Sociolinguistic variation and language attitudes in Hawaii

Literacy in Pidgin and Creole Languages

“…Speakers often have positive attitudes towards their language as a marker of solidarity and local social identity, as reported for Hawai'i Creole (Sato, 1991;Watson-Gegeo, 1994); Australian Kriol (Siegel, 1998) and Dominica Creole French (Fontaine & Leather, 1992). However, unlike other languages, P/Cs are rarely valued in public formal domains, and, as a result, they generally suffer from overall negative attitudes and low prestige (see e.g.…”

Consuming the consumers

“…Romaine 1999;Sato 1989Sato , 1991Sato , 1994, except in limited venues such as comedy shows or local literature. This paper has presented data from recent local television advertisements and discussed the role of language therein.…”

Unequal Englishes

“…In multilingual societies described as diglossic, 'vernacular', non-official language varieties are relegated to informal, private, and usually low prestige contexts while official languages, often the legacies of colonial rule, are reserved for formal and public contexts which by their very nature index high prestige. Language in Hawai'i is said to demonstrate this type of diglossia, where English is a co-official state language along with Hawaiian, and where Pidgin (also known as Hawai'i Creole) is more or less only deemed appropriate for low prestige contexts (Marlow & Giles 2010;Reinecke 1969;Romaine 1999;Sato 1991). The English specific to Hawai'i is generally not stigmatized even though Local 1 people recognize that there are differences between mainland US and Hawai'i varieties of the language.…”