Hawaiian phonology

The phonological system of the Hawaiian language is based on documentation from those who developed the Hawaiian alphabet during the 1820s as well as scholarly research conducted by lexicographers and linguists from 1949 to present.

Consonants

Hawaiian has one of the smallest consonant inventories (Rotokas, the smallest, has 6) and one of the smallest phoneme inventories.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n    ⁓    ŋ
Stop	p	t    ⁓    k		ʔ
Fricative				h
Sonorant	w ⁓ v	l ⁓ ɾ ⁓ ɹ

Vowels

Monophthongs

Monophthongs

	Short			Long
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u	iː		uː
Mid	ɛ⁓e⁓i	æ⁓a⁓ɐ⁓ə	o	eː		oː
Open					aː

Diphthongs

Short diphthongs

	Ending with /u/	Ending with /i/	Ending with /o/	Ending with /e/
Starting with /i/	i̯u
Starting with /o/	ou̯	o̯i
Starting with /e/	eu̯	ei̯
Starting with /a/	au̯	ai̯	ao̯	ae̯

External links

• Hawaiian phonology