![]() Strangely, I found myself reading this last line several times. According to Kent Sakoda, a lecturer in second languages at UH, “Pidgin became the primary language of many of those who grew up in Hawaii, and children began to acquire it as their first language.” Still uncomfortable mining my own memories, I continued on with my research. To my surprise, the Hawaiian Pidgin I spoke as a young girl was now an actual language listed by the US census. Most men refer to each other this way.Hawaiian Pidgin: Discovering My Native Languageįor those unfamiliar with the Hawaiian Islands and its culture, Hawaiin Pidgin (or Hawaiian Creole English) is an English-based Creole language spoken in Hawaii. Pidgin has some Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and even other influences.īrah / bruddah: brother or pal. ![]() Pidgin originates from the plantation workers, who came to Hawaii in the 19th century. ![]() In the bookstores you can even find and buy a Pidgin dictionary and a Bible called "Da Jesus Book," which is fully written in Pidgin. In fact, Pidgin has its own vocabulary and grammar. Since many tourists find Pidgin attractive, local travel companies like to hire Pidgin speakers as customer service agents because they talk with this accent on the phone and tourists like that, thus they are more likely to buy. If you are native English speaker you will still get the meaning, but if you're not it may be difficult That's why Pidgin is also considered a local attraction, so to say. You won't hear this type of talk anywhere else in the world but in Hawaii. Pidgin is the Hawaiian English and it sounds like that - Eh, howzit? Wassamattah you? Cannah talk da kine? (Hey, how's it going? What's the matter? Can't you speak Pidgin?).
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