"Small kid time" is such an adorable way to say childhood.

Pidgin is a language borne out of neccessity. While some elitists may look down on it as a sort of bad version of English, what makes pidgin great is it connects people from different races and culture. I'm not from Hawaii, but here in Malaysia we have pidgin Malay, which is pretty much the same concept - lack of proper grammars and no consistent structure, you can speak anyway you want it yet most importantly, people just understand one another.

Pidgin is the language of Hawaii. I will never forget my Japanese school teachers could speak perfect English and brutalize our assignments with their red pens, then speak pidgin to the cafeteria staff & custodians outside of class. Aloha spirit runs deep and true forever.

Oh, Man! I'm proudly Hawaii born and raised, and I loved this documentary!!! I grew up 100% talking total Pidgin day in and day out! All da beautiful vowels, and da flow, Oh! Dat faaaaabulous flowing rhythm, da rising and falling, curving and swinging Hawaii Island sound!

I live in Louisiana & this reminds me a bit of the Cajun accent. I love these accents.

I was stationed in Hawaii in the early 1990's and I always loved to hear locals talking to each other. This brings me back to some fond memories.

Wow when that dude talked about his grandma it blew my mind w/the different languages she said in one cute lil phrase.

I was born and raised in Hawaii for 7 years. I had the full pidgin accent but then I moved to the mainland for 9 years and I speak of a mix between Hawaiian pidgin and proper English so it’s really weird and most people don’t understand what I’m saying because my accent fluctuates between pidgin and English.

this is silly, but i'm a linguist & i got my wisdom teeth out two days ago, and i'm still on meds that make me kind of loopy, but this video reduced me to tears. it's absolutely so beautiful to see new languages emerging & to have such a well-documented history of them, as well as people like kent who are passionate about their preservation. it's really beautiful. if anyone reading this speaks a pidgin/creole, just know that you are among the first few generations of a whole new form of life in this world. what you and your community say now, how you shape language to fit the world around you, will impact the development of this language for the rest of its history. that's really, really cool, and you should be proud of that

It is now officially a Creole. A language.

I grew up speaking pidgin, but my grandma always made sure I knew proper english. I have been away from the islands for ten years.. But people here say i have an exotic accent, and my ohana in Hawaii say I speak like one Haole. I am very proud of my heritage! And I teach my kids the same! Love you hawaii!!!

I worked on Oahu back in the 80s and loved hearing Pidgin.

This must be how it feels for somebody who is learning English, I can get the gist of it but I don't understand every word.

This is a lot like Jamaican Patois or trinidatian creole. it was the africans and indians mixing english with their native languages.

I love the unko kind pidgin

My paternal grandparents are Chinese, but they had to communicate using pidgin English because one spoke Cantonese and the other spoke Hakka. I suppose that my maternal grandparents did the same, one spoke Hawaiian and the other spoke Japanese.

Lived in Hawaii from 1998-2001. I was a kid at the time (ages 12-15), so watching the video just brings me back You pick up on this language and way of speaking as I know I was doing it too after not too long.

I speak a reasonable amount Tok Pisin and Bislama (origins in Australian plantation pidgin English) and a lot of this is extremely familiar. Eg the sentence at 3:20 would be "Yu laikim Banana, kwiktaim yu kaikai em, i orait" in Tok Pisin. Brokan and Torres Strait Creole are mostly comprehensible to me and even aspects of Nigerian Pidgin and Jaimaican patwa are familiar. I'd love to see a study of all the English lexified creoles and the relationship between them. Especially the Pacific creoles which seem very closely related to each other.

I find this so easy to understand

I grew up in the midwest but my dad grew up in Hawaii as well did his parents. We come from "porcha-geez" stock. The dialects heard in this video make me so happy and bring back so many memories of my grandparents.

Dis vidjo is akamai! Raised North Shore O´ahu and spoke pidgin all my life. It actually made my learning of other languages come easier because I already spoke a language that fused over a dozen languages into one!

I miss that place! I used go to the manapua factory when I was stationed there. Same lady too, she basically knew me by name because i went so often. Always gave me extra pork hash. Miss it everyday.

My son's father's family is from Waianae and they speak Pidgin with me all the time, that's all they talk around me so I know what they're talking about. Love it and it'll always be apart of my life now. They call me their haole girl and I love listening to them talk. It's really cultural and I love listening to all of them talk stories about Hawaii.

Growing up in Hawaii during the 60’s, speaking pidgin English was definitely frowned upon.

Man I miss Hawaii. I need to go back.

this is how new dialects and languages form. fantastic! I wish I could live long enough to see pidgins and creoles like this become their own languages, separate and unintelligible from English. this is most certainly not "broken English", this is a perfectly valid way of communicating. after all, what is language but a means of communication? if everyone in the community understands, then it's not wrong or broken, it's their own dialect. American English is a dialect separate from British English, and it is not considered "wrong" or "broken" english, because a huge number of people speak and understand it. all you really need is enough people that understand a dialect or language and it can certainly be considered a valid way of communicating. anyone who says this is wrong or broken English is obviously not a linguist and can kindly stay the fuck out of linguistic discussions. I am certainly no trained linguist, it's a hobby for me, but the more I study it and study Japanese, the more I come to realize that there is truly no such thing as "wrong" or incorrect" as long as you can communicate effectively, only "standard" and "non-standard". nothing wrong with "non-standard" Southern American English is non-standard, but it isn't wrong or broken to say "y'all". that is the correct way of pluralizing "you". in my dialect, Michigan English, the word for that sugary carbonated drink is usually "pop". in some other areas of the country, it's "soda" or even "soda-pop". do you also think that modern English is "broken English" because it's not how it sounded back in Chaucer's day? language evolves. deal with it, assholes.

This is such a beautiful video, I wish it was longer.

i like to switch ti to pidgin version of bible. it just makes me happy. " Jalike how you guys wen make Jesus Christ yoa boss, make shua you guys stay tight wit him everytime. 7 Make shua you guys stay tight wit Christ. Den you guys goin stay strong inside him jalike one good solid tree. Come mo an mo solid, how you guys trus him, jalike how we wen teach you guys. Everytime tank Christ plenny."

"Odda kine" when I saw that my thoughts went to Jamaica. :O they are both so similar. When the Hawaiians talk I swear I am listening to a West Indian.

This sounds similar to Jamaican patois the pronunciation and everything sounds like Jamaican patois but the thing is us Jamaicans speak on a higher pitch. We sound more aggressive.

These sorts of languages are so cool, because they're one of those things where if you read it, especially out of context, it would make no sense. But if you hear it, it just makes sense and you can understand, if not every word, essentially what is being said. I think that's so cool!

Sound similar to Geechee for sure. I love it.

I'm not from Hawaii, but pidgin language just sounds so cool. Wish I could learn it, when I try it sounds so unnatural lol

I WANT MORE. I learned something new today

Language is born from the people and the landscape- that's why pidgin is a lovely, singsong, rolling language made up of all sorts of bits and bobs

I wanna hear two people speaking it with each other in a full conversation.

I miss these beautiful peeps!

Just Beautiful!!!

In that case a lot of asian countries speak some sort of pidgin........ I speak a mix of mostly English Tagalog and Mandarin Chinese where I'm from. And I have Malaysian friends who speak their own pidgin which consists of more languages due to their more racially vibrant culture. I love languages born of necessity! They're unique, they're hella fun and definitely funny to hear coming from outsiders trying to speak it bahahahahahaha, I think people who speak any sort of pidgin can relate to this xD

It sounds like a mix of Caribbean and East Asian accent

Pidgin is such a way of life here that people even write things in pidgin. Ever noticed how people write “close” on a store window that is “closed” or even “smoke meat” when it should be “smoked meat”? People write this way here and nobody corrects it. That’s what makes this home in my opinion

I miss Hawai'i so much...it was such a blessing to be immersed in the beautiful culture during my college days. No ka oi!

Aw man, this reminded me how long it has been since I've had manapua/cha siu bao. It's a four-hour round-trip drive to get to my favourite manapua place, but maybe it's time to get some again. So delicious.

my teacher showed us this video in class, and it was a joy to watch.

I had to stop reading the subtitles to understand it. Been long time.

You make dis video now da haoles going try take dat too lol

Thanks for posting this . It's hard to explain in 4 minutes. It's ingrained in you growing up here and it can't be explained well from those that look from the outside. It is understood by knowing people especially old people from plantation time that spoke it in even more of a transitional time. Thanks.

hey, thanks for sharing this with me...very cool, I learned a lot in a short time...I'm facinated by how Pidgin evolved by merging all those cultures together in an effort to communicate...brilliant!!!

Enjoyed your presentation.. Please continue to share your Pidgin ... Your fan from Mililani, Hawaii --Mahalo and Aloha!

I may be Filipino/Haole but my culture is Hawaiian through and through. I still speak pidgin to my family even though I’m in the mainland now. And Hawaii will always be my home.

This sounds similar to how people from the Caribbean speak.

Very informative

Thanks for the explanation. Enjoyed the clip!

This is so beautiful!

As a 9-year-old boy I moved from the New Orleans area to the Big Island, and a neighbor who was my age asked me if I "for like go da beach." I didn't understand at first, but within a few weeks I had no problem understanding pidgin. I moved back to New Orleans less than a year later and had to re-learn how to speak American English phrases because I was rapidly becoming Hawaiianized. I was one haole from da mainland as they said.

It's wonderful to see people celebrating their language :)

I*m so glad I found this I'm trying to get back in to my culture and this helps alot

wow this is beautiful thank u

Languages are a living thing, changing and adapting all the time.

i was born on oahu and grew up hearing a lot of people speak pidgin and i can understand a majority of it, but i cant speak it. just a month ago i found out that the word "humbug" (which i use a lot) was pidgin and im still shocked today that it isnt english

Although im not hawaiian im still born and raised and i love my homeland❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

I was born and raised on the Big Island, and my mother was an English teacher who did NOT want her kids speaking pidgin. However, as most of our relatives and friends spoke it, we couldn't help but learn it. We all slip in and out of it easily, depending on the circumstances and who we're speaking with. I live on the mainland now, and my kids always know if I'm getting a call from home. "Eeehhh, howziiiit brah!"

Most adorable language ever

all English dialects and creoles have their on history.

im so incredibly homesick right now. i dont think no one but locals will truely understand why its so special

that is a beautiful way for a language to originate. such interesting history! :)

You can take the boy from the island but not the island from the boy 🎶

I grew up in Hawaii. I have three brothers. The oldest one lives in simi valley ca. and the other two still live in Hawaii. The oldest one talks like a haole since he was in the Air Force and later worked at Lockheed and has lived in California since the 60s. My two brothers in Hawaii and I talk pidgin to each other. I’ve been living in California since 82 but I still got my pidgin accent. My wife is from Texas and she gets mad when I talk to her In pidgin and tells me I sound like an uneducated person. Lol, So sometimes I only talk to her in pidgin. Piss her off.

My dad grow up in Hawaii and started speaking to me in full pigeon. I was very confused

Same. Grew up always hearing pidgin, even after being away for 10 years, it's not weird to hear someone talk in pidgin.. I feel at home.

Grew up Wai'anae and dis was da kind way we talk. Still do but sometime gotta talk normal kind so oddahs can understand. Sometimes we call um bus up english. But we all understand each odda.

Interesting... Someone told met o check out the Hawaii pidgin english translation of the Bible for a good laugh, but I wanted to know more so glad someone posted this vid!

this is beautiful :)

Maikaʻi loa! He wehewehe maikaʻi kēia!

I learned several languages to perform in Hawai'i: Filipino, Hawai'ian , Spanish , Japanese etc. and got paid to sing and I knew what I was singing and I was so proud of it. Anyone who knows more than 1 language is doing good in my book. How many of you critics have a PHD IN HAWAI'IAN & ENGLISH !!?? Go to the University of Hawai'i Manoa and see ! ALOHA,

The guy at the last half sounds like Mike Tyson - Mike Tyson has a lisp - Mike Tyson has he’s pet pidgeons. 911 was an inside job…

I love pidgin the way it sounds is just so comforting it never fails to remind me of my family 🫶

I know I'm not the first, but I watched this to prep for Pokémon Moon. XD

People who say this is rubbish are obviously narrow minded. If you were to say this sounds like rubbish, it's same as calling another language disgusting. Try listening to Singlish. you just talk like this can already ah. its just the way we speak what. if you got problem with these casual languages, you damn uptight one eh... walao.

Oh yah, Maunapua Store down by Nimitz! Da Best!

Sad cuz get plenty young Hawaiians and Kama'ainas dat are slowly talking more like da ppl from California. Some of it is influencial and some are just shame for talk pidgin.

I’m on shrooms watching this and this is crazy. I’m mind blown 😂😂 I love educational videos

I had NO idea about this. Its so cool

this is my language, its in me, and i grew up in Laie, Hawaii since i was a little kid..i can still talk it too and understand it too..its the best language...:) thats the language of my heart, Pidgin...

The Hawaiian I think should form their own writing system for Pigdin, that'd be 🔥🔥🚒

I get cuzinz from Georgia and they speak southern I speak pidgin I understand them but they no understand me das alright lol

For me personally I'm multicultural as my form of communication goes which includes trying to reach out to people from Europe, India, South America, not just Asia alone but most of the entire globe and I can't expect people all over the world to take me seriously or understand me if I were to speak pidgin. But then again this is just me I personally have nothing against pidgin.

i always say HOO, LA DAT EHH, BRADDAH funny cause i live in hawaii everyone talks to me in pigin and i got it from them i learned it from other people. its like learning english when your a baby and your learn it from your parents. Pigin will always be in Hawaii and hopefully it will never die.

Ive been on the mainland for the past 22 yrs. My then girlfriend now my wife also moved up here. Although we do our very best to speak proper english (and so do our relatives) in the company of non-"hawaiians", pidgin still slips in if we let it. What makes it fun is meeting other people from other states and right away knowing they were originally from hawaii just by having an long conversation. Whats more fun is once commonality is established, den das when da pidgin really come out. Like da brodda I work wit, he from nanakuli, he mo worse dan me! 25 years already, still so strong brah da pidgin, sometimes our boss he like "what the hell did you 2 just say?".HAHA

Yes, I agree that Hawaii Pidgin was necessary and useful for all the different races that came here to Hawaii to help them to understand each other. This Hawaii Creole helped to solidify the many cultures and races here which made Hawaii so unique-- culture, food, filial piety, traditions, and living as one whole inclusive community. I was born and raised in Hawaii and am so happy this is my home. Sincerely, Robert S.J. Hu January 20, 2019 .

American English, Canadian French, Canadian English, Haitian French, Mexican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, etc are all standard dialects of French, Spanish, and English because they are published dialects and are taught in institutions. Pennsylvania Dutch English, African American English, Southern English, etc are non-standard dialects because they aren't used in published materials or taught in institutions. They are spoken dialects, but dialects nonetheless.

This sounds so much like Trini slang...Hawaiaan Soljahh you even spell it the same when writing it.

The guys from Garfield in Paradise really nailed the accent 😳 lol

I’m the Haole girl of the family, cause my dad is white. I was raised by my mom’s side on Hawaii though so Pidgin just comes more naturally to tame than people expect. And often I’m called ‘too white’ to have lived here

I grew up in Hawaii we literally spoke 3 languages in 1 sentence sometimes, some people don’t believe me but some do or those who’ve lived there for a few years or visited know I’m telling the truth. Like my main languages growing up were English “American”, Hawaiian, and Pidgin and I still speak the combinations LOL I also grew up saying a few phrases in German and Spanish (two of my heritages). I also knew 2 other languages too.

The guy being interviewed at the beginning doesn't seem to realize that the biggest influence on Pidgin besides english is the indigenous Hawaiian language. The Portuguese and Chinese and Japanese and Filipino influence is there too, but the Hawaiian is the strongest of all the non-English influences.

this is very fascinating

This accent reminds me a bit of Wakka from Final Fantasy 10! Very cool. :)

Very cool part of Hawaiin culture.

Im doing an English project on different dialects and accents and we decided to do Hawaiian Pidgin and wow! its so intreating and unique and cool :) It sounds so nice and somehow fun? :D