Incredible Chemical Reaction! Bastille - Pompeii. Star Trek Homepage. Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Aloha Stadium halftime 2011. Avicii - Wake Me Up (Lyric Video) HQ. Pulsating beat of Tahitian drums. Hawaiian phonology. This article is a linguistic description of the phonological system of Hawaiian based on documented experiences of the people who developed the Hawaiian alphabet during the 1820s and scholarly research on the Hawaiian language conducted by lexicographers and linguists from 1949 to present.
Hawaiian is known for having very few consonant phonemes — only eight: /p, k ~ t, ʔ, h, m, n, l ~ n, w ~ v/. There is allophonic variation of [k] with [t], [w] with [v], and [l] with [n]. The [t]–[k] variation is highly unusual among the world's languages. Hawaiian has either 5 or 25 vowel phonemes, depending on how long vowels and diphthongs are analyzed. Hawaiian syllable structure is (C)V(V) where C is any consonant and V is any vowel.
Phonemes and allophones[edit] It is notable that Hawaiian does not distinguish between [t] and [k]; few languages do not make that distinction. Consonants[edit] There is basic free variation of [t] and [k]. There is free variation of [w] and [v]. Glottal stop[edit]