We don't hear it too often nowadays, but in the past an expression used now and then was TELEFON HALAIHAI.
It meant "word of mouth," news that spreads from person to person, not what can be read in the newspaper or heard on radio or TV. And today, by phone or internet.
Since people use telephones to communicate one-on-one, the word TELEFON was used.
HALAIHAI refers to the vines that grow especially on beaches. In English, they're known as Morning Glories.
Just as the halaihai is connected by these vines and just as they spread all over, news that is spread all over by people communicating with each when they connect is called the telefon halaihai.
THE HALAIHAI SPREADS OVER THE BEACH
and the
TELEFON HALAIHAI SPREADS THE NEWS
The English counterpart to the halaihai is the GRAPEVINE.
There is the famous song "I Heard it through the Grapevine" sung by Gladys Knight and the Pips, Marvin Gaye and others.
The expression "grapevine," like telefon halaihai, means news that is spread by word of mouth.
The origin of the expression comes from the observation that telephone wires reminded people of grapevines.
DID YOU KNOW?
There's an area of Saipan called Halaihai. If you go to the famous Lourdes shrine in As Teo, just keep heading east.
HALAIHAI, SAIPAN
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