Pidgin in Talk Story

Aloha…

When I first visited the islands in the early 60s… there was a language spoken that I didn’t quite understand… pidgin… spoken by locals… and rarely understood by a haole like myself…
So here goes a small sample of what I encountered:
‘Ass why i wen put ‘um togeddah you know: so you guys could have good fun too! But one noddah ting: we get special feeling about pidgin. ‘Cause pidgin is special. Local people, dey get togeddah fo’ party, wedding, baby luau, whatevahs, dey gotta talk story, yeah? An’ how you can talk story wid’out pidgin? Cannot! Pidgin someting from da heart!

An’ you know, we no like insult any particular group of people in da islands — we jus’ like kid everybody. We love Hawai’i, an’ we love pidgin, an’ dass da main ting we trying fo’ say. So kick back, bruddahs, an’ relax wit’

I lived on the island of Maui for about 12 years… my three daughter’s learned pidgin so they could communicate in school and with their (local) friends… I learned it and to this day… some of it creeps back into my “talk-story” from time to time…

Aloha oe…