Prosodic Aspects of Hawai’i English: The Rise-Fall Contour

Abstract

This paper examines prosodic contours found in Hawai‘i English, the dialect of English specific to the Hawaiian Islands. Data from casual interviews and tasks completed in a laboratory setting show that, alongside the use of the Mainstream American English rising contour for continuation and questions, speakers of Hawai‘i English use a rise-fall prosodic contour that is also found in both Hawaiian and Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole). Description of the rise-fall contour adds evidence to the growing body of work that shows that Hawai‘i English is distinct from other varieties of spoken English.