Pidgin Is Now An Official Language

Pidgin, spoken in Hawaii for decades, is now listed as one of the official languages in the islands. This comes as the U.S. Census Bureau in November after a five-year survey was conducted on bilingual speakers released a list of languages spoken in Hawaii. The census surveyed more than 325,000 Hawaiian residents from 2009 to 2013, asking whether they spoke any language other than English at home.

The results revealed a number of Pidgin and Hawaiian Pidgin speakers. Both were added to the census list that included over 100 languages, representative of the islands diversity.

Pidgin is a combination of expressions and phrases that are recognizable to those who speak it. To non-Pidgin speakers, it may sound like slang. For example, “dat” means that and “fadda” means father or dad.

According to Patrick Wang who has lived in Oahu for over 40 years, “It’s in their nature. That’s what they know,” Depending on who he is speaking to, Wang said, “I can turn it on and off.”

To the locals, adding Pidgin to the official language list makes no difference to those who grew up speaking it and have been their whole lives, said Wang.

Residents applaud the recognition of pidgin as official language in Hawaii

"we on da map." - Kam

According to HawaiiNewsNow, Pidgin, the unmistakable, enchanting language of locals has been recognized as an official language.

In data collected from 2009-2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii and Maui counties, 1,390 respondents over the age of five listed Pidgin or Hawaiian Pidgin as the language they spoke at home.

"It's a language separate from English, distinct from English. The problem is it shares a vocabulary with English," said author and University of Hawaii at Manoa Professor Kent Sakoda.

Scholars stress Pidgin is definitely not just slang.

"'He when saw da movie' ... that's not right for most Pidgin speakers because you're marking past tense twice," noted Christina Higgins, co-director of the Charlene Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies.

Like other languages, Pidgin is also more than just the spoken word.

"It represents Hawaii. It represents local style," said Leonard Kam, who was working behind the always busy pupu counter at Alicia's Market on Friday.

Sakoda, the UH-Manoa, says the Census recognition is well-deserved. "Even a few years back people, it would not have listed it. It's a long time coming."

Or in other words according to Kam, "we on da map."

Sources:

Bu Kerry Chan Laddaran, Special to CNN, Published 4:48 PM EST, Thu November 12, 2015

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/12/living/pidgin-english-hawaii/index.html

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/30515676/pidgin-now-recognized-as-official-language/

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