Languages of the Hawaiian Islands
- Different lanugages are spoken on the Hawaiian Islands.hawaii view image by csaba fikker from Fotolia.com
The western world's first recorded discovery of Hawaii occurred in 1778 when Captain James Cook happened upon the islands during a quest for the Alaskan-Asian Northwest Passage. Before becoming the 50th U.S. state in 1959, the system of the Hawaiian Islands was united into a single kingdom, which was, for brief periods, under the protection of Russian Tsar Alexander I and conquered by Admiral Louis Tromelin of France after a mass deportation of French Catholic priests. As of 2010, Hawaiian, English and Pidgin are the languages most commonly spoken throughout the islands. - Hawaiian is one of the official languages of Hawaii. Hawaiian was only an oral language until 1820, when missionaries translated the language into a written alphabet. The alphabet consists of seven consonants, five vowels and two symbols, the "'Okina" and the "Kahako," that effect pronunciation. The 'Okina shortens consonant sounds and the Kahako lengthens vowels. Rules for written Hawaiian state that both words and syllables never end with a consonant and that syllables are, at most, two syllables long. Other language rules include strict word order in which modifiers come after nouns and that words can have different meanings depending on the context. Hawaiian is familial language usually spoken only in the home.
- As of 2010, English is the second official language of Hawaii. The same missionaries that recorded the Hawaiian language in written form in 1820 were the ones to first formally teach English to the natives. English was spoken before this time for commercial purposes, but the extent of the language was limited to basic operations and monetary amounts. In an effort to obtain more independence in trade situations, Hawaiians desired to expand their knowledge of both written and spoken English. English is the primary language taught in Hawaiian public schools, though students can still take Hawaiian language courses.
- Pidgin English evolved in Hawaii from the presence of immigrants from Japan, Korea, China, Portugal, Mexico and the Philippine Islands conducting business with Hawaiian and English speakers. As of 2010, Pidgin, or Hawaii Creole, as it is sometimes called, is spoken to a lesser degree, but still can be found in everyday language. Some characteristics of Pidgin are omission of present "to be" verbs and falling rather than rising intonation at the end of questions. Pidgin is derived from the English alphabet, but only consists of twelve letters, half of which retain typical English pronunciation. Much of modern surfing slang is based on Pidgin.
