Let's talk local

[chepar]

Even though Chepar is all refined and a "Pun", I know she can whip some out if she wanted to help me on my journey.

Sorry, Catherine - I can't be much help here. I don't speak pidgin at all. I recall my sister starting 7th grade in a new school and suddenly began attempting to speak pidgin. My parents were quite vehement in telling her not to speak that way. She's a stubborn cuss, so I figure she eventually gave it up not because my parents told her to, but because it was too hard to speak in a way that was so different than what she was used to.

There's a particular sort of cadence that you hear when people who grew up speaking pidgin talk - if you didn't normally (or very often) speak pidgin, I think it sounds kind of weird when you try to.

Now, when I'm speaking with people who speak a sort of homogenized pidgin during regular conversation (as opposed to the "true" pidgin that Tim spoke of - I sometimes can barely understand that) - my inflections on certain words or phrases may be more local sounding - but still isn't pidgin.

 

[Cacia]

yea, I like that cadence, it sounds so nice. have you heard people who can switch back and forth?

 

[kidspot]

You're right Chepar, it's more about cadence now when you listen to Pidgin - I tell people it's "attitude" - my brother was only 3 when we moved to Hawaii and he picked it up real fast. He gets it back as soon as he steps off the plane in Honolulu and loses it the second he gets back to the mainland (Kansas at the moment)... He actually can't remember how to talk pidgin on the mainland.

I remember my grandmother coming to visit (born and raised on Minnessota farms) when we were kids - she couldn't understand a word he said... when he didnt' want her to understand I think

 

[chepar]

I do know someone who can switch back and forth - it's amazing. A lot of times when you speak with someone, that cadence slips out on certain words sometimes and "gives them away", so to speak - so you know they grew up here.

This guy I work - his normal speaking voice sounds like he's from the mainland - no local sounding inflection to his voice at all. Then he can turn around and can carry on an entire conversation in pidgin like he doesn't speak any other way. He's a local haole who grew up in Hilo, though - he told me he had to speak that way to avoid getting beat up in elementary school.

 

[kidspot]

Most of the haole kids I grew up with learned pidgin if they attended A school in Waipahu, Ewa Beach or further up the Waianae coast for "self preservation" I lived in Makakilo but went to school in Aiea (primarily Japanese) and most of my friends were first generation Filipinos, so I didn't "need" to speak pidgin, just understand it.

Aloha, Tim

 

[justleesa]

when I speak to some people on the phone, especially after a working weekend, and then meet them they are suprised and say " I thought you were local", ...far from it...lol...I guess you just get that flow of words or an accent or something...

 

[Humu-out-of-Water]

I miss ZIPPY'S!!! We have L&L here in phx and I could sit for hours listening to the transplants talk...

Saimin... not "ramen"
Shoyu... not "soy sauce"
2 scoop rice please!

 

[Cacia]

hey, my kids have been here from Socal 4 years but they are always calling me and saying "we don't have any Poi in the house!"....can you beleive it?...like running outta milk or bread for them. And, I don't know how to spell it but my son was asking for "Musa-bee" the other day in the grocery store line. and I kept sayin "WHAT?" over and over, and he was yelling "Musa-BEEEE", like what kinda idiot was I.....all the hapa's were laughing in line. My kids, especially, my son do the yea? thing at the end of everything and it is rubbing off on me.

the other day, they were sayin, "we goin' to Da Outrigga!"

 

[Cacia]

kidspot, love your stories....growing up here and all.

you could clue me in on lots of stuff. My daughter has classmates who are 7th generation and they all talk about their great grandaddy's doing business and spearing together....the first time I heard them my jaw dropped.

 

[skierbri10]

I refuse to speak pidgin, but I can speak it. I have found that the people that I hangout with think less of me if I speak pidgin, and they are locals. Hawaiians, even. We can all talk that way, but we like to set a good example for our clients, some of which are not local and don't appreciate it when they cant understand us.