HAWAIIAN PIDGIN

'Hawaii Pidgin English', 'Hawaii Creole English', 'HCE', or simply 'Pidgin', is a creole language based in part on English used by most local residents of Hawaii ("Hawaiian Pidgin English" is an inaccurate label). Although English and Hawaiian are the co-official languages of the State of Hawaii^[1], Pidgin is used by many locals in everyday conversation and is often used in advertising toward Hawaii residents. The new ISO/DIS 639-3 language code for Hawaii Pidgin (Hawaii Creole English) is hwc. ^[2]

Contents

History

Perceptions

Pronunciation

Grammatical Features

Literature and performing arts

Miscellaneous

See also

External links

References

Further reading

Notes

History

Pidgin (or Hawaii Creole) originated as a form of communication used between native and non-native English speakers in Hawaii. It supplanted the pidgin Hawaiian used on the plantations and elsewhere in Hawaii. It has been influenced by many languages, including Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Cantonese, one of the Chinese languages. As people of other language backgrounds were brought in to work on the plantations, such as Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans, Pidgin acquired words from these languages. Japanese loanwords in Hawaii lists some of those words originally from Japanese. It has also been influenced to a lesser degree by Spanish spoken by Mexican and Puerto Rican settlers in Hawaii.
Even today, Pidgin retains some influences from these languages. For example, the word "stay" in Pidgin has the same meaning as the Portuguese verb "ficar", meaning "to stay" when referring to a temporary state or location. Sometimes the structure of the language is like that of Portuguese grammar. For instance, "You like one knife?" means "Would you like a knife?". The reason the word "one" is used instead of "a" is because the word "um" in Portuguese has two meanings: "um" translates to "one" and "a" in English. The way people use the phrase "No can" is Portuguese grammar, as well. In Portuguese, the phrase "Você não pode fazer isto!" comes out in Pidgin as "You no can do dat!", and in English as "You cannot do that!". Portuguese nasal vowels are also seen in a few words of pidgin, in the words, "nevamine" and "kine" which is "never mind" and "kind".
Pidgin words derived from Cantonese are also seen in other parts of America. For example, the word "Haa?" is also used by Chinese Americans outside of Hawaii. The meaning is "Excuse me?" or "What did you say?". Another word is "chop suey", a popular dish throughout America. In Hawaii, it can also mean that someone is a variety of ethnicities. Another word in pidgin that was derived from the Chinese which is also seen in America is "lie dat", which means "like that" but in Hawaii it is pronounced "la'dat".
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Pidgin started to be used outside the plantation between ethnic groups. Public school children learned Pidgin from their classmates, and eventually it became the primary language of most people in Hawaii, replacing the original languages. For this reason, linguists generally consider Hawaiian Pidgin to be a creole language.

Perceptions

Today, most people raised in Hawaii can speak and understand Pidgin to some extent. At the same time, many people who know Pidgin can code-switch between standard American English and Pidgin depending on the situation. Knowledge of Pidgin is considered by many to be an important part of being considered "local", regardless of racial and socio-economic background. For example, the Hawaii-born CEO of one of the largest banks in the state said of the Mainland-born CEO of a competing bank, "Anytime he wants to debate in Pidgin on 'local,' I'm available." ^[3]
While most linguists agree that Hawaii Pidgin is a full-fledged language with its own grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and domains of use, it is viewed by some non-linguists to be "substandard", or as a "corrupted" form of English, or even as broken English. As a result, it is widely believed that use of "standard" English is a key to career and educational success, and that use of Pidgin is a sign of lower socio-economic status.
Its role in the schools of Hawaii has been a subject of controversy due in part to the popular perceptions of the language described above and as a result of critics blaming the language's widespread use for poor results in standardized national tests in reading and writing. In 1987, the state Board of Education implemented a policy allowing only standard English (most particularly General American English) in schools; this sparked an intense debate. A group of University of Hawaii faculty and graduate students, Da Pidgin Coup, published a paper, "Pidgin and Education," ^[4] in 1999 rebutting the Hawaii Board of Education chairman's 1999 allegation that Pidgin use was the cause of poor standardized test scores among Hawaii's public school students. The paper calls for the recognition and treatment of Pidgin among educators as a language distinct from and linguistically coequal to standard English, rather than as a "broken" form of the latter; Da Pidgin Coup contends that policy and pedagogy resulting from such a recognition and acceptance of Pidgin as an educational language when appropriate would ultimately help Pidgin speaking students master standard English reading and writing and create more successful educational experiences.

Pronunciation

Pidgin has distinct pronunciation differences from standard American English (SAE). Some key differences include the following:

★ Pidgin's general rhythm is ''syllable-timed'', meaning syllables take up roughly the same amount of time with roughly the same amount of stress. Standard American English is ''stress-timed'', meaning that only stressed syllables are evenly timed. Some Western languages, including English, are stress-timed, while most Romance and East Asian languages are syllable timed. Many pronunciation features are shared with other colloquial language forms or pidgins/creoles from other parts of the world.

★ The voiced and unvoiced ''th'' sounds are replaced by ''d'' or ''t'' respectively—that is, changed from a fricative to an occlusive (stop). For instance, ''that'' (voiced ''th'') becomes ''dat'', and ''think'' (unvoiced ''th'') becomes ''tink''.

★ The sound ''l'' at the end of a word is often pronounced ''o'' or ''ol''. For instance, ''mental'' is often pronounced ''mento''; ''people'' is pronounced ''peepo''.

★ Pidgin is non-rhotic. That is, ''r'' after a vowel is often omitted, similar to many dialects, such as Eastern New England, Australian English, and English English variants. For instance, ''car'' is often pronounced ''cah'', and ''letter'' is pronounced ''letta''. Intrusive r is also used. The number of Hawaiian Pidgin speakers with rhotic English has also been increasing.

★ ''Falling'' intonation is used at the end of questions. This feature appears to be from Hawaiian, and is shared with some other languages, including Fijian.

Grammatical Features

Pidgin also has distinct grammatical forms not found in SAE, but some of which are shared with other dialectal forms of English or may derive from other linguistic influences.
Forms used for SAE "to be":

★ Generally, forms of English "to be" (i.e. the copula) are omitted when referring to inherent qualities of an object or person, forming in essence a stative verb form. Additionally, inverted sentence order may be used for emphasis. (Many East Asian languages use stative verbs instead of the copula-adjective construction of English and other Western languages.)
: ''Da baby cute.'' (or) ''Cute, da baby.''
: The baby is cute.

★ When the verb "to be" refers to a temporary state or location, the word ''stay'' is used (see above).
: ''Da book stay on top da table.''
: The book is on the table.
: ''Da water stay cold.''
: The water is cold.
For tense-marking of verb, auxiliary verbs are employed:

★ To express past tense, Pidgin uses ''wen'' (went) in front of the verb.
: ''Jesus wen cry.'' (DJB, John 11:35)
: Jesus cried.

★ To express future tense, Pidgin uses ''goin'' (going) in front of the verb, a declaratory word or verbum dicendi, common in many forms of slang American English.
: ''God goin do plenny good kine stuff fo him.'' (DJB, Mark 11:9)
: God is going to do a lot of good things for him.

★ To express past tense negative, Pidgin uses ''neva'' (never). ''Neva'' can also mean "never" as in normal English usage; context sometimes, but not always, makes the meaning clear.
: ''He neva like dat.''
: He didn't want that. (or) He never wanted that.

★ Use of ''fo'' (for) in place of the infinitive particle "to". Cf. dialectal form "Going for to carry me home."
: ''I tryin fo tink.''
or
: ''I try fo tink."
: I'm trying to think.

★ Popular phrases:
A variety of phrases is present in the language of local Hawaiians, including:
"Ho, cuz, I like sample" translates to "Could I have some?"
"You like try dat?" = "Do you want to try it?"
"No can" = "I can't"
For more information on grammar, also see Sakoda & Siegel (References, below) and the Pidgin Coup paper (External links, below).

Literature and performing arts

In recent years, writers from Hawaii have written poems, short stories, and other works in Pidgin. This list included well-known Hawaii authors such as Lois-Ann Yamanaka and Lee Tonouchi. A Pidgin translation of the New Testament (called ''Da Jesus Book'') has also been created, as has an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, titled in Pidgin "Twelf' Night, or Whateva."
Several theater companies in Hawaii produce plays written and performed in Pidgin. The most notable of these companies is Kumu Kahua Theater.

Miscellaneous

Pidgin has its own sign language, called Hawaiian Pidgin Sign Language. Most users of Hawaiian Pidgin Sign Language are between the ages of 70 and 90. Ethnologue lists it as "nearly extinct," as most deaf people in Hawaii use American Sign Language with some local signs. ^[5]

See also

★ Da kine

External links

★ e-Hawaii.com Searchable Pidgin English Dictionary

★ The Charlene Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies, a center devoted to pidgin, creole, and dialect studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Hawaii. Also home of the Pidgin Coup, a group of academics and community members interested in Hawaii Pidgin related research and education

★ Position Paper on Pidgin by the "Pidgin Coup"

★ Da Hawaii Pidgin Bible (see ''Da Jesus Book'' below)

★ Da Kine Dictionary, a project to create a Pidgin dictionary

References

1. Hawai State Constitution
2. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hwc
3. http://starbulletin.com/2003/04/18/news/story2.html
4. http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/pidgin.html
5. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=HPS


★ ''Da Jesus Book'' (2000). Orlando: Wycliffe Bible Translators. ISBN 0-938978-21-7.

★ Sakoda, Kent & Jeff Siegel (2003). ''Pidgin Grammar: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Hawaii.'' Honolulu: Bess Press. ISBN 1-57306-169-7.

★ Simonson, Douglas et al. (1981). ''Pidgin to da Max.'' Honolulu: Bess Press. ISBN 0-935848-41-X.

★ Tonouchi, Lee (2001). ''Da Word.'' Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 0-910043-61-2.

Further reading

★ Lonely Planet USA Phrasebook, Sally Stewart, , , Lonely Planet Publications, , ISBN 1-86450-182-0

★ Language and reading: bridging the language difference for children who speak Hawaiian English, Speidel, Gisela E., , , Educational Perspectives,

★ Is there a comprehension problem for children who speak nonstandard English? A study of children with Hawaiian English backgrounds, Speidel, G. E., Tharp, R. G., and Kobayashi, L., , , Applied Psycholinguistics,

Notes

1. Hawai State Constitution
2. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hwc
3. http://starbulletin.com/2003/04/18/news/story2.html
4. http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/pidgin.html
5. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=HPS