HAWAII PIDGIN ENGLISH

HAWAII PIDGIN ENGLISH, also informally Pidgin. Although the term Hawaiian pidgin has been widely used to refer to the English-based PIDGIN and CREOLE varieties used in Hawaii, some people of ethnic Hawaiian descent have objected to it because it suggests that HAWAIIAN rather than English was pidginized. The term Hawaii Pidgin English is now generally preferred among scholars and teachers. It may have been a pidginized version of Hawaiian re-lexified with English words and used by the Chinese plantation labourers who took over the cultivation of taro from native Hawaiians. This pidgin was originally known as olelo pa'i'ai (pounded but undiluted taro language) and is partially related to one of the earliest forms of English in the islands, Maritime Pidgin Hawaiian, which was used between Hawaiians and sailors and traders of various backgrounds, but principally from the US. During the development of a plantation economy in the later 19c, Hawaiians and English-speaking plantation owners communicated in so-called hapa-haole (half-foreign), probably foreigner talk rather than a pidgin. The crucial years for formation were 1890 to 1910, when most Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese arrived. The initial pidgin was unstable and varied considerably, depending on the native language of the speaker. It became stable after the turn of the century, when pidgin-speaking immigrants married and brought up children using it as their primary language. At this stage, it was creolized and is now called HAWAII CREOLE ENGLISH.