Formation of Pidgin and Identity

As people from all around the world traveled thousands of miles to the Hawaiian Islands, the comfort of a familiar setting was left behind. The rapid spread of sugar plantations across Hawaiʻi starting in the 1840’s led to the immigration of foreign workers from many different nations. Immigrants came from Japan, China, Portugal, and the Philippines amongst many other places. These people not only had to learn how to interact with the Hawaiians and Whites already inhabiting the islands but also immigrants from other countries. Communication was difficult as there were so many different languages that converged in one new location. Hawaiʻi Creole English emerged and became a defining piece of identity for those with severely different backgrounds in a foreign land.

The issue of verbal communication was immense as sugar plantations began hiring workers. While some peoples had time to prepare and started learning English before moving to Hawaii, others had a complete lack of the language until setting foot on the land. The creole language that eventually evolved from this contact situation came to be called Pidgin and is still spoken today (Drager). This melding led to speech containing many elements of English language. However, this was easier for all the different cultures as a sort of middle ground for communication. Milton Murayama exemplifies the progress of Hawaiian Creole English and its importance in the formation of identity in his book All I asking for is my body. Set on a Maui plantation the story gives readers a peek into the everyday interactions of plantation workers from a variety of nations. Before looking at this dialect of pidgin in the everyday interactions of plantation workers, its important to understand exactly how the language helped in forming a new identity.

Each cultural group experienced a different set of linguistic issues while attempting to learn English and Hawaiian. Not only was it difficult to learn the language and its rules properly, there were also issues of trying to understand people who had a variety of accents when speaking English or Hawaiian. The day-to-day communication that occurred amongst planation workers resulted in a dialect that exemplified the new mixed identity on the plantations. The languages with the largest populations of speakers on the plantations were Cantonese, Portuguese, and (slightly later in time) Japanese and Philippine languages. Other laborers came from Korea, Puerto Rico, Germany, Russia, and Spain, as well as from throughout the Pacific (Drager). With varied amounts of workers from different backgrounds came variations of Pidgin. “The details are important because the forms or dialects of pidgin differed among groups and over time” (Murayama105). Murayama gives us a glimpse into what is known as “Japanese pidgin” on the Maui plantation where the story is set. “As some countries presences were more prominent than others, so was their contribution in the formation of creole” (Drager).

Although Pidgin brought people together through language it did not mean that there weren’t breaks in communication. The variations in Pidgin exemplify that the plantations were not simply a “melting pot” as it has been said of the mixing of so many cultures. Rather there was some seclusion that occurred between the camps on plantations mainly as a way of keeping workers from uniting. While this was the main purpose, the separate camps served as a way to preserve a piece of each culture and its traditional identity. Murayama exemplifies the divide in camp life through his first story, “I’ll Crack Your Head Kotsun” as the main Japanese character Kiyo is friends with a boy named Makot who is also Japanese but lives in the Filipino camp. Kiyo has been told by his parents not to hang around Makot because he is a bad influence and his parents do not approve of Makot’s family. Toward the end of this section, Kiyo ventures to Makot’s house describing, “I went into the Filipino Camp and was scared. It was a spooky place, not like Japanese Camp” (Murayama 10). There were differences in the way that each cultural group was used to living and this was reflected in the atmosphere of their camps. Along with this were different ways of interacting. The scene with Kiyo then goes on to describe an interaction between Kiyo and Makot’s mother, “I would never treat my mother like that but then my mother would never act like that (Murayama 11). Respect for elders was an important aspect of Japanese culture that Kiyo had learned while Makot does not possess this for his mother as they lived in the Filipino camp. The treatment of elders is just one example of the many aspects of identity that make up a culture. Makot is of Japanese decent but part of his ethnicity can be seen in his Filipino background. Differences in Hawaiian Pidgin amongst ethnicities exemplify its influence as an identity former.

There may have been variations in pidgin on the plantations, but it was still an equalizer amongst social groups. Pidgin belonged to everyone who felt like they were on or close to an equal base. It became a representative of how the cultures interacted with each other. "Language is not just the way we speak but a compendium of who we are. I don't remember when I first heard Pidgin or became aware of it," (Scanlan). Pidgin was not only used to communicate effectively amongst one another but also as a form of comfort in an unfamiliar place. This was a way to speak to other planation workers without completely giving in to the foreign ways of English. Pidgin was created alongside the formation of a Local identity: an identity closely tied with people born in Hawai‘i and an identity that encompasses different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds (Drager). Although people came from diverse backgrounds, Hawaiian Pidgin was a way to form a collective identity as plantation workers. With such a diverse mix of languages this formation of a new dialect was bound to occur.

Pidgin evolved as the decades passed and the second and third generations of children born to pidgin speaking parents began growing up. Once a stable pidgin has emerged, it generally continues to be learned as an auxiliary language and used only when necessary for intergroup communication (Siegel 3). As the plantation workers communicated on a daily basis, this form of pidgin not only stuck but also was passed on to children. Milton Murayama exemplifies what life was like for a younger generation of pidgin speakers in “All I asking for is my body” through the use of a young main character, Kiyo. Kiyo and his siblings are second generation Japanese Americans who live in a Japanese plantation camp. Toward the beginning of the story Kiyo explains how his generation speaks saying, “we spoke four languages: good English in school, pidgin English among ourselves, good or pidgin Japanese to our parents and the other old folks” (Murayama 5). Hawaiian Pidgin may have formed because of language barriers but became a part of the identity of individuals at the time. The evolution of Pidgin represents the identity of later generations on the plantations as Kiyo explains the difference in language embedded in everyday life.

The 1994 film “Picture Bride” explores the journey of one young Japanese woman who travels to Hawaiʻi to marry a plantation worker. During her first days on the plantation she learns that the “luna” or boss of the workers spoke Hawaiian Pidgin to the workers. A “haole” or white man begins giving instructions to the plantation workers while standing next to the luna. Nobody can understand the white man’s pure English and appear confused by the instructions. The luna then translates the instructions into Hawaiian Pidgin and everyone begins moving to do the work. Pidgin became so embedded in the life of the workers that many did not bother to learn or use proper English. This is also a way in which Hawaiian Pidgin represents the divide in the plantation hierarchy and the identities of each level in the so called “class system.”

Culture and tradition are a big part of what shapes the individual identity of humans. Language is one of the biggest markers through which this can be seen. The immigration of plantation workers left people with completely different backgrounds to figure things out for themselves. Coming to foreign islands could be culture shock in and of itself, yet language barriers added to the severity of the situation. Moving onto a sugar plantation was not simply adopting one culture and trying to understand it. Rather the influx many separate peoples from places with vast differences meant the meshing of an abundance of cultures. In forming new lives for themselves, plantation workers did not simply create Hawaiian Creole English, but also an identity marker that would not fade.

Works Cited

Scanlan, Laura Wolff. "The Voice of Hawaii." Humanities 30.5 (n.d.): 40. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

Murayama, Milton. All I asking for is my body. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988. Print.

Drager, Katie. Pidgin and Hawai‘i English: An Overview. Katiedrager.com. The Charlene Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole, and Dialect Studies, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

Picture Bride. Dir. Kayo Hatta. Perf. Youki Kudoh and Akira Takayama. Miramax, 1994. DVD.

Siegel, Jeff. Emergence of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Oxford: Oxford UP, UK, 2008. Print.