it gets people to look at me with a flabbergasted-’huh?’ expression. I think I’m going to start greeting people with that phrase, instead of saying ‘hi’ or ‘hello’. Bwahahaha!

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a to you!

By the way, how many times was the name of the fish humuhumunukunukuapua’a mentioned?

Signing off,
the HAwaiian.