PBS Documentary: "Pidgin"

[Mikala43]

Pidgin is acceptable, even to the extent that it's like a secret "password". It's important to know how to turn it off and speak "properly" though. You can be in a business meeting, and all of a sudden someone will lapse into pidgin to make a particular point.

It's different on all the islands. About a year after I got here I went to Hana for New Year, the more tequila the thicker the pidgin, until I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying!!

[hotzcatz]

'Aloha' works if it's natural, but the 'Aaaaloooooooohaaaaaa' of the tourist industry makes me cringe.

I was in the Caribbean last year and someone 'outed' me as being from Hawaii by my 'accent'. ???? I never knew I had an accent. I wasn't speaking pidgin at the time, either!

Yesterday I was working at the shop and the building supervisor dropped by with some paperwork for the shop owner. We started out in standard English, but once we got to the talk story part, it was pretty pidginized. And the longer we chatted, the more pidgin until it got to more pidgin than English. There were a lot of little local jokes and innuendos in there, too. I forget exactly what they were, but little stuff that if you weren't from around here you wouldn't have found funny. And it would take a lot of explaining too. It was interesting though, she'd say something funny and then kinda look to see if I caught it. Then it'd get a bit more pidgin after that.

Hmm, maybe the whole 'business' conversation takes explanation. Generally, when doing business in Hawaii, it's not an efficient sort of thing. Instead of coming by the shop and dropping off the paper for the shop owner - or even more efficient - mailing it (heaven forfend!) - she hand carries it and then we end up chatting for about twenty minutes. First off about the paper, then how the shop is doing, then how the other shops nearby are doing, then about upcoming shops in town (and I exchanged some phone numbers with her of my friend who's going to be opening a shop nearby in the next several weeks so my friend will be a 'known' person when she moves in) and then about upcoming town events, a bit about how it used to be and folks we knew. So the end result on my side is if I ever need a favor from the building supervisor, it will be pretty easy to have a conversation with the supervisor. My friend moving her shop into town will now have an easier time of it, too, since the building supervisor will let other folks know that the new shop is sort of ohana.

[rya96797]

^


Haha true. On the other hand mahalo tends to work well in general. Its either that tanks, eh? lol

[maui-intoxicated]

talk story brah?

[Palanakonu]

Not to stray too far off topic, but I love the 'local speak' of all the places I've lived or visited.
It's hard to say which my favorite is aside from my native Kentucky-Hillbilly... but it's got to be between Hawaiian pidgin, and Yoopenese.

[Saskia Calico]

Originally Posted by rya96797

generally the more rural you go, the heavier the accent. even people that think they're speaking "proper" English most of the time (like myself) do carry a recognizable pidgin accent that people out of state readily identify as being different.

It sounds a lot like the way it is in rural areas here in the Southeast! lol

Thank you all very much for your replies and information.