Hawaiian creole English

Hawaiian Creole English(HCE), Hawaiian Pidgin, is spoken by many people of Hawai’i. HCE is when a child acquires a language that is developed through their parents’ native tongue of pidgin. HCE is a distinct language with its own standardized grammar system, which seems to have been invented entirely by the 1st generation of children who learned pidgin as native speakers. Like pidgin HCE has taken most of its vocabulary from various languages, English based, but consists of seven diverse languages, particulary the Asian languages exerted a large influence. However unlike pidgin HCE is not restricted in use, and is like any other language in its full range of functions.

It appears that the difference between pidgin and Creole comes down to the fact that pidgin is learned by the generalized learning devices of the parents, and Creole re acquired by their children.

Emergence

The language originated when various foreign merchants and workers would come the Islands of Hawaii and had no means of communication. These people derived their own language, which was a mixture of the individual languages, to communicate with each other. This was passed on to following generations to become the unique language of HCE that it is today.

Pidgin History

When people who don’t speak a common language try to communicate, a new language called pidgin emerges. Pidgin has a lexifier, or a language whose vocabulary it is mainly based on. When pidgin starts to become spoken by the children of the community as their first language, it is called a creole, which has its own grammatical rules. (This is different from a pidgin, which allows variability in grammar.)

The majority of Pidgin speakers in Hawai’i speak a creole, often called Hawaiian Creole English or HCE. The local residents of Hawaii however, call this language “Pidgin.” To make a distinction however, the linguistics call Hawaiian Creole English Pidgin with a capital P.

Hawaiian Creole English emerged throughout the 1800's and into the present with the influx of imported labor from other countries needing a common language of communication. The plantation workers of Hawaii have especially influenced this language. Pidgin has influences from languages like Portuguese, Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese. Because workers from other countries such as Japan, the Philippines, and Korea came to Hawaii as well during the plantation era, there are various loan words in the Pidgin language using these languages as well.

Pidgin is often used by local residents of Hawaii and is an indication marker of their local identity. Pidgin is often used in advertisement as well. However, attitudes and feelings towards Pidgin vary.

Hawaiian Pidgin was first recognized as an official language of Hawaii in 2015 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Literacy

Hawaiian Creole English is a widely spoken language by most of the population of Hawai'i. Literacy is also connected with the identity of those that speak the language which is another topic to cover. Hawaiian Creole English is forced to be a literary dialect rather than a literary language because of its lack of a standardized writing system.

Local Literature

Stephen Sumida was one of the first contributors to local literature on Asian American literature in Hawai'i. Another local literature writer is Darrell Lum. Bamboo Ridge Press published a handful of journals by Lum and Sumida about local literature and writings in Pidgin. Initially HCE was not seen as an academic or artistic expression. It was mostly seen in popular songs and comic entertainment. After World War II, local writers started to rely more on pidgin to convey their messages. HCE is also used in drama. The University of Hawai'i at Manoa has the only drama department that is dedicated to producing local plays. Early on in literature and dialogs used, the orthography used was in closer relation to Standard English. Slowly over time writers started using more phonetic spelled versions of the pidgin words and syntax of pidgin.

Issues

The main challenge when developing an orthography is venturing away from the lexical language (English). Most spell the words in the form they feel is closest to the way is sounds phonetically. The problem is that the way each person pronounces the words can vary like any other language or dialect so there tends to be a lot of inconsistencies. Being able to combine and refer to other spellings of the same word can be frustrating and confusing. (ex. Bumbye vs. bambai) The following poem is written by Jozuf Hadley in a phonetic spelling of words. Consistency with the sounds of letters with a corresponding sound makes it less confusing as far as how to pronounce the words.

Ma ket stenle da blu kraws wen sen om wang krismes kad e hi no ste nau bat he ste fri eswai

My cat Stanley- the Blue Cross sent him one Christmas card, yuh? He's not here now but- he's free that's why.

Being able to develop an orthography for pidgin is a great way to distinguish identity of those that are learners and those who are fluent. It separates be tourists and locals. Orthography and expression of self in pidgin for locals instills them with an identity and relations with others that are familiar with the terms and expressions. It can also be used against pidgins speakers because of the idea that it is a dialect of lower quality and being able to express ideas in the language can be tough when trying to compete with standardized English.

“Finally, I conclude that no socio-political conditions for standardization seem currently to exist which would foster further literary elaboration of HCE.”

Evaluations of Hawaii Creole English: A Study Among University Students

Attitudes toward Hawaii Creole English (HCE) have always varied, even among 'local' Hawaii residents. Evaluations of HCE range from affinity to revulsion stemming from HCE's precarious link to both a sociocultural identity and stigmatization as 'broken', 'bad', and 'non-standard'.

While HCE remains an ever-evolving fixture in Hawaii homes and in social contexts, and despite studies which showed that HCE speaking children do, in fact, possess complex linguistic abilities, HCE continues to be met with resistance both in and out of the classroom. As a further example of the precarious link between identity and stigmatization describes how the Hawaii Board of Education's policy on Standard English (SE) communication in the classrooms was met with community backlash, resulting in the reversal of the policy Nevertheless, despite the support that HCE seemingly receives in the community, stigmatization—whether forcibly or self imposed—persists.

In a study published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Ohama, Gotay, Pagano, Boles, and Craven (2000) evaluated common associations with HCE and SE. The intent of the study was to examine whether HCE is, indeed, perceived more negatively than SE. The researchers hypothesized that HCE would be viewed less favorably on traits of superiority and quality; however, it was also hypothesized HCE would be rated more favorably on other less career-oriented traits The researchers sampled 197 students (181 undergraduate and 16 graduate) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Classes of students were assigned to listen to one or two 45-second stimulus audiotapes which played a short message in either SE or HCE by an individual who spoke both SE and HCE natively. The students were then asked to fill out a questionnaire rating SE and HCE on four factors: Quality, Attractiveness, Dynamism, and Superiority . Results confirmed the initial hypothesis. The speaker’s language was correlated to traits of superiority, quality and dynamism: listeners rated SE higher on traits of superiority (e.g., education, intelligence, upper class, etc.) and quality (e.g., appropriateness, grammaticality, etc.) while HCE was rated higher on dynamism (e.g., active, confident, and talkative) However, as the researchers noted, several additional factors affected the ratings of SE and HCE. For example, ethnicity played a significant role in evaluations of SE and HCE: Hawaiians, in general, rated HCE higher than SE on traits of attractiveness. Furthermore, the knowledge of HCE was the strongest indicator of higher ratings of dynamism, attractiveness, and quality in favor of HCE This study, while a singular example of research on evaluations of HCE and SE, situates HCE within the larger social and, perhaps more importantly, educational context, and once again, we see HCE’s precarious position between identity and stigmatization. Appropriately, the researchers in the above study conclude by considering the role of perceptions toward SE and HCE in the educational context—whether positive or negative: “Creoles and dialects denote thought patterns and processes that are unique to the culture using them. Losing a dialect or creole may mean losing the ability to think or view life in a certain way”

References

• Da Pidgin Coup (1997)Pidgin and Education. University of Hawaii

• Day, R. (1972, December). The Teaching of English to Hawaiian Creole-Speaking Children. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Toronto, Canada

• Ohama, M. L. F., Gotay, C. C., Pagano, Boles, L., Craven, D. D., (2000). Evaluations of Hawaii

Creole English and Standard English. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 19, 357-377

• Romaine, S. (1994) Hawaii Creole English as a literary language. Oxford:Cambride University Press

• Sato, C. (1991). Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Attitudes in Hawaii. In J. Cheshire (Ed.), English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (pp. 647-663). Cambridge: CUP

• Watson-Gegeo, K. (1994). Language and Education in Hawaii: Socio-political and Economic

Implications of Hawaii Creole English. In M. Morgan (Ed.), Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Language Situations (pp.1-32). Los Angeles: UCLA Center for African American Studies.

External Links:

• [1]
• [2]
• [3]