LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.10.27 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 27 October 2008 - Volume 03
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page
and switch your browser's character encoding to Unicode.
===========================================


From: *Roger Thijs <rogerthijs at yahoo.com>*
Subject: *Lowlands-List Language varieties*

New trial from within yahoo:  remote mail to lowlands.list at GMAIL.COM  is
tagged as spam by the Belgian telenet server and is rejected

---

Aloha, from my portable in Waikiki, Honolulu,
I hope things are improving Ron.

Hawaiian Pidgin, as a variant of English, is clearly contested over here:

Polancy p 191
"At some schools you can get an education" an O'hau psychologist and father
says...."The teacher speaks pidgin. And you wonder why they are not getting
an education?"

Polancy p 23
Don't try to speak pidgin.. " Newcomers don't know to speak pidgin and it is
almost insulting when they try," says a local man. "It sounds as though you
aqre speaking down to us"

Tonouchi p iv-v
Get da myth dat only people who went public school talk Pidgin. Brah, even I
wuz amaze how many private school submissions came in. Lotta da private
school peoples wuz EXTRA proud I think so cuz dey wrote little notes like
"Punahou get Pidgin too".
(Comment: Punahou is the most expensive private school over here with a
tuition of 15725 USD as to Polancy p 196)

More technically

Sakoda p. 1
.. "Pidgin" is spoken by an estimated 600.000 people in the state of Hawa'i
...
.. The name Pidgin is a shortening of the term "Pidgin English"...
.. "pidgin" is thought to be derived from the Chinese pronounciation of the
word "business"..

Sakoda p. 2
So a pidgin takes its vocabulary (or lexicon) mainly from one particular
language (called the "lexifier"), such as plantation language, but it
develops its own sound system, meanings, and structure.. it has its own
grammatical rules.

Sakoda p. 2
In Hawai't, what we call Pidgin (with a capital P) ... Since the language
was no longer spoken as a second language with restricted functions, and now
had a community of native speakers, it was by definition no longer a pidgin
language. It had become what is called a creole language" or a "creole".

Sakoda p. 3
.. some people .. refer to Pidgin as "Hawa'i Creole English" or HCE for
short.
Other names used are Hawai'i English Creole and simply Hawai'i Creole.

Sakoda p. 5
Pidgin Hawaiian differed from real Hawaiian in many ways. In pronounciation,
the "glottal stop" ... was not used in some words..
.. The way words were combined also differed in Pidgin Hawaiian.

Sadoka p. 19
Nevertheless, Pidgin remains primarely a spoken language, and is spoken in a
variety of ways. Some people speak "heavy" or "strong" Pidgin, which is very
different from English. (Linguists call this form the "basilect".)
Other people speak a "lighter" form of Pidgin, which is close to standard
English (This is called the "acrolect")
The majority of speakers speak varieties in between (the "mesolects") and
can switch back and forth between lighter and heavier forms of Pidgin as
required by contextual factors...

Sources (all in stock at Borders Express, Waikiki)
- Toni Polancy, So you want to live in Hawai'i, updated 2007, Barefoot
Publishing, Kihei, Hawai'i, ISBN 0-9666253-6-6,384 pp, USD 19.95
- Lee Tonouchi, Da Kine Dictionary, Compiled and Edited by Da Pidgin
Guerrilla, Bess Press, Honolulu, 2005, viii + 104 pp, ISBN 1-57306-136-O,
USD 11.95
- Kent Sakoda and Jeff Siegel, Pidgin Grammar, An introduction to the Creole
Language of Hawai'i, Bess Press, Honolulu, 2003, 120 pp, USD 11.95, ISBN
1-57306-169-7

and out of scope of the LL, just for who is interested:
- Hokulani Cleeland, Hawaiian Language Fundamentals, Olelo Oiwi, Kamehameha
Publishing, Honolulu, (1994) 2006, ISBN 978-0-87336-105-7, 439 pp, USD 22.50
- Mary Kawena Pukui & Samuel H. Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary,
Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian, (1957) 1986, University of Hawaii Press,
Honolulu, ISBN 978-8248-0703-0, xxviii + 572 pp, USD 32.95
- Albert J. Schütz e.a., Pocket Hawaiian Grammar, A reference grammar in
dictionary form, including a guide to pronounciation, Island Heritage
Publishing, Waipahu, 2005, ISBN 1-59700-176-7, xx + 26 pp, USD 8.95

Regards,
Roger

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Thanks a lot, Roger. I hope you're having a good time in Hawai'i.

The phenomenon of people being touchy is common among language varieties
that are or used to be despised.

New trial from within yahoo:  remote mail to lowlands.list at GMAIL.COM  is
tagged as spam by the Belgian telenet server and is rejected


Does anyone know what to do about it?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20081027/1beaa5b9/attachment.htm>