Language Structure Problems
Hawaiian
Pronouncing English Words
Keep in mind what you have deduced about hawaiian from the previous three problems:
as you work these problems. remember that all of the words must be pronouncible as 'good' Hawaiian words according to the rules given.
Here is a description of the Hawaiian phoneme inventory and syllable structure:
- Vowel Phonemes: [i e u o a]
- These vowels can be long or short: that is, you can add a ':' to indicate the length of the vowel
- Consonant phonemes:
p k ' h l n m j w
( ' here indicates a glottal stop)
- We noted in class that the Hawaiian phoneme inventory is extraorindarily small and is remarkable for lacking a /t/ phoneme.
- /w/ has two allophones in complementary distribution: [v] occurs after front vowels (/i/ and /e/) and [w] occurs elsewhere.
- /p/ is two allophones: [b] and [p] are in free variation.
- The maximum syllable is CV. The nucleus of the syllable can be a single vowel or a long vowel.
Given this, how would a monolingual speaker of Hawaiian pronounce these words:
-
key
- baby
- cherries
- blue
- brew
- starlight
- awake
- eve
- oval