     |
||
     |
||
Background Hawai`i was first visited by Europeans in 1778, and it quickly became an important stopover for ships involved in whaling and trading with Asia. At this time, some of the expressions from the Pidgin English of China and the Pacific were introduced to Hawai`i. Tragically, diseases were also introduced which drastically decreased the indigenous Hawaiian population. The first sugarcane plantation was established in 1835, and the industry expanded rapidly in the last quarter of the century. Thousands of laborers were brought from China, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, the Philippines and other countries. With so many nationalities, a common language was needed on the plantations. At first, this was Hawaiian and Pidgin Hawaiian, but later in the century a new variety of pidgin began to develop. In the 1870s immigrant families began to arrive and more children were born on the plantations. Children learned their parents' languages and picked up English at school. But the kind of English they spoke on the playground was influenced by the Pidgin English earlier brought to Hawai`i, by the Hawaiian spoken by their parents, and by their own first languages, especially Portuguese. By the turn of the century a new Hawai`i Pidgin English began to emerge with features from all of these sources. This pidgin became the primary language of many of those who grew up in Hawai`i, and children began to acquire it as their first language. This was the beginning of Hawai`i Creole English. By the 1920s it was the language of the majority of Hawai`i's population.
|
