Hawaiian Pidgin
Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole) in Lilo & Stitch
Play videoExample of tense (wen) and aspect (stei) in Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole). Instance happens at 00:44.
Charlene Sato Center - Pidgin educational materials
Educational resources about Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole) from University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Charlene Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies. The "Talking Story about Pidgin" site is very informative and can be translated between Pidgin and English.
Pidgin words to bring back: "Halala uku lele"
Inter-island variability for the Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole) phrase "Halala uku lele" etc. Creator speaks Pidgin throughout. [Published on 03-08-2025]
How To Speak Pidgin - Tumua Stand-Up Comedy
Play videoComedian Tumua Tuinei discusses Hawaiʻi Pidgin and demonstrates how Pidgin words "dakine" and "can" are used in a Pidgin conversation.
Breaking down Hawaiian Pidgin words with comedians Frank De Lima, Andy Bumatai, and Augie T.
Play videoClip from the Keep It Aloha podcast. Hawai'i comedians define Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole) terms and discuss the etymology. Pidgin is used throughout the full clip.
Double Spam Musubi
This is a pretty good example of the pidgin (Hawaii Creole English for technicality) I would hear back at home! I thought it would be pretty interesting to share. There's a bit of swearing, but the swearing is commonly used in the language. [Published on 04-16-2024]
Formal vs. Pidgin (Hawaiʻi Creole English) terms
This video includes some vocabulary of Hawaiʻi Creole English (known as Pidgin to in-group members). People in the video compare HCE terms to their "formal" Standard American English counterparts, reinforcing the standard language ideology. HCE is stigmatized when viewed as less prestigious and formal than "standard" English. [Published on 02-15-2024]
Maluhia Kinimaka podcast clip
Play videoMaluhia Kinimaka uses the Hawai'i pidgin slang term "tap", which is specifically used on the island of Kaua'i.
Hawaiian Pidgin Brings Sense of Pride to Locals
Play videoA brief video about Hawaiian Pidgin, or Hawaiian Creole, and its place culturally in Hawaii.
A Zine Piece Written in Hawaiian Pidgin
Pages 12-13. Written by a native Hawaiian in [Published on 03-01-2022]
Hawaiian Version of Twelve Days of Christmas
Play videoA recording of two people singing a version of the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" in Hawaiian Pidgin that shows a lot of its phonetic variables. The lyrics are written in the description.
Sh*t People From Hawaii Say
Play videoPopular Youtuber and Hawaii local, Ryan Higa, exemplifies what Hawaiian Creole (known more commonly in Hawaii as 'pidgin') sounds like. Rosina Lippi-Green briefly discusses Hawaiian creole in her article, "Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in the courts," and Ryan demonstrates what locals sound like (albeit in a slightly dramatized manner) when speaking the language.
Hawaiian Pidgin Recognized As A Language (In Pidgin w/ Subtitles)
Play videoThis video is of a man speaking Hawaiian Pidgin English. He establishes that Hawaiian Pidgin English is not the Hawaiian language.
Hawaiian Pidgin
Play videoWe are learning about Pidgin and Creoles. Here is a wonderful example of Pidgin.
Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaii
Play videoAn excerpt from the documentary Voices of Hawaii, profiling the accent discrimination case of James Kahakua et al. in the late 1980s, where speakers of accented English were denied jobs as broadcasters for the National Weather Service.
Hawaiian Creole English and cultural content in "Mr. Sun Cho Lee" (Contact Languages in Music)
Play videoThis song, first released in 1975 by Keola and Kapono Beamer, reveals stereotypes of the diverse ethnic backgrounds of Hawai'i residents, and contains several features of Hawaiian Creole English (often called "Pidgin" but is really a creole).

