Many speakers code-switch between Standard American English and Hawai’ian Creole, depending on the situation. It is widely used by Hawai’i’s residents in a variety of situations. For this reason, linguists consider Hawai’ian Pidgin to be a creole language.Īlthough English and Hawai’ian are the two co-official languages of the State of Hawai‘i, most people raised in Hawai‘i can speak and understand Hawai’ian Creole to some extent. Public school children learned it from their classmates, and eventually it became the primary language of most people in Hawai‘i, replacing their original languages. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Hawai’ian Pidgin spread from the plantations into urban areas and became the primary means of communication among different ethnic groups.

As a result, it was influenced by many languages, including English, Hawai’ian, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Ilocano, Korean, Okinawan, and Japanese. Hawai‘ian Creole grew out of the Pidgin Hawai’ian originally used as a common language in the sugar and pineapple plantations by workers who came from a variety of language backgrounds.

Hawai‘ian Creole is spoken by Hawai’ian-born residents on all Hawai’ian islands as well as on the U.S. It is not the same language as Hawai’ian, an Austronesian language spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the islands. Hawai‘ian Creole, inaccurately called Hawai‘ian Pidgin English, or simply Pidgin, is based on English and a number of other languages spoken in Hawai’i.

English to hawaiian pidgin