Da' Pidgin English Thread

[Kaonohi]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

None taken. I fully understand the definition of the word. Believe its most closely translated to "foreign".

I think you would agree that "haole" has taken on a somewhat connotation of white, Caucasian or tourist. By definition, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos are all foreigners or non-Hawaiian, but you don't generally hear them referred to a haoles.

And of course Hawaii is also one of the few places that Portagees are broken out from other Caucasian ethnic groups, due to their contemporary island history.

It's all good braddah!

I agree. 'Haole' in Hawaiian is 'foreigner,' but in Pidgen it means something a bit different. No argument.

[Opihimonster]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

Pass? Maybe you one Kama`aina, but Portagee is still haole. Haole = non-Hawaiian. No insult, but you not one native.

None taken. I fully understand the definition of the word. Believe its most closely translated to "foreign".

I think you would agree that "haole" has taken on a somewhat connotation of white, Caucasian or tourist. By definition, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos are all foreigners or non-Hawaiian, but you don't generally hear them referred to a haoles.

And of course Hawaii is also one of the few places that Portagees are broken out from other Caucasian ethnic groups, due to their contemporary island history.

It's all good braddah!

[Kaonohi]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

Now I’m a Portagee and pretty fair skinned, so I can easily pass for one haole…

Pass? Maybe you one Kama`aina, but Portagee is still haole.
Haole = non-Hawaiian. No insult, but you not one native.

I really understand the subject of your post - Pidgen = power!

[Moto]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

As a keiki I had a record (yes, a vinyl LP) with Mother Goose nursery rhymes in pidgin. I think it had Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and some others. Anyone know where I can find that?

you stay talkin' bout' Kent Bowman (aka K.K. Kau Manua) stories. Try check out Jellys, they might have, em.

[Amati]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

LOL!! I got one question, tho - how come local's often get pissed when mainlanders come here and try talk Creole? That's messed up, if you ask me. Not that I give a shit when some 250 lb. moke on DaBus give me da stinky when I say things like, "panty", etc. Das his problem, right?

Maybe he thought you were calling HIM one panty?

[Mista Bumpy]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

This is gonna get all hemojang really fast.

LOL!! I got one question, tho - how come local's often get pissed when mainlanders come here and try talk Creole? That's messed up, if you ask me. Not that I give a shit when some 250 lb. moke on DaBus give me da stinky when I say things like, "panty", etc. Das his problem, right?

[Opihimonster]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

My Pidgin English story….
I went to college in the Mainland, and was away from home for a number of years. So shortly after moving back to Hawaii, my wife and I went to a Nissan dealership in Waipahu. My Maxima headlight was cracked and I needed to get a new one.
Now I’m a Portagee and pretty fair skinned, so I can easily pass for one haole…

So I go back to the Service department and talk with one of the guys about getting a new light. All done in “proper” English. He tells me no they don’t have any in stock and that he’ll have to order one and it will take a week or more.

Not sure what made me do it, but I completely switched gears, and lamented to him in Pidgin something along the lines of, “Fo’ real bra!, only long eh? U shure u no mo’ any li’dat in da back?”
So he tells me, “try wait”
…and comes back a minute later with a new headlight for my car saying, “Eh I found one!”

….THE POWER OF PIDGIN!

[Kalalau]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

True or false, is there really a movement to preserve Pidgin? How about an official movement? Kind of ironic considering the years...the decades that authorities were trying to 'correct' it. Is it still popular, still in use, expanding or contracting?

As a Kaleponi haole I accept that I should not even try to speak it. I like hearing it, though. On a flight from Kaua'i to Honolulu two local women in seats ahead of me were talking in it, almost every other word was da kine, they understood each other just fine.

I have been given some of the Peppo pidgin books by friends, they are fun, but it does look like if you weren't raised speaking it you don't have much of a chance of learning it later in life.

[drumorgan]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

As a keiki I had a record (yes, a vinyl LP) with Mother Goose nursery rhymes in pidgin. I think it had Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and some others. Anyone know where I can find that?

[dakamaainahaole]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

HOOO, howsit? alohaz from da desert. Hau'oli lanui my friends... so my modda wen show me some Ho'aikane jams, i never jam em til now. "Do You Remember" is da kine! trying fo catch all da lyrics tho, any one kno em?

[shiina]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

On Maui we had two verses to Jan Ken Po...
A jan ken a man ken a sucka sucka po,
Wailuku Wailuku bum bum sho!

[Mista Bumpy]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

I'd love to see a comparative dictionary of Hawaiian Pidgen to English, but I'm too lazy to start one. Probably would be best as one of our interest group things, so we could keep it current.

Some good sources of Pidgen a person can go to right away are the now- famous "Pidgen To Da Max" books (or booklets, since they're not that long) which strongly reflect Pidgen as spoken, esp. by the younger people, and the most valuable source of what a person could call standard Pidgen, Da Jesus Book, which is the New Testament in Pidgen, is even better. This is a monumental effort and a serious translation of scripture. The Pidgen Befo Jesus Book (the Old Testament) is in progress. By the way, reading the Bible in a language you're trying to learn is a time-honored way to learn a new language, regardless of your religious affiliation. The other way is daily news papers in that language. But, I don't think there is a Pidgen newspaper. Too darn bad, bruddah.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

Ohhh, don't say that to the folks at Bamboo Ridge. Eric Chock and Darrel Lum have long championed the idea of pidgin as being a legitimate form of literary expression.

(Welcome back, FM - I wondered where you've been.)

Are you familiar with or have any thoughts about the poetry of Jozuf (bradajo) Hadley? I find his way of expressing himself creatively with pidgin to be a fascinating reframing.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

Am I the only one who thinks pidgin should be spoken, not written?

Ohhh, don't say that to the folks at Bamboo Ridge. Eric Chock and Darrel Lum have long championed the idea of pidgin as being a legitimate form of literary expression.

Altho' I sorta get your drift. Some of the attempts at moke talk in this thread sound nothing like anything I've heard in 30+ years living in Hawaii.

[TATTRAT]

Re: Da' Pidgin English Thread

Wow do local people really talk like this? Come on.. is there another island or city that I don't know of?...

yes. and no.

Some of my BEST work ohana were local to da guts.

Just like anywhere you go, you go with the flow. Tongue/pidgin/slang/wtf ever, if it works for them, it needs to work fora you.

A few of my finest times were being referred to as "dis' my haole boi, BIG jon, luv him cuzz".

Every culture has a pidgin of sorts.