Long Dismissed, Hawaii Pidgin Finds A Place in Classroom
Unofficial Language of Locals
Is Featured in Literature;
'Bradajo,' or Brother Joe
HONOLULU -- Lee Tonouchi looked like any other teacher getting ready for class here at Hawaii Pacific University as he scribbled on a whiteboard in his taupe aloha shirt. Then he spoke. "Dees ees Ingleesh Tree-Eight-Oh-Seex-Ay," he announced in a nasal tenor. "Whooz name I nevah call?"
That is, English 3806A, Pidgin Literature -- what many believe to be the first college-level class fully devoted to fiction and poetry using the local Hawaii patois. Born in the sugar and pineapple plantations of a century ago, Hawaii's pidgin is the unofficial language of local residents, usually sounding to English-speaking Westerners like an odd, sometimes unintelligible dialect spoken in rapid staccato.
Hawaii's pidgin was dismissed for decades as a low-class form of poorly spoken English, its public displays mostly confined to the jokes of comedians here. Pidgin was particularly scorned in academia, with teachers sometimes refusing to let kids go to the bathroom until they could make the request in standard English.
But over the past 10 years, Hawaii pidgin has undergone a major transformation and is now being hailed in many highbrow circles as a critical component of Hawaii's culture. There's a thriving pidgin literary scene. And filmmakers are making more movies featuring pidgin dialogue.
Some academics at Hawaiian universities, once home to pidgin's staunchest critics, are embracing the language as never before. Hawaii Pacific is holding its inaugural pidgin literature and beginning pidgin language courses this summer. HPU's much bigger rival, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is close to approving an undergraduate certificate in pidgin and Creole studies beginning in the fall.
"There's a renaissance rich in pidgin," says Jozuf Hadley, a Honolulu poet who writes what he calls "haiku pidgin" under the name "Bradajo," by which he means Brother Joe. "There's a resurgence, with the appearance of pidgin as an art form in literature." Mr. Hadley says he now knows of half a dozen other pidgin poets and regularly gets invitations to read his work.
Although the real thing can be unintelligible to the novice listener, Hawaii pidgin is even making its way to Hollywood. Pidgin abounds on A&E Network's current reality hit "Dog the Bounty Hunter," which focuses on a bounty hunter who runs "Da Kine Bail Bonds." ("Da Kine," a common pidgin phrase, has no English equivalent, although, in some usages, "whatchamacallit" is close.) When the pidgin gets too thick, the show provides subtitles. "I think it definitely enhances the show's unique flavor," says its executive producer, Robert Sharenow.
Hawaii-pidgin advocates aren't always thrilled with the way pidgin is used, most notably in last year's romantic comedy "50 First Dates" starring Adam Sandler. Some say Mr. Sandler's sidekick, supposedly a pidgin-speaking Oahu resident named Ula, sounded more as if he were from Mexico than from the islands. "If they attitude make fun of language 'cause foreign, that's when get problems," grumbles Mr. Tonouchi, who writes and speaks in pidgin only. Happy Madison Productions, Mr. Sandler's production company, didn't return calls seeking comment.
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Kent Bowman, a comedian in Hawaii in the 1960s and 1970s, recorded this classic pidgin version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears in 1961. Excerpted from "Pidgin English Children's Stories," Hula Records, 1961.
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Andy Bumatai, currently a popular comedian in Hawaii, uses Hawaii pidgin onstage.
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College courses and Hollywood movies are a long way from pidgin's humble origins. Around 1900, after large numbers of indigenous Hawaiians were felled by foreign diseases, plantations imported thousands of immigrants from different countries and put them to work in often difficult conditions.
What resulted, as it turned out, was a language that borrows heavily from English but mixes languages like Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian and Portuguese. It is one of the 200 or so pidgin and Creole languages now spoken around the world, according to Michael Forman, a linguistics professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. While it is universally referred to in Hawaii as "pidgin," the term technically applies to something people learn as a second language. Linguists say that what Hawaiians actually speak is a Creole, a form of language that develops when speakers of mutually unintelligible languages remain in persistent and long-lasting contact with one another. One of the contributing languages is usually dominant.
What started as a necessity soon became the unofficial language for local Hawaiians, but pidgin has long been looked down on because of its plantation-worker roots. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Hawaii established English Standard Schools for non-pidgin speakers, frequently barring the descendants of plantation workers from attending. "A lot of people identify lower classes with pidgin," says Eric Chock, co-founder of Honolulu's Bamboo Ridge Press, a publisher that's widely considered a pioneer of the pidgin movement.
When a college professor ordered her to write in pidgin because it was "her voice," Lois-Ann Yamanaka says she resisted at first, convinced that, if she complied, her classmates would think she was stupid. She eventually gave in, and her first book, published by Bamboo Ridge in 1993, swiftly got her a book deal from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, national attention and awards. Ms. Yamanaka has been an inspiration for a number of other pidgin writers.
Mr. Tonouchi, whose nickname is "Da Pidgin Guerrilla," remembers his aunt telling him he couldn't buy a copy of "Pidgin To Da Max," one of the language's most popular pidgin dictionaries. But as a student at the University of Hawaii in the early 1990s, Mr. Tonouchi stumbled across a pidgin poem and was, he says, "blown away." He boldly elected to write all his papers in pidgin.
After graduation, Mr. Tonouchi founded a magazine for local writers called Hybolics, a word defined by Pidgin To Da Max as "to talk like one intellectual-kine" Caucasian. What "we trying fo' do is reclaim da word and make da statement dat you can use pidgin jus as well fo' express da kine intellectual ideas," Mr. Tonouchi wrote in one issue.
Generally, there isn't a lot of money to be made in the Hawaii-pidgin movement. Mr. Tonouchi, who is 32 years old, still lives at home with his dad. But he says he has spoken to more than 100 schools and community organizations for his cause. He's on the verge of releasing his third book, dubbed "Da Kine Dictionary," and recruited his comrade, University of Hawaii lecturer and pidgin expert Kent Sakoda, to help teach the groundbreaking classes at Hawaii Pacific. Kent "wen grumble little bit, cuz das mo' work for him," Mr. Tonouchi explains in an email. "But I toll 'em brah, we doing it for da pidgin revolution."
While resistance to pidgin has faded in some quarters, it isn't gone altogether. Hawaii Pacific's faculty was happy to sign off on the idea of pidgin classes, but English program chairwoman Catherine Sustana says outside reaction to the idea was mixed. "A lot of people were really confused why we were offering that," she says.
In another generation, there may not be as much to fight over. While pidgin is thriving in certain Oahu neighborhoods and the outer islands, many note that fewer kids appear to be speaking pidgin, particularly here, the state's largest city. Sandi Takayama, author of a local children's book that replaces the gingerbread man of the classic tale with a pidgin-speaking rice snack, says she has noticed that some local kids sometimes have trouble understanding her at readings. "I feel a little sad," says Ms. Takayama, who admits her own kids can struggle with pidgin themselves. "But I can understand -- for children to be able to succeed in the larger world, they have to speak standard English."
夏威夷“皮钦”登上大雅之堂
Lee Tonouchi开始准备上课，他看起来跟这里的夏威夷太平洋大学(Hawaii Pacific University)的其他老师没有什么不同。他身著灰褐色的夏威夷衬衫，龙飞凤舞地在白板上写了一会儿，然后说：“Deesees Ingleesh Tree-Eight-Oh-Seex-Ay。”他的鼻音很重。“Whooz name I nevah call?（我还没叫过谁的名字）”
这是英语3806A，皮钦(Pidgin, 意为混杂语)文学课──很多人认为这是有史以来第一个用夏威夷皮钦讲授小说和诗歌的大学课程。夏威夷皮钦诞生于一个世纪以前出产糖和菠萝的种植园，现在是当地居民的非官方语言。在讲英语的西方人听来，这种方言发音古怪，断断续续，有时令人费解。
几十年来，夏威夷皮钦一直被视为一种很糟糕的低档次的英语，它的公开使用大多时候仅限于喜剧演员表演的场合。学术界尤其鄙视使用这种语言。有时想上洗手间的孩子会遭到老师的拒绝，直到他们能用标准的英语来请示。
不过在过去的10年，夏威夷皮钦经历了很大的改变，得到不少高素养人的青睐，被认为是夏威夷文化的重要组成部份。书面语中夏威夷皮钦越来越多见，而且在越来越多的电影里可以听见这种语言。
一度激烈批判夏威夷皮钦的夏威夷各大学的学术人士，现在对这种语言表现出积极接纳的态度，这是前所未有的。夏威夷太平洋大学(HPU)现在开设有皮钦文学课程，今年夏天计划开设皮钦语言课。位于Manoa的夏威夷大学(University of Hawaii)也正准备从今年秋天开始，提供夏威夷皮钦和克利奥尔语专业的本科学位。
“皮钦重新获得了新生，”檀香山诗人乔左夫?哈德利(Jozuf Hadley)说。他将自己的作品称为俳句皮钦，他的笔名是Bradajo，意为乔兄弟(Brother Joe)。“它开始以文学的一种艺术形式出现。”哈德利说，他目前认识其他六个皮钦诗人，并定期邀请他们阅读他的作品。
刚刚接触的人很可能听不懂正宗的夏威夷皮钦，但这并不影响它开始在好莱坞电影中亮相。A&E Network目前热播的真人秀“Dog the Bounty Hunter”里就有大量的夏威夷皮钦。皮钦较多的部份有字幕解说。“我觉得皮钦无疑加强了这个节目的特色，”执行制作人罗伯特?沙尔诺(Robert Sharenow)。
夏威夷皮钦的支持者们并不是总对皮钦的使用方式感到兴奋，最突出的例子就是去年亚当?桑德勒(Adam Sandler)主演的浪漫喜剧《初恋50次》。有人说，桑德勒的密友──一个应当操夏威夷皮钦的叫Ula的瓦胡岛居民──听起来不像是从夏威夷来的，而更像是从墨西哥来的。“如果他们因为这种语言跟他们的语言不同而持玩笑的态度，那么问题就会发生，”Tonouchi不满地说。Tonouchi说和写都只用皮钦。桑德勒的制作公司Happy
Madison Productions没有回应记者要求置评的电话。。
相比于夏威夷皮钦卑微的出身，如今能进入大学课程和好莱坞电影，实在是走过了很长一段路。1900年前后，大批的夏威夷土著居民死于外来疾病的侵袭，于是种植园引进了成千上万来自不同国家的移民，让他们在恶劣的条件下工作。
这也最终推动了一门新语言的诞生，它吸收了许多英语的成份，同时揉合了其他语言，如日语、汉语、夏威夷语、葡萄牙语。据位于Manoa的夏威夷大学语言学教授迈克尔?福曼(Michael Forman)称，它是目前世界上200多种皮钦语和克利奥尔语之一。在夏威夷，这种语言通常被认为是一种“皮钦”，其实皮钦严格来说应该指的是人们的第二语言。语言学家称，夏威夷人说的其实是一种克利奥尔语。当讲不同语言、沟通困难的人们长时间相处，就会发展出一种克利奥尔语。在这种新形成的语言中，其中往往会有一门语言的成份占主要地位。
夏威夷皮钦刚开始是交流的必须工具，后来成为夏威夷当地人的非官方语言，但由于它来自于下层的种植园工人，因此长期以来备受歧视。20世纪20至50年代，夏威夷为不讲皮钦的人开办了标准英文学校，它们通常拒绝接受种植园工人的子女。“很多人把这种语言和低级阶层联系在一起，”檀香山Bamboo Ridge Press出版社的合伙创办人埃里克?乔克(Eric Chock)说。这家出版社被广泛认为是推动夏威夷皮钦的先锋。
Lois-Ann Yamanaka说，当大学老师叫她用这种皮钦来写作时（因为这是“她自己的声音”），她开始先是拒绝，因为她敢肯定，如果照办，同学们都会认为她是个傻瓜。她最后还是让步了。她的第一本著作在1993年由Bamboo Ridge出版，并很快为她赢得了Farrar, Straus & Giroux的写书合约。她引起了全国的关注，并多次获奖。Yamanaka的成功激励了其他众多用皮钦写作的作家。
Tonouchi的外号叫“皮钦游击队员”(Da Pidgin Guerrilla)。他回忆说，他的姑姑曾经告诉他不能购买《Pidgin To Da Max》（最流行的一本皮钦字典）。不过90年代初当他还是夏威夷大学学生的时候，偶然读到了一首皮钦诗歌，一下就被打动了。他大胆地决定用皮钦来写所有的论文。
毕业后，Tonouchi创办了一份叫“Hybolics”的杂志，专门刊登当地作家的作品。根据《Pidgin To Da Max》的定义，Hybolics的意思是“像一个有涵养的高加索白人那样交谈”。Tonouchi在杂志的某一期上曾写道：“我们所努力争取的是实现这个词的含义，并向世人证明，我们也可以用皮钦来表达所有的智慧思想。”
总的来说，在促进夏威夷皮钦的运动中没有太多钱可以赚。今年32岁的Tonouchi仍然和父亲住在一起。不过他说，已经和100多家学校和社区组织谈过他的这番事业。他即将出版他的第三本书，名为《Da Kine Dictionary》，并且聘请了志同道合的朋友──夏威夷大学的皮钦专家肯特?萨科达(Kent Sakoda)──到夏威夷太平洋大学帮助讲授这门具有开创意义的课程。肯特“有些怨言，因为这意味著更大的工作量，”Tonouchi在一封email这样解释道。“不过我告诉他，我们是在为皮钦革命”而努力。
尽管对皮钦的排斥在某些地区已经有所减弱，但并没有完全消失。夏威夷太平洋大学的教员很乐意开办皮钦课程，但英语课程的负责人凯瑟琳?苏斯塔纳(Catherine
Sustana)则称，外界对这个想法的反应有好有坏。“很多人不明白为什么我们开设这样的课程，”她说。
对于下一代，也许就没有那么多争议了。尽管皮钦在瓦胡岛的某些社区和其他一些岛屿很盛行，但很多人发现说皮钦的孩子越来越少，尤其是在夏威夷州最大的城市檀香山。桑迪?塔卡雅玛(Sandi Takayama)是当地一本儿童书籍的作者，在她的书中，传统童话故事的姜饼先生被说方言的大米零食取代了。塔卡雅玛发现当地的孩子有时看不懂她写的东西。“我有点伤心，”塔卡雅玛说。她承认自己的孩子能勉强看懂皮钦。“但我能理解，孩子们如果想要在一个更广阔的环境中获得成功，就必须说标准的英语。”
