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An acoustic analysis of the vowels of Hawai‘i English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2016

M. Joelle Kirtley ,
James Grama ,
Katie Drager  and
Sean Simpson
M. Joelle Kirtley
Affiliation:
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa kirtleymj@gmail.com
James Grama
Affiliation:
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa james.grama@gmail.com
Katie Drager
Affiliation:
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa kdrager@hawaii.edu
Sean Simpson
Affiliation:
Georgetown University sss237@georgetown.edu
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Abstract

This paper provides an acoustic phonetic description of Hawai‘i English vowels. The data comprise wordlist tokens produced by twenty-three speakers (twelve males and eleven females) and spontaneous speech tokens produced by ten of those speakers. Analysis of these vowel tokens shows that while there are similarities between Hawai‘i English and other dialects, the particular combination of vowel realizations in Hawai‘i English is unique to this dialect. Additionally, there are characteristics of the Hawai‘i English vowel system that are not found in other English dialects. These findings suggest that Hawai‘i English is a unique regional variety that warrants further description.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , April 2016 , pp. 79 - 97
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Copyright
Copyright © International Phonetic Association 2016 

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