Today, the language mainly consists of English and Hawaiian, with a few other loanwords that betray its plantation heritage.īut just because Pidgin sounds like English doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand!

Hawaiian Pidgin is officially referred to as Hawaiian Creole English (HCE)-‘ creole’ being defined as a language that developed from a mix of other different languages-but it’s commonly referred to as simply “Pidgin.”ĭeveloped by immigrant plantation workers as a common language to communicate with each other, Pidgin developed from a hodgepodge of Hawaiian, English, Japanese, Portuguese, and Cantonese, among other immigrant languages. The biggest functional difference between the two is that a creole can actually be a first language. When a pidgin is used for long enough that it develops its own grammar, the pidgin evolves into a creole. Simply put, a pidgin is a mash of two (or more) languages that’s used temporarily between people who don’t have a common language. Technically, what’s known as ‘Pidgin’ in Hawaii isn’t a pidgin at all. This is because the language uses a lot of English vocabulary, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Hawaiian Pidgin sounds a lot like English, but may seem incomprehensible to English speakers. If you’re in Hawaii for the first time, you might be surprised when you first hear Pidgin.

Hawaiian pidgin words and phrases