HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A woman who drew the ire of the Honolulu City Council with an inaccurate and offensive comment about the Hawaiian language is doubling down.

Her comment that Hawaiian is a “dead language” is strongly condemned by city council members, Hawaiian civic clubs and others.

At Wednesday’s City Council hearing, Kapua Keli’ikoa-Kamai of Waiʻanae testified in Hawaiian and then translated into English.

Then Kai Lorinc was the next to testify. There were some audio challenges when she made the shocking comment which drew strong reactions from people at the hearing.

“I’m not sure what language it was. I’m guessing it was Hawaiian, and it’s a dead language, so it wouldn’t work on a translator,” Lorinc said.

Her comment was rebuked by several council members.

“It’s not a dead language. It’s very much alive,” said Esther Kiaʻāina, vice president of the Honolulu City Council.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that those who helped overthrow the Kingdom of Hawai’i and banned our language, we would only be speaking Hawaiian now, so please learn your history when you come to testify at City Council,” she added .

“I can speak Hawaiian in this meeting and in any other meeting that I choose to speak it,” said Council Member Andria Tupola. “My kids went to Hawaiian immersion and we speak Hawaiian in our home and it’s not dead.”

Honolulu City Council President Tommy Waters said, “I want to note that Hawaiian and English are the official languages ​​of the state of Hawaii.”

Lorinc is a real estate agent from Florida who has lived in Hawaii for 10 years and works for Hawaii Republican Action, an alternative news site.

“It’s not a living language. It’s a dead language,” Lorinc told Hawaii News Now on Thursday. “They’re trying to revive it.”

According to the University of Hawaii at Mānoa Institute of Hawaiian Language Research and Translation, “Successful language revitalization over the past 40 years has kept the Hawaiian language alive and produced nearly 20,000 speakers, but that’s less than 5% of all Hawaiians and 2% of Hawaiian people today with some fluency in Hawaiian.”

Keli’ikoa-Kamai says she feels sorry for Lorinc.

“Most people here in Hawaii have heard Hawaiian, and so how can you call it dead,” Keli’ikoa-Kamai said.

“Now we’re not just talking ignorance, but we’re talking bias and racism, and that’s something our people have been fighting against,” she added.

Lorinc complained that she was unable to hear part of the testimony because she was in line online.

A Honolulu City Council spokesperson said witnesses should be able to hear audio from the meeting as they prepare and there is legislation in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.

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