KC3 Final Essay

The Pidgin Language

In the Hawaiian Islands, there were different languages on each island.  Soon King Kamehameha III united the islands as one territory with a common language called the Hawaiian language.  A long period of time passed and merchants from different countries visited Hawai'i bringing their own language.  This began with the English language. American retailers returning from China would stop in Hawai'i and some of the Chinese people on the crew would stay.  People from other countries also came to live in Hawai'i.  With the many different people and languages, they weren't able to communicate wit each other.  This was passed on to the following generations to become the unique language of Hawaiian Pidgin.

Pidgin originated as a form of communication used between English speaking residents and non-English speaking immigrants in Hawai'i.  It has been influenced by many languages, including Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Cantonese.  The pidgin is ultimately best classified as a dialect of those languages, Pidgin English.  Pidgin English came from the China Coast and Melanesia and is a slang of English.  Some examples of Portuguese's pidgin is that they use the word "save" from the English language and pronounced it as "sah-vay" and it meant "know".  The different ethnicities' words mostly come from English but may be pronounced differently and it's definition aren't the same.  That's why it's called Pidgin.  Another example that Melanesians use is "spak" which means "drunk".  It was taken from the word "spark".  As people of other language backgrounds were brought in to work on the plantations, such as Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans, Pidgin attained words from these languages.  It has also been influenced to a lesser degree by Spanish by Mexican and PuertoRican settlers in Hawai'i.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Pidgin started to be used outside the plantation between ethnic groups.  Public school children went to school to learn English.  Soon after, they learned Pidgin from their classmates, and eventually it became the primary language of most people in Hawai'i, replacing the original languages.

Today, Pidgin has evolved into becoming the unofficial language of Hawai'i.  The pidgin that we use today is corrupt and can be incomprehensible to the untrained ear.  Some examples of Pidgin that are used today are "Eh, you like one pencil?" which means "Would you like a pencil?", or "You no can do dat!" refers to "You cannot do that!".  Pidgin is, above all, not a native language, but still kept alive by new hip words.

KC3 Essay Draft

The Pidgin Language

Long ago in the 1800's, the sugar plantations were established and thousands of laborers from all different countries to Hawaii to work and see a better life.  They all spoke different languages so it was difficult to communicate with each other.  A common language was needed and that's when the Pidgin language developed.

At first, they all communicated using the Hawaiian and Pidgin Hawaiian language.  Later in the century, a new variety of pidgin began to develop.  Families began to arrive and have children and they learned their parents' language which was Hawaiian or Pidgin Hawaiian, then the children learned English at school.  Soon after, the children were influenced by the Pidgin English.  It was the Hawaiian language learned from their parents and the English learned at school.  By the turn of the century, a new Pidgin began to emerge.  This Pidgin became he primary language of many who grew up in Hawaii.

Today, Pidgin has evolved into becoming the unofficial language of Hawaii.  The pidgin that we used today is corrupt and can be incomprehensible to the untrained ear.  Pidgin is, above all, not a native language, but still kept alive by new hip words.

Journal #14 - Thesis Statement

Topic : Hawaiian Renaissance
Subtopic : Pidgin Language


Thesis Statement : Pidgin is not a stagnant language