PHONETICS

HAWAI'I

CREOLE

400 C.E. Polynesian voyagers from the Marquesas Islands settled down in the Hawaiian islands. Only Hawaiian was spoken

1778 Hawai'i was first visited by Europeans. Explorer James Cook landed on the archipelago. It became an important stopover for ships involved in trading

1820 English first foothold through Christian missionaries who started pushing English on the locals

1835 First sugarcane plantation was established. Thousand of labourers were brought from China, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the Philippines. A common language was needed to communicate

1870s Immigrant families began to arrive and more children were born on the plantations

1920s Pidgin was the dominant language of the plantation worker´s children.

Hawai'i Creole English was born

What is the difference between a pidgin and a creole?

PIDGIN

CREOLE

• Is a new language that develops when speakers of different languages come into contact with each other and have a need to communicate
• One group of people is dominant over another group of people and the less dominant needs to communicate
• Simplified and basic vocabulary and grammar
• Situations of slavery, trade or colonial contact
• At first it was restricted in use (job or trade)

• Some pidgins expanded, began to be used for all facettes of life: social and family life
• Passed down from generation to generation and becomes children´s native language
• They become languages in their own rights
• Hawai'i creole is based on English

Languages spoken in Hawai'i:

• A rich linguistic history based on the need for a common language among a diverse group of people who spoke different languages
• A dark side based on plantation domination and American English hegemony
• Half of the population: 600.000 native speakers

Hawai'i Creole

• 2000 native speakers: 0.15 of the population
• Official language

Hawaiian English

• Official language

Standard American English

Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, among others

ConsonantsVowels Intonation Stress Grammar Lexis

Consonants

Examples:

or

/t/ /d/

instead of

think - tinkthick - tick both - boat father - fadethis - dis other - uda

/th/

Consonant cluster variation

or

/chr/ /jr/

Examples:

instead of

tree - chree drill - jrill

or

/tr/ /dr/

Final consonant clusters

PIDGIN

SAE

keptact soft last cold spend

kepaek sawf laes kol spen

/r/

is not pronounced after some vowels

Sometimes the final /r/ is changed to another vowel

Examples:

parking - paking scared - sked for - fo

dear - dia welfare - welfea

/r/

Hawai'i accent is similar to Boston accent but...

Examples:

Hawai'i

Boston

paahk the caah in the yaahd (nazalized)

pak the cah in the yad (throat vocalized)

Stress Patterns

Vowels

SAE

PIDGIN

Dictionary dikshanaeri Inventory inventawri Ceremony saramoni Hurricane harakein Alcohol aelkahawl Strawberry shchrawbaeri hospital hospito

feethit look bed pan people apple terrible

fit heat luke bad pen pipo aepo taerabo

Syllabic /l/

Rising intonation

A salient characteristic of a Hawai'i accent is the rising tone for statements

Examples:

"You know that guy who is round the corner like that..."

You know that sometimes when people are talking from Hawai'i..."

Falling intonation

In Pidgin the intonation pattern falls at the end of a Yes/No question. But it rises when ending in tags: yeah,eh,o watIn SAE the intonation rises

SAE

Pidgin

"hey you a lifegad?" "hey you a lifegad yeah"

"Are you a lifeguard?"

ARTICLES

Examples:

the - a

are represented by

I like the dog I like da dog I want to buy a dog I like buy won dog

da won

LEXIS

Da Kine is used instead of "it"As a fillerTakes the meaning depending on the contextUsed to refer to anything you forgot the name ofAloha means: hello, goodbye, loveTalk story is a great way to relax with friends

Grammar

Da baby cute "The baby is cute". Da book stay on the table "The book is on the table"

Verb "To be" sometimes dropped"Stay" used in place of "To be"

Da baby wen cry "The baby cried"

Past tense: wen ‘went’ before the verb

Future tense: go, gon, gona before the verb

Da baby goin eat "The baby is going to eat"

Verb negation: nat, no, neva

Mai sista nat skini. "My sister isn't skinny".Da cat no eat fish. "The cat doesn´t eat fish"

Hawaiian Pidgin

This is a dialogue in Pidgin between two friendsAct it out with your partner Can you act it out in SAE?

A: Eh, howzit, brah? Long time no see, yeah? B: Eh, da kine! Been bus' lately. How you stay? A: No worries, jus' grindin' and tryna catch some waves. You stay still workin' at da surf shop? B: Nah, quit dat job. Now I stay workin' at da shrimp truck by da beach. Mo' bettah grind, fo' real. A: Ho, das cool, yeah? Shrimp truck food da bes! Me and da ohana wen go dea laes weeken. Broke da mouth! B: Shoots, you gotta come back. We goin' get some new kine specials dis week. Maybe try some garlic butte shrimp. A: Sound ono! We goin' stop by. Small kid time, we used to go beach, yeah? Remember dem days? B: Fo' real! We used to run 'round barefoot, slippahs stay in da car A: Haha, da kine days was da bes! We go grab some grindz. talk story and just enjoy da aloha spirit, you know? If can can, If no can, no can B: Fo' sure, brah! Let's plan 'em. Catch you later den. Take care! Aloha! A: Aloha, you take care too, and we go catch up da kine! Bumbye!

Find variations related to:

A. Consonant clusters B. Omission of /r/ C. Falling intonation D. Articles E. Past tense formation F. Pidgin words or phrases G. Vowel sounds

Hawaiian Creole is a language, not "broken English"

"When an individual is asked to reject their own language, we are asking them to drop allegiances to the people and places that define them. We do not, cannot under our laws, ask a person to change the color of her skin, her religion, her gender, her sexual identity, but we regularly demand on people that they suppress or deny the most effective way they have of situating themselves socially in the world" Rosina Lippi-Green

References

Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an Accent. Routledge.

Drager, K. (2012). Pidgin and Hawai‘i English: An overview. International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication, 1, 61.

San Roman, J. Kochi, J. Teachers guide to supporting Hawaiian American Standard English learners. Adapted from the work of Kent Sakoda and Jeff Siegel.

http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/hce.html

http://www.eyeofhawaii.com/Hawaiian/hawaiian.htm

Aloha!