2. Features of HCE

This article serves to introduce some of the very basic and fundamental features of Hawaiian Creole English, with compared to the general American English. The content of the article is mainly based on the data we have collected from the field trip together with supplementary readings mainly from two books, one of which is written by Burridge & Kortmann (2008) and another one by Sakoda & Siegel (2003).

To start with, a pidgin or creole usually derives from a superstrate language, which is the socially superior language (Jourdan 1991), and substrate languages, which are the languages spoken by the immigrants (Siegel 2000). In the case of HCE, the superstrate is English and the substrates are mainly Portuguese and Chinese (Siegel 2000). Obviously, Hawaiian language did play a part in the molding of HCE as it is the local language. According to Jourdan (1991), the vocabularies mainly come from the superstrate while the grammatical structure is influenced by the substrates. Reinecke and Tokimasa (1934, p.50, 57) agreed that Portuguese plays a part in the formation of syntax of HCE.

A.    Sound system

A1. Consonant

The set of consonants in HCE is mostly the same as the one of the general American English (Burridge & Kortmann 2008), with the most apparent difference occurring in fricatives: the inter-dental fricatives tend to become stops in HCE (Romaine 1994). HCE lacks the “th” sounds /θ/ and /ð/ as in general American English, they sound as /t/ and /d/ respectively in HCE in most case, such as [tɪŋk] for think and [dæt] for that. We found evidence of this from one of the interviews and some local greeting cards:

card 1- i no can believe you dat old, HCE uses "dat" instead of "that"

A2. Vowel

In general American English, there are 11 monophthongs (i.e. a single vowel sound): /iː/,/ɪ/, /uː/, /ʊ/,/ɛ/, /ɜː/, /ə/, /ɔː/, /æ/, /ʌ/ and /ɑː/; there are mainly 7 in HCE, which are /ɪ/,/e/,/æ/,/ɑ/,/ɔ/,/o/ and /u/ (Burridge & Kortmann 2008). Nevertheless, there are 5 diphthongs (i.e. a complex vowel with one vowel sound gradually changing into another vowel sound) in both languages and they are /eɪ/, /aʊ/, /aɪ/, /oɪ/ and /oʊ/.

Since there are fewer vowels in HCE than general American English, some words that sound differently in American English may sound the same in HCE. For example, /i:/ and /i/ are two phonemes (i.e. the basic sound unit that creates difference in meaning) with the former a longer vowel than the latter such that fit /fit/ and feet /fi:t/ sound differently; yet in HCE they share the same vowel /i/and are pronounced in the same way (Burridge & Kortmann 2008). The same case apply to /u:/ and /ʊ/. In American English, Luke /lu:k/ and look /lʊk/ are with different transcriptions, but both appear as /luk/ in HCE (Burridge & Kortmann 2008 ).

A3. Intonation

In many varieties of English, yes-no questions start with a lower pitch and rise to a higher pitch at the end. In contrast, a rise-fall pattern is observed in HCE with a lower pitch approaching the end of questions (Burridge & Kortmann 2008), and this is thought to be influenced by Portuguese (Reinecke & Tokimasa 1934).

B.    Syntax

B1. Tense markers

Tense shows when the action of the verb takes place, whether it is at the moment of speaking, in the past or in the future. In general American English, tenses are shown mainly by the following ways, addressed by Sakoda and Siegel (2003):

1.     An independent word before the verb: will is added before the verb to show future action.

2.     The change of verb form: run is changed to ran to indicate past tense

3.     Addition of a suffix such as –ed/-t to the verb: played is the past tense form of play and learnt is the past tense form of learn.

On the other hand, HCE basically uses only a separate word before the verb to indicate the tense. According to Sakoda and Siegel (2003), there are three tense markers:

1.     Future tense marker: gon/goin/going

2.     Past tense marker: wen or bin/been, which is used by older speakers.We have found evidence of this in a local greeting card.

3.     Past habitual marker: yustu, as equivalent to “used to” in English

In addition, Reinecke & Tokimasa (1934) identify another tense marker, which is “stay” as progressive or habitual marker.

card 2- you wen miss one, this is translated as "you missed one (candle)"

card 3- i wen slowly wake up dis morning/ i wen forget yo' birt'day

B2. Articles

In contrast to the general American English with 3 articles a/an/the, there are only two in HCE, remarked Bickerton (1981).

1.     Definite article da- before noun phrases that are known to the listener. This is seen in some local greeting cards. 

2.     Indefinite article wan- before noun phrases that are unknown to the listener.

card 4- blow out all da candles 

card 5- it's da hands dat tell da story

B3. Others

1.     HCE replaces “cannot” with “no can”.

card 6- I no can believe you dat old

2.     The verb “get” represents meanings of existentials, as equivalent to “there is/are” and possessives,

         as “has/have” (Bickerton 1981).

3.     the verb stei (stay) 'to live, stay, be (at a place)' is used for locatives (Bickerton 1981).

card 7- dis card no stay late, translated as "this card is not late"

4. They may use the pronoun "them" instead of "it", as told by one of our interviewees.

clip 2- get 'em 

 C.    Vocabularies

The vocabularies are mostly derived from the superstrate language, English, and the substrate language,

Hawaiian. Some common examples are extracted from the book by Burridge & Kortmann (2008),

among some of which we have encountered during our field trip.

C1. Vocabularies derived from English

1.     Brah (bla,blala): brother 

Professor Matthews, the leading professor of the field trip, has told us a staff in a restaurant addressed

him brah as showing friendliness. Besides, two interviewees have given us this word as example

of HCE.

clip 3- brah 

clip 4- brah_2

2.     Laters: see you later

3.     Nuff: enough

C2. Compounds made up of English- derived words but not found in English

1.     Howzit: how are you

card 8- Howzit

2.     Catch air: breathe

3.     Stink eye: dirty look

4.     Broke the mouth: delicious

C3. Vocabularies derived from Hawaiian language

1.     Haole: Caucasians (One interviewee gave this as an example for HCE)

clip 5- haole

2.     Kokua: help (Hawaiian: Kōkua) (The word was heard through the broadcasting of the bus in the sentence Please talk to the driver when you need help.)

C4. Other short phrases collected from the interviewees 

1. Like beef: this is in question form, as "Do you want a fight?"

clip 6- like beef

References

Bickerton, D. (1981). Roots of language. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.

Bickerton, D. (1984). The Language Bioprogram Hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7:173-221.

Burridge, K., & Kortmann, B. (Eds.). (2008). The Pacific and Australasia (Vol. 3). Walter de Gruyter.

Jourdan, C. (1991). Pidgins and creoles: The blurring of categories. Annual Review of Anthropology, 20, 187-209.

Reinecke, J. E., & Tokimasa, A. (1934). The English dialect of Hawaii. American speech, 9(1), 48-58.

Romaine, S. (1994). Hawai'i Creole English as a literary language. LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY, 23 (4), 527-527.

Sakoda, K., & Siegel, J. (2003). Pidgin grammar: An introduction to the Creole language of Hawai'i. Bess Press.