The system of determining the value of a language has been a topic of study for anthropologists and linguists for decades. Dissecting the societal movements and pressures that have led to a moment where certain dialects or languages are given higher priority over others takes understanding the culture that developed languages themselves. The nuances of this dissection often include determining the history, technology, and the movements that the culture has faced in the development. By learning the ins and outs of the language and its growth, the result is a deeper value for it and its impacts on the speakers. In our modern world, even “text speak” is considered a language that involves tones, intentions, complexities, and code-switching, But only recently has the language known as Pidgin been identified as more than just a vernacular of “island life.” By learning the nuances and history of this Hawai’an language, the Hawai’ian culture and history will become more valued in political discussions.

The language commonly known as Pidgin is instead a creole, one that has been integrated from a pidgin language and has native speakers in comparison. Both categories are contact languages, meaning they developed out of the close contact between two or multiple languages with one as the heaviest influencer, known as the lexifier (“General Linguistics”). Due to these dialects often having multiple linguistic influences, they are often considered “lower” languages or are seen as less educated. An additional aspect of this consideration is the overlapped languages were in these spaces due to colonialism, imperialism, and slave trades (“General Linguistics”). As white colonizers established socioeconomic and political dominance over the Hawai’ian natives just as they did in other countries, they determined the power that their native language would have over the Indigenous peoples’ languages and any others that developed from them later on.

The islands of Hawai’i were colonized by Polynesians from the Marquesas islands in approximately 400 CE, where Captain James Cook first encountered the Hawai’ian people centuries later in 1778 (“History and Heritage”). Cook’s landing on the islands opened up the door for colonization and exploitation of the land and people. The first Christian missionaries settled in the islands in 1820 and the United State military began establishing a military base from then on (“History and Heritage”). The nation of Hawai’i ended with their last native on the throne, ruling their country, in the 1890s when Queen Lili’uokalani was imprisoned and forced to abdicate (“History and Heritage”). The United States claimed control and began to groom the nation into a territory and eventually a state. By acquiring control of their government and assimilating into their culture, it provided the US with an opportunity to dominate the nation into a state, creating it into a gold mine of natural resources and future tourist profiting.

One of the most significant impacts of the US colonization came as two-fold: the initial changes in population due to disease and the sugar cane industry. Once the islands were first introduced to European and American colonization and trade, the population of the Hawai’ian natives began to decrease significantly due to disease (“History and Heritage”). Over several centuries, the numbers dwindled while the population of immigrant workers started to increase. Coffee, pineapple, and primarily sugar cane plantations were in need of workers by the white owners to build their wealth. In response, immigrants from China, Portugal, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea shifted the population demographics and linguistic influences as they began to work on the plantations (“Talking Story”). Hawai’ian Creole developed out of these overlapped and “contact” languages.

The language itself is mostly used by Hawai’ian natives, but can be considered a native language regardless of ethnicity or identity (Lewis). Its usage has had crossover and use in a range of ways, including in courts, literature, songs, and businesses--to the point that it has even begun to be taught in more rural schools (Lewis). In 2013, “Pidgin” was confirmed and recognized by the United States as an official language. Hawai’ian Creole was influenced by multiple languages as it developed on plantations out the necessity of some unified form of communication. English is the lexifier language with having the most influence in vocabulary and grammar structure. The native Hawai’ian language influenced word intonation and adding some vocabulary. Cantonese reinforced grammar patterns, while Portugese and Japanese contributed to grammar functions as well as added vocabulary (“Talking Story”). The language is characterized by a more laid-back pronunciation of words and simplified words where one word ay have multiple definitions, such as “pear” meaning both “pear” or “avocado” (“Talking Story”). Much of the discussion about Hawai’ian Creole as a language is centered around the simplifications seen in its speech.

In a study conducted by Thomas Yokota, he began to determine what influences have historically built the belief that “Pidgin” does not qualify as a language. One of the dangers of continuing to call it “Pidgin” is that as pidgins are not nativized languages, continuing to identify it under this label creates the assumption that it is not a language. It began to be roadblocked in education systems in the 1940s and was described as a “broken” language compared to Standardized English (Yokota). Ways in which the school systems attempted to stop the speaking of “Pidgin” was rooted in the attempt of shifting the value of Hawai’ian Creole on to English.To do this, programs around speech drills and slogan contests in elementary schools. The emphasis of stopping the speaking of “Pidgin” grew so much that it became required for high school students to pass a Standardized English speech test in order to graduate and attend the University of Hawai’i (Yokota). The decades of conditioning have led to a point in time where Hawai’ian Creole has been valued less than Standardized English.

The importance of coming to value Hawai’ian Creole now as an actual language is rising in the face of lost culture for the Hawai’ian and Polynesian peoples native to the island. As tourism has exploited their cultures and has taken over the limited land that belonged to their ancestors centuries before, they have been forced out of their traditional homelands. Tourism has taken the sacred aspects of their culture, including their dances and music, and exploited them for financial gain (Trask). Lands and beaches have been overrun by hotels, resorts, and other tourist destinations. Natives had been forced into changing their linguistic cultures for generations, continuing to erase the fundamental and dwindling cultural traditions.

By learning to value Hawai’ian Creole, it opens up the conversation for coming to value other aspects of the Hawai’ian culture. A major discussion and protest in Hawai’i currently is an attempt of trying to prevent the placement of a telescope on Mauna Kea, a mountain on the Big Island. As of November 2019, a protest encampment was reaching its fifth month on the mountain. The Attorney General has stated that they can legally build the telescope and that they are willing to use force in order to remove those in the encampment. The telescope has been titled the “Thirty Meter Telescope” and would be at the same level of power or more of the Hubble Space Telescope (Richardson).

Mauna Kea holds significant cultural and traditional value for the Hawai’ian people. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs recognizes the damage that could ensue should the “deeply sacred place” which represents the “home to the gods” and is a “shrine of worship” be build upon: “As a result, the state and UH have failed as trustees and stewards of this beloved and sacred place. Even the governor and the university president have both publicly admitted to failing to meet their management responsibilities” (“Mauna Kea”). Understanding the importance of these sacred lands continues to open up discussions about how we as a society can work to restore the damages done to entire Indigenous peoples. Whether it be raising awareness around Hawai’ian Creole or standing up for the rights of ancient sacred lands, working to shift value is key to preserving the lands and languages of generations before.

Works Cited:

“General Linguistics.” ELLO, www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Sociolinguistics/Languagebirth.

“Hawaii - History and Heritage.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 6 Nov. 2007, www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/hawaii-history-and-heritage-4164590/.

Lewis, M. Paul, et al. “Hawai'i Pidgin: Ethnologue.” Archive.is, SIL International, 9 Mar. 2015, archive.is/2067T. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/hwc.

Magazine, Maui. “Kathy Collins: New Column: Maui No Ka Oi Magazine.” Kathy Collins | New Column | Maui No Ka Oi Magazine, 13 July 2016, www.mauimagazine.net/da-muddah-tongue/.

“Mauna Kea.” The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), www.oha.org/maunakea/.

Richardson, Mahealani. “Mauna Kea Activists 'Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worst'.” Https://Www.hawaiinewsnow.com, Hawaii News Now, 14 Nov. 2019, www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/11/14/mauna-kea-activists-hope-best-prepare-worst/.

“Talking Story about Pidgin .” Talking Story about Pidgin : What Is Pidgin?, 2010, www.sls.hawaii.edu/pidgin/whatIsPidgin.php.

Trask, Haunani-Kay. “The Struggle for Hawaiian Sovereignty - Introduction.” Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine, vol. 24, no. 1, Mar. 2000, pp. 1–41., doi:10.1215/9780822371960-001. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/struggle-hawaiian-sovereignty-introduction.

Wong, Alia. “The Consequences of Teaching Exclusively in 'Standard English'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 23 Mar. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/hawaiian-pidgin-recognized/416883/

Yokota, Thomas. “The ‘Pidgin Problem’: Attitudes about Hawai'i Creole.” Educational Perspectives, vol. 40, no. 1 & 2, 2008, pp. 22–29., https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ877774 .

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