Distinguishing Hawai‘i Creole neva and néva: prosodic evidence from podcast interviews

Keolakawai K. G. Spencer

doi:10.1515/flin-2024-2022

Article

Distinguishing Hawai‘i Creole neva and néva: prosodic evidence from podcast interviews

Keolakawai K. G. Spencer

Published/Copyright: April 8, 2024

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From the journal Folia Linguistica Volume 58 Issue 3

Abstract

This paper investigates prosodic and contextual differentiation strategies between preverbal past tense negator neva and adverb never in Hawai‘i Creole. It aims to demonstrate differing syntactic restrictions and advocates for treating these words as two distinct morphemes. The analyses are based on phonological data gathered from interviews uploaded onto YouTube by Hawaiiverse, a Local podcast. As demonstrated through spectrogram analyses, HC néva (=ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ) is marked by a stressed accent on its first syllable and prominence on word-initial /n/, whereas neva (=ᴅɪᴅɴ’ᴛ) is marked by a lack of these features under typical circumstances. This suggests that Hawai‘i Creole morphophonology depends more on stress-timed features than previously researched (cf. syllable-timed features). Neva-néva ambiguity may arise when stress does not clearly indicate which word is being used, and when context cannot be relied upon to distinguish meaning. By exploring these intricacies, this investigation offers insight into how future researchers may approach analysing other English-lexified creoles (and varieties of English) which also use never as a preverbal past tense negator.

Keywords: negation; prosody; stress; Hawai‘i Creole

Corresponding author: Keolakawai K. G. Spencer, Independent Researcher, E-mail: keolakaw@hawaii.edu

I clearly remember a day when I was attending class in the middle of the semester at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Teaching the course was a kumu (‘teacher’) who would sometimes slip to basilectal Hawai‘i Creole during his lectures. Sat next to me was a classmate, an English speaker, who had probably recently arrived to the islands. Kumu was discussing the grading process of the work assigned up to that point. The classmate asked about his standing in terms of his overall grade thus far. Kumu quickly scanned his laptop and informed the classmate, “Eh, yu neva trn in dakain homwrk!” Cue the confused look on my classmate’s face. Without a doubt, it sounds like kumu just accused him of not once ever turning in his assignments – in front of the entire class! The classmate snapped back with a serious tone: “Excuse me, I do turn in my homework!” Kumu looked confused at his heated response. Almost immediately, I switched from bystander to mediator, gently informing my classmate that in Hawai‘i, “never” can also mean “didn’t”. The classmate remained stern and on guard. Needless to say, he wasn’t amused by my explanation.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the editors of Folia Linguistica, Viviana Masia, Virna Fagiolo, and Giorgia Mannaioli, and the two anonymous reviewers for their precious time and feedback.

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Received: 2023-10-30

Accepted: 2024-03-13

Published Online: 2024-04-08

Published in Print: 2024-11-26

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https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2024-2022

Keywords for this article

negation; prosody; stress; Hawai‘i Creole