Hawaiian Pidgin
It is a mistake to consider Pidgin "broken English". If
anything was "broken", it was Hawaiian, since it is the Hawaiian
language that forms the structure of Pidgin, as well as providing many of the
colorful and descriptive words. It is also a mistake to assume that anyone
speaking Pidgin is uneducated. Hawaii's Governor speaks Pidgin sometimes,
as do most people who grew up in the islands. It's more appropriate to
consider anyone speaking Pidgin as bilingual, for it is increasingly recognized
as a language in its own right, one with a very rich and interesting
history.
As with other Creole languages, Hawaiian Pidgin originally developed as a
means for people who spoke different languages to learn to communicate with each
other in order to do business. The first were European and American
merchants who traded iron tools, cloth and other items for supplies of fresh
food and water. Subsequently, contract workers were brought to the islands
from China, Japan, the Philippines and other places, to work on the sugar
plantations. Words and phrases from each of these languages worked their
way into the language that all understood, the pidgin that has evolved into
Hawaii's unofficial language. (Note: English and Hawaiian are each
official languages.)
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