LIC: Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaii

I got a chance to watch a local documentary called Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaii. It covered things like the beginnings of the Pidgin language, how people perceive its use, and when and where it is used.

It seems a lot of effort was put into this documentary. But in my opinion, it did not offer a true sense of Pidgin to viewers. It is as if there was authenticity issues with the way some of the speakers spoke in the movie. There were weird words and voice intonations being used. It just did not seem right.

Then I began to question myself. Maybe the issue was with me. Maybe I never heard these versions of Pidgin before. I remember hearing talk about how each island having its own version of Pidgin distinct to that island. And so perhaps these people were speaking their version of what I know of as Pidgin.

In response to those feelings, I thought, language is what I perceive it to be. Just because some professor has this definition, or some people speak what they call Pidgin, does not mean I have to conform to those views. Though others do not have to think this way, if I say it's not Pidgin, then it's not Pidgin.