Where is the Hawaiian language headed?
A phonetic study The present study compares the realization of Hawaiian vowels and diphthongs by a native speaker of Hawaiian (NS) with that of a non-native, albeit very fluent, Hawaiian language speaker (NNS) whose first language is American English. After showing the major differences and similarities in the vowels of the two speakers, and the important role played by American English in the articulation of the non-native speaker’s Hawaiian vowels, I will present acoustic vowel charts of the Hawaiian vowels for both speakers. If these results can be generalized to other native and non-native speakers, they support recent claims by NeSmith (2003) and others that at least two Hawaiian dialects exist: the Ni’ihauan dialect (spoken by NS) and the UH dialect (spoken by NNS). The name for the latter dialect is not optimal; I use this label only because it indicates the form of Hawaiian taught here at UH and at other institutions. The theory about the existence of two dialects is nothing ne
