HAʻINA ʻIA MAI ANA KA PUANA: THE VOWELS OF ʻŌLELO HAWAIʻI A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS May 2021 By Thomas T. Kettig Dissertation committee: Rory Turnbull, chairperson Victoria Anderson Katie Drager Larry Kauanoe Kimura K. Laiana Wong Alexander Mawyer Keywords: Hawaiian, phonetics, vowels, pronunciation Acknowledgements My PhD at UHM has been supported financially by awards and Graduate Assistantships from the UH Linguistics Department, Mānoa Opportunity Grants, the Dai Ho Chun Fund for Graduate Fellowships, and the Samuel H. Elbert Graduate Fund in Hawaiian and Polynesian Languages. Thank you particularly to the Bilinski Educational Foundation for providing summer fieldwork grants as well as the dissertation fellowship that supported the completion of this project. I am grateful to my committee members, each of whom I was so lucky to have on board. Mahalo to Rory, an incredible mentor and advisor throughout this dissertation journey. Mahalo to Katie, whose work led me here to Hawaiʻi, and whose collaboration, wisdom, and kindness I am forever grateful for. Mahalo to Victoria, who never wavered in her confidence in me, and who has always been there for advice on life and phonetics. Mahalo to Alex, who went above and beyond his role as university representative, providing key advice on Pacific cultures and (pre)history. Mahalo iā Laiana, he hoa kūkā waiwai. Akamai loa kona naʻauao no ka holomua ‘ana i ka ʻōlelo ma o ka nānā pono ʻana i ke kuanaʻike Hawaiʻi. Mahalo nunui iā Lale Kimura. Nāna e kiaʻi i kēia mau lipine, a nāna i ʻae i koʻu noiʻi ʻana i nā leo o kēia mau kūpuna. Mahalo nunui nō hoʻi i nā kumu ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi i aʻo iaʻu: Alicia Rozet, Kalikoaloha Martin, Kaliko Baker, Kamakakaulani Gramberg, Kahikina de Silva, Laiana Wong, Lolena Nicholas. Mahalo nō hoʻi i nā haumāna o Kawaihuelani, koʻu mau wahi hoa papa. Mahalo nui iā Collin Shea Kamakānepihakealoha Kaʻaikaula no kona kōkua i ka palapala ʻana i kēia mau lipine. He kōkua nui nō ia! Mahalo to Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe and Sonya Zabala of UH Mānoa’s Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office and the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center. The 2016 Ka Uʻi o Mānoa graduate seminar set the basis for my understanding 2 of a Hawaiian worldview, and I have always felt encouraged by Native Hawaiian Student Services to play my small part in the transformation of UH Mānoa into a more equitable and Hawaiian- informed place of learning. Mahalo nui iā Keao NeSmith a me ʻŌiwi Parker Jones no nā kūkākūkā pinepine ʻana. Launa ʻole ka waiwai i loko o kēia mau kamaʻilio, a lana koʻu manaʻo, ua maikaʻi kēia pepa nui, ua pane ʻia kekahi mau nīnau, a ua puka kekahi mau nīnau hou aʻe! Mahalo nō hoʻi iā Keao no kona hoʻoponopono ʻana i ka mokuna mua o kēia pepa – he kōkua nunui ia! Mahalo especially to Al Schütz (1936–2020), a kind and generous man who guided this research both through his writings and in many conversations over the years. Thank you to Jen and John, who run the department, and without whom none of us would have any idea what’s going on. Huge thanks to my roommates over the years: Dannii, Jacob, Michelle, and especially Brad, who put up with all of my questions about R and statistics and also ended up being an excellent pandemic buddy. Thanks for putting up with me. Big mahaloz to all of my wonderful UH friends: Bryn and Dima, Catherine and Amanda, Claire and Chauncey, Katherine, Ruadhán, Blake, Sharon, Gyu-Ho, Nisa, Aliya, Piet, Ivan, Mitchi, Amber, Kent (wen seiv da bes fo laes!). Thanks to Aylish and Luke for all the Costco trips and hikes; Alexis for the yearly trips to explore Hawaiʻi, Maui, and Kauaʻi; Liz for the formatting help (and for being my best friend). I also could not have started, let alone finished, this journey without the support of my entire family. I’ve never doubted that you’ve been behind me 100% of the way. Thank you! Mahalo i ka ua Tuahine, e noho haʻanipo i ka wao, a e hānai i nā haumāna o ke kula nui ma Mānoa. Mahalo nō hoʻi i ka ua noe Līlīlehua o Pālolo nei. 3 He ʻala nei e aheahe mai nei There is a fragrance wafting here Na ka leo hone a nā manu The birds’ sweet call I lawe mai a loaʻa au Brought, found me, Hoʻopumehana i kō leo Warmed by your dear voice – Liliʻuokalani 4 Abstract This dissertation investigates aspects of the pronunciation of the vowels of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, the aboriginal Polynesian language spoken in the Hawaiian archipelago. Specifically, this acoustic description concerns the voices of eight elderly speakers recorded in the 1970s on the Hawaiian- language radio program Ka Leo Hawaiʻi. Measurements of the first and second formants (F1 and F2, in Hz) are extracted for all vowel tokens (n=19,599 after exclusions). The plots and statistical analyses that utilize the spectral F1/F2 measurements are interpreted as reflective of tongue position (high–low, back–front) over the course of vowel production. This description confirms many previous observations regarding the pronunciation of Hawaiian vowels, and presents several novel insights. When pairs of short vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ and long vowels /ā, ē, ī, ō, ū/ are compared, the long vowels appear in more peripheral regions of the vowel space; in particular, /ē/ is located notably front and high compared to /e/. Tokens of unstressed /a, i, o/ are pronounced in less peripheral positions than when they are stressed, while unstressed /e/ is raised. Labial consonants /m, p, w/ are found to condition more back productions of adjacent vowels; alveolar consonants /n, l/ condition more front productions; and /ʔ/ conditions lower productions. This analysis also demonstrates that vowel-on-vowel coarticulation is apparent even when the vowels in question are separated from each other by a consonant and thus not directly adjacent. The coarticulatory effects of a following vowel on stressed /a/ are investigated in detail; in these contexts, significant differences are found in both F1 and F2 according to the following vowel. In other words, there are significant differences in /a/ pronunciation that involve both height and backness between words like mala, male, mali, malo, and malu. 5 Significant differences are also observed in terms of both height and backness for the starting points of the aV diphthongs, /ae, ai, ao, au/. These four diphthongs are found to originate in four separate locations, with /ae, ai/ fronter than /ao, au/ and with /ae, ao/ lower than /ai, au/. Within the /ai/ and /au/ vowels, differences are also observed based on word type: compared to content words, pronouns and directionals exhibit shorter, more centralized vowel trajectories. Phonetic variation is also investigated between and within the eight speakers of this sample. While most speakers maintain a consistent distinction between the spectral trajectories of /ei/ and /ē/ and between /ou/ and /ō/, this is not true of one speaker; while most also maintain a distinction between /āi/ and /ae/, two speakers do not. The words laila (‘there’), maikaʻi (‘good’), and family member terms beginning with kaik- are found among most speakers to contain a vowel more similar to /ei/ than /ai/. For most speakers in the sample, the primary stressed monophthong /a/ in maikaʻi is also pronounced more like a typical /e/ than a typical /a/. Most speakers usually pronounce the /o/ in the words ʻaʻole (‘no’), ʻaʻohe (‘none’), and hope (‘after’) as /a/; one speaker is found to usually use /o/ in these words utterance-finally while using /a/ in non-utterance-final contexts. This study represents the first large-scale, multi-speaker acoustic analysis of Hawaiian. As such, the data processed for this dissertation has the potential to reveal many further insights into twentieth-century Hawaiian pronunciation that reach well beyond the spectral analyses presented here. Many of the findings of this dissertation also provide evidence relevant to linguistic theories that have rarely been explored in the context of indigenous, under-documented languages such as Hawaiian. I conclude with suggestions for the enhancement of this dataset, future phonetic and phonological research extensions, and community-facing pedagogical applications for this work. 6 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 5 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. 12 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ 17 LIST OF TERMS.................................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 1: ʻŌLELO HOʻĀKĀKA ............................................................................................. 25 1.1 Hōʻuluʻulu pōkole ................................................................................................... 25 1.2 Koʻu moʻokūʻauhau a me koʻu kahua ...................................................................... 28 1.3 No kaʻu koho ʻana i ka lawelawe i kēia papahana .................................................... 30 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................