Hawaiian Pidgin English
Series: Crossing East - Asian American History series
From: Dmae Roberts
Length: 00:03:27
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- Hawaiian Pidgin English
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Hawaii has a population of a little over one million people. About 600,000 are estimated to speak a form of Creole language specific to Hawaii called Pigdin which is a mixture of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean and English. Pidgin reflects the migration of Asians who came to work on the sugar plantations since the 1800's and it is a unique Creole language. Most Hawaiians learn Pidgin at home and then when they go to school, they learn how to hide it in order to speak and write in "proper" English. Born and bred Hawaiians share similar stories of being punished at school for speaking Pidgin and having to hide it except at home or with friends. This audio collage has the voices of Domingo Los Banos, Esperanza Garcia, Writer Lee Tonouchi and Drs. Kent Sakoda and Jeffrey Siegel of the Pidgin Grammar book.
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Piece Description
Hawaii has a population of a little over one million people. About 600,000 are estimated to speak a form of Creole language specific to Hawaii called Pigdin which is a mixture of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean and English. Pidgin reflects the migration of Asians who came to work on the sugar plantations since the 1800's and it is a unique Creole language. Most Hawaiians learn Pidgin at home and then when they go to school, they learn how to hide it in order to speak and write in "proper" English. Born and bred Hawaiians share similar stories of being punished at school for speaking Pidgin and having to hide it except at home or with friends. This audio collage has the voices of Domingo Los Banos, Esperanza Garcia, Writer Lee Tonouchi and Drs. Kent Sakoda and Jeffrey Siegel of the Pidgin Grammar book.
Broadcast History
This first aired on NPR's Day To Day July 14th.
Transcript
SOUND: MUSIC
DOMINGO: What you want talk about?
ESPY: We can talk about any kind. We can talk about maybe nakai what we cacao this morning.
DOMINGO: This morning I had egg and bacon.
ESPY: Egg and bacon. I had finafle juice. And then I went stirring with the stirrer, you know that look kind of like the whipping kind. Yeah, I whip them.
DOMINGO: You whip 'em good.
ESPY: I whip 'em good.
ESPY: When the teachers started to hear us talk, they couldn't make heads or tails of what we were saying because they came from the mainland. Whatever we said, she could not listen to what we were saying at all.
KENT: We were told that it was just bad English. I guess I grew up thinking it was just a bad habit that we had. We would ask to use the restrooms, like “I can go toilet” and they'd hold the permission until you got the English part of that correctly, and those things can be pr...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
HOST INTRO
If you've ever visited Hawaii, you might have heard what sounds like another language but it's still English. Since the 1800's, workers from China, Japan, Korea, the Philipines and Portugal have come to work the sugar plantations originally run by American missionaries. That mixture of nationalities developed into a common language called Pidgin English. More than half of Hawaii's one million residents are estimated to speak Pidgin. That's according to two Linguists, Kent Sakoda and Jeff Seigal, who created the Pidgin Grammar Book. Some words are familiar. Brah for “brother,” Stink Eye for “dirty look.” A whole chapter in the book is devoted to “dakine” which is the equivalent of “whatchamacallit.” Most Hawaiians learn Pidgin at home and then when they go to school, they learn how to hide it in order to speak and write in "proper" English. Producer Dmae Roberts talked with Hawaiians about talking Pidgin…
OUTRO: Dmae Roberts talked with Domingo Los Banos (BANH-yos), Espy Garcia, Lee Tonouchi (Tuh-NOO-chee) and Drs. Kent Sakoda (Sah-KOH-dah) and Jeffrey Siegel with assistance from Jennifer Dunn and Robynn Takayama (Tah-kah-yah-mah). This piece is part of the Crossing East Asian American history series.
Musical Works
Music: Moana Chimes/Pa'ahane by Sonny Chillingworth
on the Hawaii: Slide And Slack Key Surfing Sounds CD published by World Music Network (2000) @ worldmusic.net
Additional Files
- Pidgin comes from Plantation labor (plantation.jpg)
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Traci Tong
Posted on October 05, 2006 at 06:35 PM | Permalink
Review of Hawaiian Pidgin English
If you've ever been to Hawaii and tried to figure out what those locals were saying -- this is the piece for you!
Fun montage from various Hawaii locals who give you a taste of the language.
It's a language that defines you, for the good and the bad.
What I loved hearing is that for the locals in the piece, there was no resentment at being told that they may be inferior to the "mainlanders." They took it in stride and found pride in speaking the language of the community.
The only constructive criticism that I have is that pacing might be too quick for the non-pidgin-english listeners.
Other than that, this would be a nice segment to run on a weekend or when there's a related story on languages.