One Hawaiian word that is used in English is a’a, which is defined as “a kind of rough-surface volcanic rock” [source].
However in Hawaiian it is written ʻaʻā, pronounced [ʔəˈʔaː] and means:
1. to burn, blaze, glow; fire; staring (eyes)
2. lava; stony, abounding with ʻaʻā lava
3. Sirius (the star)
4. young stage of damselfish
The word aʻa [əˈʔa] means:
1. small root, rootlet, vein, artery, nerve, tendon, muscle
2. to send greetings or love; joyous hospitality; joy at greeting a loved one
There is also ʻaʻa [ʔəˈʔa], which means:
1. to brave, dare, challenge, defy, check, venture; to accept a challenge; to volunteer; to act wickedly or presumptuously; bold, venturesome, valiant, intrepid
2. belt, girdle, waist; to gird, to tie on
3. bag, pocket, caul, envelope for a foetus, scrip; fiber from coconut husk; clothlike sheath at base of coconut frond; cloth; chaff, hull
4. a wind
5. booby bird
And ʻā.ʻā [ʔaː.ʔaː], which means:
1. dumbness, inability to speak intelligibly, a dumb person; dumb, silent, still; to stutter and stammer, as a dumb person
2. dwarf, small person; dwarfish, small
3. demented, panic-stricken
4. booby bird.
5. male ʻōʻō bird
Source: Hawaiian Dictionaries
This shows the importance of the ʻokina (“cutting”) and kahakō (“long mark”) in Hawaiian. The former represents a glottal stop [ʔ] and is a letter in Hawaiian, and the latter indicates a long vowel.
And even if you take the ʻokina and kahakō into account, there are still many definitions to choose from.
By the way, I’ve never understood how to pronounce a word-initial vowel without a glottal stop.
@Rauli – In English, if we say “the echo,” the word “echo” doesn’t normally start with a glottal stop. Right? We glide from one vowel to the next, or at least I think I do. If the presence or absence of the word-initial glottal stop were phonemic (made a difference in meaning) in English, we could distinguish between a word that had it and a word that didn’t–if it followed a word ending in a vowel. In Hawaiian, all words end in vowels.
That makes sense. But what about in the beginning of a sentence where there is no preceding vowel?
Aye, there’s the rub. I don’t speak Hawaiian yet, so I can’t give an informed answer. Presumably the distinction is lost at the beginning of utterances.