Mysteries of vernacular Ukulele Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Mysteries of vernacular:
Ukulele,
a small, four-stringed guitar.
Oddly enough, the word ukulele,
in its native Hawaiian,
literally translates to jumping flea.
Even more surprising,
the instrument itself did not originate in Hawaii.
So, how did a Hawaiian word
come to describe a non-Hawaiian instrument?
Back in the late 1800s,
King Kalākaua was the last reigning king
of the kingdom of Hawaii.
He was nicknamed “The Merry Monarch”
because of his joy for life
and, in particular, his love of music.
In the King’s court,
there was a former British army officer
named Edward Purvis.
Though a small man,
he was quite lively,
and his nickname was “Jumping Flea,”
“Ukulele” in Hawaiian.
Like the King, he was a great lover of music.
In 1879, a group of Portuguese immigrants
arrived on the islands of Hawaii,
bringing with them a small, four-stringed guitar
known as a braguinha.
Purvis was immediately taken with the instrument
and helped spread its popularity
throughout the King’s court.
As the story goes,
it was not long before his nickname, Ukulele,
jumped from the man to his favorite instrument.
As demand grew, several Portuguese families
began to manufacture
the minuscule guitar on the islands,
making small modifications
until it became the same ukulele we recognize today.