Hawaiian Pidgin
English-based creole spoken in Hawaii
Summary
Hawaiian Pidgin is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaii. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a second language. Although English and Hawaiian are the two official languages of the state of Hawaii, Hawaiian Pidgin is spoken by many residents of Hawaii in everyday conversation and is often used in advertising targeted toward locals in Hawaii. In the Hawaiian language, it is called ʻōlelo paʻi ʻai lit. 'hard-taro language'.
Originally created by KeithH
3/4/2004, 7:44:35 AM
Modified
5/2/2026, 2:27:22 AM
Recent revisions
Fixed typo of the spelling of Hawaii in English. When referring to the language, I think accentations are okay, but locations definitely need to be standardized and the page doesn’t have the apostrophe
replace link with a youtube video where the focus is on pidgin
removed [[Category:Culture of Hawaii]] using [[WP:HC|HotCat]]
removed [[Category:Languages of Oceania]] using [[WP:HC|HotCat]]
And here's a more controversial edit. I thought at first that I could leave this because it's an official name of the state, but then I read the state constitution. It is not. And it seems they don't call themselves that in legal texts either.
Humanities professors and Hawaiian nationalists may disagree, but "Hawaii" is vastly more common among English-speakers. [[Talk:Hawaii/Archive_10#Requested_move_20_April_2022|That was decided in a move discussion in 2022.]] The phrase "Hawai'i Creole English" seems to be supported by sources though.
Added link
[[Wikipedia:OABOT|Open access bot]]: url-access=subscription updated in citation with #oabot.
clean up, [[WP:AWB/T|typo(s) fixed]]: it’s → it's, ’s → 's (2)
Fixed a reference. Please see [[Category:CS1 errors: dates]].
Added citations to history section as well as comments about Hawaiian Pidgin pride. Added information in the regional varieties section about the continuum of Hawaiian Pidgin.
/* Literature and performing arts */ added a source for this sentence
Rescuing 2 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.5
fixed [[MOS:DASH|dashes]] using [[User:Ohconfucius/dashes.js]]
/* External links */
Moving [[:Category:Hawaii culture]] to [[:Category:Culture of Hawaii]] per [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2025 July 22#Culture of U.S. states]]
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