The Molokaʻi dialect (Standard Hawaiian: ʻŌlelo Molokaʻi, Molokai dialect: Te Reo Morota �, lit. "Molokaʻi language") is a rare dialect of the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a critically endangered Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, originating in and native to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the native language of the Hawaiian people. Hawaiian, along with English, is an offi ...

spoken on

Molokai Molokai or Molokai ( or ; Molokaʻi dialect: Morotaʻi ) is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its g ...

. With a substantial number of speakers living on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island.

Phonology

Consonant

Vowels

Like the Hawaiian taught in universities, Te Reo Morotaʻi has five short and

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

vowels A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

, and

diphthongs A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

Dipthongs

Short-vowel diphthongs include /iu, ou, oi, eu, ei, au, ai, ao, ae/. These are all falling diphthongs, with the exception of perhaps /iu/. However, they are not as firmly connected as English diphthongs and may be classified as vowel sequences. (The second vowel in such sequences may get stress, but it is not considered a diphthong.) In quick speech, /ai/ tends to iand /au/ tends to u hence these diphthongs are conflated with /ei/ and /ou/. Some writers consider the following sequences as diphthongs: /oːu, eːi, aːu, aːi, aːo, aːe/. There are just a few vowels that can come after long vowels.

Words and Examples

Examples:

Reference

{{Reflist Hawaiian language Molokai