Hawaiian Pidgin

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Hawai‘i Pidgin English ('Hawaiian' Pidgin English is an inaccurate label), also known as Hawai‘i Creole English, "HCE", or simply Pidgin, is actually a creole language based in part on English that is widely used by residents of Hawai‘i. Although English and Hawaiian are the co-official languages of the State of Hawai‘i, Pidgin is used by many locals in everyday conversation and is often used in advertising toward Hawaiian residents.

Contents

History

Pidgin English originated as a form of communication used between native and non-native English speakers in Hawai'i. It supplanted the pidgin Hawaiian used on the plantations and elsewhere in Hawai'i. It has been influenced by many languages, including Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Cantonese, one of the Chinese languages. As people of other nationalities were brought in to work in the plantations, such as Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans, Pidgin English 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 English retains some influences from these languages. For example, the word stay in Pidgin has the same meaning as the Portuguese & Spanish verb estar, meaning "to be" when referring to a temporary state or location. (Sakoda & Siegel, 2003, p. 1-13)

In the 19th century and 20th century, 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 Hawai‘i, replacing the original languages. For this reason, linguists generally consider Hawaiian Pidgin to be a creole language.

Perceptions

Today, most people raised in Hawai‘i 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 socioeconomic 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." [1]

While some linguists agree that Hawaii Pidgin is a full-fledged language with its own grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and domains of use, it is considered by some 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 proper standard English is a key to career and educational success, and that use of Pidgin is a sign of lower socioeconomic status. Its role in the schools of Hawai‘i has been a subject of controversy, as critics of Pidgin blame its 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 the schools; this sparked an intense debate. There have been similar debates since then.

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. Many Western languages are stress-timed, while many 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 Northeastern 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. A 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.
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.
I'm trying to think.

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 Hawai‘i have written poems, short stories, and other works in Pidgin. This list included well-known Hawai'i authors such as Lois-Ann Yamanaka and Lee Tonouchi. A Pidgin translation of the New Testament (called Da Jesus Book) has also been created.

Several theater companies in Hawai'i 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 Hawai‘i use American Sign Language with some local signs. [2]

External links

References

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Hawaiian_Pidgin.html"


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