Current issues

The last detailed research into Hawai‘i Creole phonology was carried out in the 1970s (Odo 1975; Bickerton and Odo 1976). While the findings still appear to apply to modern basilectal speakers, it is obvious that more up-to-date data collection and phonological analysis are a top priority. Such research will also throw light on some important questions concerning decreolization in the language. It is generally believed that with more widespread education and bilingualism in English, Hawai‘i Creole has been changing to become more like English. This is certainly true in some grammatical constructions – for example, in the more widespread use of is and was as copulas (rather than zero copula). However, little is known about the extent to which various aspects of basilectal phonology have been changing in the direction of English.

Another area for further research is the extent of the influence of other languages on the phonology of Hawai‘i Creole. Suggestions have been made that the unreleased final consonants are a result of the influence of Chinese languages, and that the vowel system of basilectal Hawai‘i Creole and the sentence level intonation in questions are a result of the influence of Hawaiian or Portuguese. But the validity of these suggestions has yet to be examined.