"Da kine talk" is the Island term for the most popular of the colorful dialectal forms- speech that captures the flavor of Hawaii's multiracial community and reflects the successes (and failures) of immigrants from both East and West in learning to communicate in English.Īs the parade of newcomers arrived in Hawaii, marked changes in the English taught by the missionaries appearedloanwords and intonations from Japan, Portugal, China, Korea, and the Philippines were added to the host of Hawaiian words already in use.ĭa Kine Talk, Part I, gives a brief history of the early plantation pidgin and presents examples of the speech patterns of nine Island speakers who represent five levels of achievement in spoken English. The varieties of Eng lish (including nee-pidgin) heard in the Islands today attest to this linguistic and cultural encounter. Hawaii is without parallel as a crossroads where languages of East and West have met and interacted.
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