_ _ _ _ _ _
Examining Hawaiian Creole as a Regional Dialect
The
official language of the United States on a national level is English; however,
this English varies greatly in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, around the
country mostly due to geography. Because of its the immense territory it has
become harder and harder to delineate the regional dialects spoken in the
country, but it is easier to observe the English spoken in Alaska and Hawaii as
they rejoice in a physical distance from continental USA. This distance is also
negative since as a result they are not included among maps that showcase the
differences in vocabulary use in different regions of the country. Linguist
Hans Kurath tried to classify regional dialects into Northern, Midland, and the
Southern area (Kövecses 63). But this classification has been tested and proven
to be only superficial over the years. In a recent study conducted by Ph.D student Joshua Katz from North Carolina State
University, words with the same meaning were listed and people could vote on
the variant that they used to showcase dialectal differences in the various states
(Hickey). This experiment had already been conducted several years ago by
asking people to say which expression they used for “carbonated soft drinks”,
and the results showed many variants (Kövecses 72). Katz’s research had the
intention of drawing up maps in order to help see the different dialects and
how hard it is to point out where one begins and the other one finishes as they
are not based on state lines. But Alaska and Hawaii were left out, although when it comes to the composition of the
English spoken on the territory, they are regions themselves that had natives
living on the lands and whose language was influenced by settlers a great deal.
“American English is characterized by both uniformity and variation and
heterogeneity” (Kövecses 73), and overall about two thirds of the population
actually speak the same dialect. This very isolation factors in as it is
capable of causing much greater divide among the dialects of a given language.
Hawaii
in particular, being one of the most famous tourist destinations is always
exposed to the newer and newer variants of the English language. When talking about regional dialects, by definition,
we are talking about “a regional or social variety of a language distinguished
by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech
differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture
in which it exists” (“regional dialect”). When starting a research based on the
definition above stated, both the 49th and the 50th state
should be included and as such it is the aim of this paper to dissertate
Hawai’i Creole English as one of the regional dialects of the United States.
First, the dialect itself will be analyzed, followed by the historical
background and a description of the substrate that influenced it. Afterwards
the current state of this dialect within the state will be given, amidst
examples of the American character’s presence in this regional dialect. In the
essay the term “Hawaiian” will refer to the native tongue of the indigenous or
aboriginal people of the islands, while Hawai’i Creole or Pidgin (with capital
letters) will refer to the Hawaiian Creole English spoken today.
Hawai’i Creole is hard to define because it has a very intense history. We
speak of dialects when the language “of a group of speakers shows systematic
differences but these speakers can nevertheless understand each other”
(Kövecses 52), such is the case with this dialect as “Hawaiian Creole English
is pretty much mutually unintelligible with standard English” (Wilton). What is
considered Standard American English also comes from a dialect-based variety
that was spoken on the continent. Because it was used by newscasters, soon enough
it was the one spoken in the Midwestern area that became the standard (Kövecses
202). On a geographical level Hawai’i Creole English does not only exist in the
isolation of the islands of Hawaii, but can be found outside as well: speakers
of it can occur within Florida, in the Orlando area; within Nevada, around Las
Vegas; and mainly the west coast. The majority of speakers are, however,
situated in Hawaii, as out of the population of 600,000 (according to a census
from 2012), only 100,000 live in continental America (Lewis, Simons and
Fennig). This dialect has no subdialects, just variations because of the vast
amount of other tongues spoken on the islands.
This Creole developed from Pidgin English spoken on the sugar and
pineapple plantations and has a mixture of words of Japanese and Portuguese origin
in it as well. Pidgin is a combination of expressions and phrases and because
of that it is recognizable for speakers of it, but for the foreign listener it
might come off as slang (Wong). Pidgin was needed to help the communication
among two different tongues, but once that version is taught as a native
language then it becomes a creole (“Definitions”). Contact between English and
other languages always gave rise to new variants; it was the same when it came
to the islands. When the previous
language of Polynesian origin came into contact with the settlers’ English, the
new variant was born which evolved over the years into what today is known as
Hawai’i Creole English (“Major Regional Dialects”). It should be pointed out
that both creole and pidgin are technical terms, and while linguist use them to
differentiate an official tongue from an unofficial one, the speakers of the
given dialect may prefer one over the other; such is the case with Hawaiians,
who refer to their English variant as “Pidgin” (“Definitions”). This Pidgin
became more stable around 1896, when the first generation of locally born
speakers grew equal to that of the speakers of the superstrate language ("Substrate Influence").
To understand how this Pidgin works, there is necessity in examining the
language from multiple angles. First, a historical background to the origins of
the variant of English spoken on the islands of Hawaii has to be established.
The archipelago in question is a group of eight islands: Hawai’i, Maui, Kaua’i,
Lāna’i, Moloka’i, Ni’ihau Kaho’olawe, with the capital Honolulu residing on
O’ahu (Riley 64). The islands, being in the North Pacific Ocean, were an
important stop both strategically and geographically during colonization. The
first settlers arrived towards the end of the 18th century and over
the decades a lot of different nationalities have come and gone. These included
China, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Spain, and even the Philippines before the
English arrived around 1820 (Delaney and Hargrove, Sakoda and “Definitions”). It
was estimated “that there were 683,000 Native Hawaiians on the island in 1778,
when British explorer Capt. James Cook arrived” (Goo). Second, what is considered
the standard Creole on the islands today “is part of the Western dialect family
but shows less influence from the early New England dialect than any other
American dialect” (Delaney). The inflections in the language are simplified using
Hawaiian accents and many times the intonation remained Polynesian. Testament
to the latter is that intonation rises in the middle of the sentence and then
falls, rather than rising at the end as it does in English (Wilton).
American English can be said to be informal in pronunciation and
spelling (Kövecses 220), not only that but it is also very inventive. The only
reason why these pidgins could come to life in the first place is due to the
fact that there is flexibility in how English is used and created. American
English can easily be said to be the most innovative in its nature, and that
can be demonstrated in the grammar of Hawaiian Creole as well (253). The
grammar of the language is quite easy, as the tongue uses tense and aspect
markers when conjugating, otherwise the verb without any marker is used to talk
about things that happen all the time or are not defined in time. For past
events the Hawaiian uses wen before
the main verb and for future events go,
gon or gona. For events that are in progress the language borrowed from
the English, as many times it can have an -ing
ending. Otherwise the auxiliary ste
is put before the verb (Hargrove, Sakoda and Siegel). Sentences that give
location also use the word ste, stay;
to say there is/are the word get is
used, while the past tense uses haed.
Hawaiian Creole many times does not require any verb for a sentence to be
correct, which is a quality it shares with other languages, rather than with
English (Hargrove, Sakoda and Siegel). When it comes to verb negation the word neva is put in front of the main verb in
the sentence (Thompson).
It has to be underlined that this is not redundancy in the dialect, as
the spelling of the words changed because it wished to be faithful to their
pronunciation (Kövecses 179). As a matter of fact, the grammatical composition in
the Pidgin is a testament to the economic nature of American English, which wished
to simplify the British English variant spoken in the thirteen colonies. This
process of simplification began immediately after the War of Independence.
Linguistic economy seeks to eliminate or avoid redundancy and superfluity
(Kövecses 185). American English always prided itself in the differences from
its British counterpart, by dropping extra vowels or irregular forms of verbs;
it became easier for foreign learners. This economic nature is deeply embedded
in the Hawaiian dialect: not only does it come from the simplicity of the
Hawaiian native language, but it even managed to simplify an already easy
English variant.
The tongue has a syllable-times rhythm, so the syllables have
approximately the same length, like in Spanish and Italian. The sound /θ/ as in thin and the
sound /ð/ as in then are
replaced by /t/ and /d/ respectively, e.g., thin is
pronounced as /tin/ and then is
pronounced as /den/. The article the is
pronounced as /da/ and finally the sound /r/ after vowels is dropped,
e.g., better is pronounced as /beta/ (Thompson).
It is important to remember that the composition of Hawaiian Creole
cannot be reduced to two steps, as it is the case with many Neo-Latin
languages. Those tongues developed with a substrate language spoken on the
territory that was then overwritten by a superstrate language. Although there
is some similarity, as Hawaiian spoken by the natives on the islands is
considered the substrate that influenced it, English cannot be considered the
one and only superstrate language. As it was demonstrated so far, most
grammatical and pronunciation features of Hawaiian Creole do not resemble
English in any way. The stability of this Pidgin, as stated before in the
paper, was solidified at the end of the 1800, what followed was the beginning
of the 1900, which saw a rise in second generation locally born speakers of the
dialect. These included men of Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese descent (“Substrate
Influence”). These three, more than any other tongue, can be found repeatedly
in the etymology of Hawaiian words. The composition of this tongue has several
levels, and even if ultimately it was dubbed an English dialect, initially it
was influenced mostly by other languages. In the end it was justifiably
considered an English dialect not for its vocabulary or grammar, but for its
character. Another testament to that is the straightforward notion of this
dialect. Just like American English, the idea is to make sure that language is
easily followed and understood by all speakers (Kövecses 186). Alaska and
Hawaii are special for another reason when discussing regional dialects: they
have enforced and kept most of their native cultural traits alive as much as it
was possible over the years. On continental America there is a
social-psychological reason which enforced unity among the states, and even if
many of these were adapted even outside of the country, it is still mostly
uniform only within the continent (Kövecses 73).
In this second part of the essay the substrate, Hawaiian native tongue,
will be analyzed in order to help understand how their Pidgin is constructed.
Ultimately, language is, without question one of the key components to get to
know someone’s culture, and it was this that motivated Joshua Katz to compile
the maps on regional dialects. He said: “To me, dialect is a badge of pride;
it's something that says ‘this is who I am; this is where I come from’”, and
the speakers of the native Hawaiian tongue had greatly diminished over the
years. Today it is considered one of the world’s endangered languages, as there
are only about a thousand native speakers, and the majority are over 70 years
old (Wilton). Native Hawaiian is a recognized racial classification and in “the
2010 Census: 527,077 people reported that they are Native Hawaiian alone or of
a mixed race that includes Native Hawaiian” (Launia) out of the 1.4 million
population of Hawaii. “U.S. Native Hawaiian population today, 36% identify as
two races and 26% identify as three races; only a third – 33% – identify as
only Native Hawaiian” (Goo), which is around 8000 people.
When settlers arrived, besides their own language, they also brought
diseases which significantly decreased the population of native speakers on the
islands (Hargrove, Sakoda and Siegel). What followed was the prohibition of the
language at the end of the 19th century for native speakers in
schools, and soon enough in their homes as well (“The Language of Ni‘ihau”). It
was here that isolation resulted in the salvation of the language as each
island was treated differently. The island of Ni’ihau escaped the near
extinction of the language, but this also brought about a different dialect,
leaving the island the only one that uses Hawaiian as its first and only
language (“The Language of Ni‘ihau”). Thankfully the language had a renaissance
era and today “thousands of people study the Hawaiian language and other
aspects of Hawaiian culture” (“Hawaii's Languages”). The Hawaiian dialect is
closely related to many others of Polynesian origin, among them Tahitian,
Maori, Marquesan, Rarotongan, Samoan and Tongan.
During the 1800s the island of Hawai'i became one of the most literate
nations in the whole world, with 90% of its population able to read and write
and was the first one western of the Rocky Mountains to have its own newspaper.
As always printed press helped the learning of the language, and oppression of
the language, as stated earlier in the paper, did not become into full effect
until 1898, leaving older generations able to pass on their language (“The
Language of Ni‘ihau”). The country, previously a monarchy, was known for its
rich oral history, but due to the pages of their newspaper still available
today and the propaganda to establish written materials helps in the study of
the language. These were written with the standard English alphabet, the same
way Pidgin is written today (Thompson).
The Hawaiian native language itself is famous for having the fewest
number of letters, only twelve: five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and seven consonants
(h, k, l, m, n, p, w; Riley 5). The language itself if full of glottal stops
which are called ‘okina, and they are signaled with a stress mark in writing
(‘). ‘Okina occurs between two vowels. Many guides and dictionaries, as well as
grammar books of the language count this glottal stop among the consonants,
making the alphabet of all together thirteen letters (5). In Hawaiian the
vowels have two sounds, based on whether or not they are stressed or
unstressed, and if there is a line above them, called kahako (eg. ā, as in the
island of Lāna’i) they are pronounced by drawing out the sound. These, however,
“should not be confused with the bar or macron that is used to differentiate an
English ‘long’ vowel from a ‘short’ vowel, as in the words hate and hat,
respectively” (“Hawaii's Languages”), because in Hawaiian the usage of kahako
means a difference in meaning as well (akau
- right; ākau - North). The vowels
can merge into diphthongs, which is quite common in the language (Riley 6).
As there was no written form of the language when the missionaries arrived,
they had a hard time learning and annotating the language. Once they did write
down testimonies and collections of words and expressions, they did so without
the ‘okina or the kahako, which was no problem for the natives, but it would be
for anyone wishing to learn the language. This is the reason why today there
are so many variants, both without and with the proper markings; the simplest
example is the island of Oahu which, for natives, is written as O’ahu, but the
one without the ‘okina is so widely spread that it sometimes overwrites the
correct one (“Hawaii’s Languages”). There is also a difference as the state of
Hawaii is not the same as the island of Hawai’i, which is one of the eight in
the archipelago. The latter, written with the ‘okina, is also used to denote the
Creole spoken on the islands; in order to underline that the second “i” does
not merge into the one preceding it when pronouncing the word the ‘okina cannot
be omitted. Even the name of the state should be pronounced as such; although
the spelling has no ‘okina those pronouncing it as [hə-wä′y] instead of [hə-wä′ē] are
doing it incorrectly (“Hawaii”).
The Hawaiian Islands are listed among the top tourist destinations today
and their language has contributed to the vocabulary of standard American
English over the years. One of the major reasons this was possible was through
Hollywood, as several movies after and because of the Second World War were
shot on the islands. Many, at first, just used the natural beauties it had to
offer, but soon enough movies discussed the cultural heritage of the 50th
state. Before this dialect was recognized, the residing children, many still of
Portuguese descent, until the last quarter of the 19th century, were taught Hawaiian,
and English was taught as a foreign language ("Substrate Influence"). Meanwhile they spoke a form of
pidgin at home and it was the mixture of all of these that influenced the
vocabulary of today’s Hawaiian Creole English (Hargrove, Sakoda and “Definitions”).
Because Hawaii was just a territory of the U.S. for over a hundred years, it
did not have in the same rights as other states, and as such there the American’s
rejoiced in supremacy. This is one of the reasons why natives and their tongue
could be cast aside and English could be enforced. Hawaii only became a state
in 1959 (Goo), years after the Second World War and years after the attack on
Pearl Harbor. The latter is considered one of the greatest tragedies of
American history.
There are several words from this dialect that have embedded themselves
in the English language and are now of everyday use. The most well-known is the
greeting aloha, followed by the
common abbreviation of brother, brah
(in slang it is most commonly used for friend). Others include haole, a non-Hawaiian, Caucasian person;
hula referring to the dance performed
by natives which is taught not only on the continent outside of the islands but
everywhere else in the world as well; kahuna
meaning priest, healer, or sorcerer, and as such it often refers to someone who
was power over others; lei, for the
garland of flowers; luau, an outdoor
feast by fire light; poi, a dish made
from fermented taro root and ukulele,
the four string instrument (Wilton). Later on the ending of ukulele would be
used for another instrument: banjolele,
which is a miniature banjo with four chords like its name giver. This is a
typical example of backformation in which the new word is made by removing the ending
of another word (Kövecses 263), the ending –lele
did not signal the size of the instrument, nonetheless the ukulele is widely considered
as a smaller version of the guitar, thus the name speaks for itself. This language
also originated the name of one of the most famous contemporary websites: the
word wiki means fast, so the compound
word Wikipedia alludes to a fast way to get the same amount information we
would get from an encyclopedia (Thompson).
Being another dialect of the English language, just as it is in other
regional dialects, some word combinations have different meanings, like stink eye means “dirty look” and chicken skin can mean “goose bumps”. This
dialect also shares words that have completely different meaning than in the
English: choke means a “vast amount”,
so the definition choke cars would
translate to “heavy traffic”; while grind
means “to eat”. Another example is the word beef,
which in the sense of “to have a beef with someone” can mean a disagreement in
AmE too, but in Hawaiian Creole English it literally means “fight” (Hargrove,
Sakoda and Siegel). In Hawaiian the words have no plural form, to pluralize
them a “nā” is put in front of the word (book – puke, books – nā puke);
as such any and all words that are of Hawaiian origin but have the standard -s ending to signal the plural have been
added from the English variant of the language (Riley 6).
A little over a year ago Hawaiian Creole English was accepted as the
national language of Hawaii, which means that it is no longer considered just a
dialect. Although it is considered and accepted as a national language, defining
it is still problematic because there are over 100 other languages spoken on
the islands all together (Laddaran). Even the speakers of this language define
it as “the local, slang-sounding vernacular” (Wong). Slang can be defined as a
variety of a language that goes against the norms of the standard in order for
the speakers of it to differentiate them, and as such this Creole does count as
slang rather than a separate language (Kövecses 119). The problem comes with
integrating Pidgin as a language. In order to enforce it education has been
encouraged to introduce it in schools to help students find the grammatical
differences between it and standard American English at an early age, in order
to be able to grasp it much better later on (Wong). The language itself is
blooming as the literacy rate according to the 2012 census is between 66%-75%,
with it being taught as an elective for native and nonnative children, and also
in primary school. It is also used for radio and television programs (Lewis,
Simons and Fennig).
The fact that it has been accepted as a separate tongue could mean
changes in the way African American Vernacular English or Chicano English are
looked at (Wong). It is important to remember that although English is the
national language of the United States, it is not the language stipulated on a
federal level. As a matter of fact, speakers whose mother tongue is other than
English are becoming the majority in the U.S. just in the past two years
(Burgen). This also alludes to the idea that perhaps the word creole or pidgin
no longer do justice to denoting the language, still, it has to be differentiated
as Hawaiian language is that of the native indigenous speakers of the island. An
inconclusive research conducted from 2009 to 2013 found that those who spoke
Hawaiian Creole English used it generally as a second language, but a language
nonetheless (Wong). Calling the individuals who participated in the research
bilinguals elevated this dialect into a tongue spoken by majority of the
residents of the islands. This Creole became a nationally accepted language at
the end of 2015, which means that it is young as far as languages are
concerned, but it is very old as a pidgin, even older than the United States.
In conclusion, when studying regional dialects of the United States,
each region has to be looked at closer, not just the ones on continental America.
The aim of this paper was to demonstrate that Alaska and Hawaii are always
taken aside, and for good reason, but their history and the birth of their
dialect shares a lot in common with what is considered today the standard
American English. When looking at regional dialects pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary as well as
geography play an important role in defining them. The Hawaiian Islands, prior to becoming a state, were
visited by several countries seeking colonies in the Northern Pacific Ocean.
The islands had a tongue of their own, which served as a substrate that
influenced the language spoken today. There are over a 100 languages spoken
there and these continually influence the Pidgin of the island. Although this
Pidgin originated from the encounter of Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, before
the addition of English, it still possesses those character traits that are
typical of American English. It is economic in its nature, somewhat informal,
thus straightforward, and it is considered to be a form of slang by its
speakers as well. The majority of residents of Hawaii were deemed bilingual in
2015 which elevated the Pidgin to national language of the 50th
state of the U.S.A. English in America is just a national language, it is not
accepted on a federal level and this means that Hawai’i Creole does not clash
with the standard, and now other Pidgins spoken within the country could be
elevated to the status of language. The aim of this paper was to demonstrate
that despite the distance of the archipelago of Hawaii, it was still incredibly
fruitful in its history and contribution to what is considered standard
American English. Hawaii should be included and studied among the regional
dialects, rather than be neglected, precisely because of its isolation. The
distance from the continent emphasizes the differences; however, on a closer
look it seems that there are a lot of similarities that justify its
classification as an English dialect.
Works cited:
Burgen, Stephen. “US Now Has
More Spanish Speakers than Spain – Only Mexico Has More.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 29 June 2015. Web. 11 Jan.
2017.
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/29/us-second-biggest-spanish-speaking-country>.
Delaney, Robert. “American
Dialects : Dialect Map of American English.” Robert’s page. LIU Long Island University, 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 04
Jan. 2017. <www.robertspage.com/dialects.html>.
Goo, Sara Kehaulani. “After
200 Years, Native Hawaiians Make a Comeback.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, 06 Apr. 2015. Web. 13
Jan. 2017.
<http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/06/native-hawaiian-population/>.
Hargrove, Ermile, Kent
Sakoda and Jeff Siegel. “Hawai’i Creole.” Language
Varieties. University of Hawaii, n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2017.
“hawaii.” American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011. Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company 12 Jan. 2017. <www.thefreedictionary.com/Hawaii>
“Hawaii's Languages.” Polynesian Cultural Center. Polynesian
Cultural Center, n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2017.
<www.polynesia.com/polynesian_culture/hawaii/languages.html>.
Hickey, Walter. “22 Maps
That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From One Another.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 05 June
2013. Web. 03 Jan. 2017.
<www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6/#the-pronunciation-of-caramel-starts-disregarding-vowels-once-you-go-west-of-the-ohio-river-1>.
Kövecses,
Zoltán. American English: an introduction. Broadview Press, 2000.
Laddaran, Bu Kerry Chan. “Pidgin
English Is Now an Official Language of Hawaii.” CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Nov. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.
<www.edition.cnn.com/2015/11/12/living/pidgin-english-hawaii/>.
Launiu, Stephanie. “Hawai'i
and Native Hawaiians.” WanderWisdom.
WanderWisdom, 03 Aug. 2016. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.
<www.wanderwisdom.com/travel-destinations/Hawaii-and-Native-Hawaiians-What-You-May-Not-Know>.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F.
Simons, and Charles D. Fennig. “Hawai’i Pidgin”. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth edition. Dallas: SIL
International. 2016. Online version. <http://www.ethnologue.com>.
“Major Regional Dialects.” PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2017. <www.pbs.org/speak/education/curriculum/high/regional/>.
“regional dialect.” American
Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 3 Jan. 2017
<www.thefreedictionary.com/Regional+dialect>.
Riley, Jade Mapuana. An Easy Guide To The Hawaiian Language.
Tenth ed. Honolulu Hawai'i: Mutual, 2005. Print. Visitor Guides to Hawai'i.
Siegel, Jeff. “Definitions.”
Language Varieties. University of
Hawaii, n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2017. <www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/index.html>.
Siegel, Jeff. “Substrate Influence in Hawai'i Creole English.” Language in Society, vol. 29, no. 2, 2000, pp. 197–236. <www.jstor.org/stable/4169002>.
“The Language of Ni‘ihau.” About the Hawaiian Language - History of
Ni`ihau Dialect. Ni`ihau Cultural Heritage Foundation, 2009. Web. 03 Jan.
2017. <www.niihauheritage.org/niihau_language.htm>.
Thompson, Irene. “Hawaiian
Creole .” About World Languages.
N.p., 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2017. <www.aboutworldlanguages.com/hawaiian-creole>.
Wilton, David. “American
Dialect: Alaska & Hawaii.” Wordorigins.org. N.p., 01 Sept. 2003. Web. 04
Jan. 2017.
<www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/american_dialect_alaska_hawaii/>.
Wong, Alia. “De-Stigmatizing
Hawaii’s Creole Language.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 20 Nov. 2015.
Web. 11 Jan. 2017.
<www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/hawaiian-pidgin-recognized/416883/>.
