Bumbai you learn

Bumbai You Learn!

Having grown up in Hawaii my entire life, there is one quality that I feel makes Hawaii so unique. What is that exactly? Pidgin English! No, not pigeon, but "Pidgin". 

For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, it refers back to the old plantation days. There were many ethnic cultures that immigrated to Hawaii during that time. Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese were some of the ethnic cultures that worked and settled in the islands. At that time, Hawaiians also worked as part of the plantations. Eventually, the diversity of cultures came together to create a language that every individual in the plantation could understand. This meant that Japanese, Filipino, and Hawaiian could communicate easily through this new language.

Some examples of Pidgin

• Howzit - How are you; Hello
• Bumbai - Later on
• Shoots - Yes; can do
• Choke - plenty; a lot of
• An Den - what happened
• Brah - brother; friend (male)
• Da Kine - not specific (can be talking about a certain noun)
• Hana Hou - one more time

Now it's time to turn the Pidgin switch on! Can handle?

So now days, you no hear dat much pidgin in the media. TV, magazines, radio, and da oda kine stuff that people use today. Pretty much da only places you can spahk the pidgin is at home, maybe with dakine, your friends liddat. Oh, and youtube, but dat no count cause get anykine stuff already on dea. I watch TV and i see littlebit kine shows using pidgin. Heh, get mo swear words on TV den pidgin. When da ting come to magazines, choke people would use dat as toilet paper cause everyting stay on their cell phones nowdays. Oh, I meant SMARTphones. You know see one pidgin magazine out dea eh? Would be pretty nuts though if had. When come to da radio, no mo dat much people talking pidgin. Small kine little bit is what I hea. Howz dat for one quick example of pidgin? She go?

Pidgin English is something that I will continue to use because it's culturally unique and makes Hawaii different from other places. If you ever need a lesson on how to speak pidgin or need help understanding, try come look for me and bumbai you learn.

Shoots!