Friday, March 5, 2010

Creole, Pidgin, or If You Like, Cloak Wheels

Ovah hea, we stay one special place wit one special kine language.
Some stay call em pidgin, but it stay one real creole. Iss one creole cause iss one mix of all da kine languages.
Da real kine pidgin I mean.


Hawaii is a unique place with a unique language.
Some folks call it pidgin, but I believe it is a true creole. It is a creole for it is a combination of different languages.
Real pidgin I mean.
If you know anything about Hawaii, you know that most of the non-white, non-native peoples were introduced here to solve a great labor shortage.
Fortunately/unfortunately these peoples were thrust together to work the sugar cane fields. I suppose at first, communication between the different cultures was not essential.
I mean you probably lived in a camp with the same people that got off the boat with you and survival was foremost on your mind.
That is unless you were checking out the chicks in the other camp. Then some form of communication was probably important.
I consider myself pretty lucky for I can speak pretty good pidgin. I grew up in an area where the people were diverse ethnically so pidgin was the language of necessity.
Way back when, there was a movement to remove pidgin from the classrooms. Students who passed a speaking test were sent to a different school, known as "English Standard" schools. Even today, there is a rule on the books somewhere that require teachers to use "correct English" in the classroom.
I'm a bit torn. I know why it's important to learn correct English and I also enjoy hearing the language I grew up with.
I enjoy listening to people talk with a heavy pidgin accent because it is a rare thing to hear.
That makes me sad.
Not hearing it spoken too often I mean.
Speaking pidgin is a gift of sorts.
You can't really learn it. You can't just live here for a while and adopt it.
It doesn't work that way.
Trust me, you can tell the difference between someone speaking pidgin as a native and someone speaking it cause they are trying to fit in.
I have even met some local kids who don't know how to speak it who say they feel alienated because of it.
I mean they grew up here and they don't speak pidgin?
Where did they grow up? Under a rock?
I would have thought it pretty much impossible to live here and not pick up a little pidgin.
Boy, talk about assimilation.
Anyways, because of the diverse cultures that live here, pidgin is the one marker that labels you local.
So, I have decided to help perpetuate pidgin.
No, I'm not going to get all Lee Tonouchi on you; I'm still going to write in regula kine English, but don't be surprised to see some colloquialisms once in a while.
Speaking of cloak wheels, I now have a tracking number.

4 comments:

John Romeo Alpha said...

I learned a few new words in this post, but I still don't know what "cloak wheels" are. And if you google up "cloak wheels" well you get this particular post, which doesn't help much. So when they are delivered perhaps you can display a photo of your new cloak wheels. I also ordered some wheels and have a tracking number. Weird. Mine are not cloak, though, mine are close-out mountain bike wheels.

limom said...

My old English teacher would call this "cosmic propinquity."
Or perhaps blogger propinquity.
Let's race!
My tracking says Monday.

John Romeo Alpha said...

Wheels have arrived. Cleanup truing tune-up installation in progress.

limom said...

That wasn't even close.
Full report expected.