Customer Reviews

Pidgin Grammar: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Hawaii

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Most non-linguists will find the first two chapters and the conclusion pretty fascinating, but may want to skim the rest of the book because it goes into word classes (which are pretty interesting, actually), phrases, sentence structures and da kine. One of the most interesting sections in the book is called "The current situation." If you look around the newsstands and bookstores in the islands, you will discover that there are books and even magazines in pidgin now! In recent years, the authors explain, advocacy of pidgin has developed in Hawai`i. There is a group at the University of Hawai`i called "Da Pidgin Coup" that has written a position paper on "Pidgin and Education," which is available on the Internet. There are currently many flavors of spoken pidgin, from "heavy" to "light" and variations in between. What helps make this book interesting is that the authors stick pretty much to the "heavy" variety in their exploration of pidgin grammar, so much of the content is somewhat exotic for non-pidgin speakers. There is a good pidgin word list and references at the end of the book.

Hey, please listen, you guys, cuz dis review fo real. Two real akamai university guys wen seet down long time an wen broke deah brains fo write dis book, yeah? So plenny good stuffs heah. Dey real smaht in da head dese guys, long time an lotta study awready een school, so dey stay knoween ukupaila big words fo tell bout how da pidgin talkahs stay talk story wid each odda for real kine out undaneat da mango tree. An no stupid stuffs heah, dese no moke guys dat ony open da mout an' pilau stuffs fall out. No, brah (o seestah), ony da smaht kine stuffs ees good enuff fo dese teacha guys.

Me, I one linguistics guy too, an' long time ago almos small kid time I wen marry one really pretty Samoan wahine from O'ahu, La'ie side. But she no like talk pidgin now cuz in school her teachas dey stay telling her no can talk lidat, but she know I love listen an' talk an' read da kine, yeah?, so den las yeah she wen buy me one book Honolulu side, Pidgin To Da Max -- really funny kine book. Dis book, Pidgin Grammar, not fo makin' jokes an' no mo funny cahtoon pichas in heah, but choke really good stuffs heah, fo real if you da smaht kine readah. So I tellin' you fo real, if you buy 'em you no goin' tink you wen do someting stupid an' you no goin' tink you wen' buy one pilau kine book.

This is a great book that descibes in clear, precise detail how the language is spoken. Good for haole to understand Hawai'ian Pidgin.