“E nā ali‘i a me nā maka‘āinana, he aupuni palapala ko‘u, a ‘o ke kanaka pono a na‘auao, ‘o ia ko‘u kanaka.” (To all ali‘i and commoners alike, mine is a literate country, and the just and intelligent man is my countryman. (Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III; Nūpepa Kū‘oko‘a (May 23, 1868;) Puette) The planning for the formal written Hawaiian language in the early part of the nineteenth century was started by the American Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii, starting in 1820.

“… we commenced printing the language in order to give them letters, libraries, and the living oracles in their own tongue, that the nation might read and understand the wonderful works of God.” Through the collaboration between the Hawaiian Chiefs and the American Protestant missionaries, by 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent. (Laimana)