How to Type the Hawaiian Okina ( ʻ ) on a Mac

Type a Hawaiian Okina on the Mac

Make Hawaiian words look right and pronounce right. Find out here how to type the Hawaiian okina glottal stop ( ʻ ) on your Mac using Character Viewer or a dedicated key.

First, Like a Hot Knife through Waiūpaka

Hawaiian does not suffer from a plethora of declensions, conjugations, pre- or suffixes.

One exception is the suffix “-na,” of course, which turns a verb into a noun—like it does with ʻoki (to separate). That becomes ʻokina, the glottal stop that goes through words like a hot knife through butter to distinguish and make them recognizable.

So, an important character and one you can get right on a Mac:

How to Type the Hawaiian Okina Character ( ʻ ) on a Mac

Time needed: 2 minutes

To insert the Hawaiian ʻokina glottal stop using a Mac:

  1. Position the text cursor where you want the okina to appear.

  2. Select Edit | Emoji & Symbols from the menu.

    Using the keyboard: The standard Mac U.S. keyboard layout does not let you type the okina directly; you can enable the Hawaiian layout however, and get access—see below.
    Other shortcuts: You can, of course, also set up a text replacement shortcut for the okina character; see below as well.
    Charakter viewer shortcut: Press 🌐︎ or Fn E to open the emoji panel or Character Viewer.

  3. Search for modifier letter turned comma.

    Not “okina”: Do not bother searching for okina or anything similar. The official Unicode name for the character is modifier letter turned comma; it is used as a glottal stop in various languages under numerous names.
    Find and insert the Hawaiian okina (apostrophe) on a Mac

  4. Double-click the okina character to insert it.

On Windows? How to Get Hawaiian Okina on the Windows Keyboard

Type the Okina Using the Hawaiian Mac Keyboard Layout

To insert the okina character using the Hawaiian keyboard layout on a Mac:

  1. Enable and switch to the Hawaiian keyboard layout.
  2. Press ʻ.
    Where: The key is in place of the straight single quote character (') on the standard U.S.-English keyboard layout.

Use Text Replacement for the Okina

You can also set up a set of characters to be replaced with the Hawaiian ʻokina automatically.

To set up text replacement for the okina character:

  1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences) on your Mac.
    Here’s how: Select Apple logo | System Settings…, for instance, from the menu.
  2. Go to the Keyboard section.
  3. Click Text Replacements…
    macOS Monterey and earlier: Open the Text tab.
  4. Click + beneath the current list of text expansions.
  5. Enter the characters you want to be replaced with the okina in the Replace column.
    Example: Something like ‘‘ (two opening single quotes in succession) works reasonably well.
  6. Now insert the Hawaiian okina character in the With column.
    Easy: Copy the character below for pasting.
  7. Press Enter.

Now, to insert your replacement characters—two apostrophes, for instance—,followed by any character to insert the ʻokina with ease.

How to Type the Hawaiian Okina Character ( ʻ ) on a Mac: FAQ

Can I copy and paste the okina?

Yes, of course. Use the button below to copy the ʻokina character:

Hawaiian okina ʻ

What’s the difference between an okina and an apostrophe or a single opening quote?

The okina points upward like a single opening quotation mark but is a distinct character.

Here’s are the characters for comparison:

CharacterBrowser DisplayImage
OkinaʻOkina
Opening Single QuoteOpening Quote
ApostropheApostrophe

If a font does not support the okina, it is best to use the single quote as a substitute.

(How to type the Hawaiian okina character ( ʻ ) on a Mac tested with macOS Sonoma 14.1, Ventura 13.3 and Monterey 12.3; updated November 2023)

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