Phonotactics

Hawai‘i Creole has phonotactics similar to those of English, with the exception of final consonant clusters.

a) Where the final consonant clusters /pt/, /kt/, /ft/, /st/, /ld/ and /nd/ are found in English, the final stop (/t/ or /d/) is absent in basilectal Hawai‘i Creole, for example: raep /ræp/ ‘wrapped’, aek /æk/ ‘act’, sawf /sɔf/ ‘soft’, laes /læs/ ‘last’, kol /kol/ ‘cold’, spen /spen/ ‘spend’.

b) In the final consonant clusters /ts/, /ks/ and /dz/, the stop may be absent: wats /wAts/ ~ /wAs/ ‘what’s’, foks /foks/ ~ /fos/ ‘folks’, kidz /kidz/ ~ /kiz/ ‘kids’.

c) In the clusters /fr/ and /pr/, the /r/ is deleted if there is an /r/ in the onset of the next syllable: pograem /pogræm/ ‘program’, fashchreited /fɑʃchreted/ ‘frustrated’, laibaeri /lɑɪbæri/ ‘library’.