Haha I saw that today too and I was confused. I thought that I just never noticed before, I guess it really was recent add on.
The "apostrophe" is actually an 'okina, a marker that is considered a consonant in the Hawaiian language, and can be spoken much like a guttoral stop. The correct pronunciation of Hawai'i is is Havai'i, since there is no "w" sound in the language. Just because Mainland announcers can't be bothered to learn how to say it properly does not mean it's done just for show. It is definitely NOT a "recent add on", hell, it has been a written language since before Texas was a state. The standard example of how important the 'okina is is in comparing 'ai vs ai; the first means food, the second means sex. Congrats to Boise State; they kicked our butts in our rebuilding year; I wish them the best now for the rest of the season; may they be a BCS buster again, cutting a ~$1M check to the good old UH.
thanks for the explanation... this makes me wonder what other locations and names we've changed for the ease of pronunciation. at least we still pronounce bexar and mexia properly.
Germany/Deutchland Spain/Espana Italy/Italia We have a history of changing names of lands, they just usually don't happen to be US states.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bXEGGOjAe7I&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bXEGGOjAe7I&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
