See You Lay-dah

I may have mentioned this before, but people of a certain demographic in Hawaii tend to emulate people from Massachusetts in their pronunciation of the suffix “er.”

“Er” becomes “ah.” As in “the-a-tah” (theater), except they’ll also pronounce the “th” as “d” and the “tah” as “dah” … say “tee-ay-dah”).

Maybe it’s their Japanese genes. It could be in the DNA. Japanese nationals have a difficult time rounding out the “ers” in when they speak English.

Our tour driver in Japan mentioned this to us when we visited the Mikimoto Pearls farm: “I cannot pronounce the name correctly in English. I say parl.”

I’ve noticed that locally too. But it’s not just the older Americans of Japanese ancestry; it’s the “locals” as well, generally of the lower socio-economic demographics.

I’m just saying.

Local Pronunciashan

Here’s another example of the Hawaii dialect that you may encounter if you know or meet local residents of Hawaii.

I hear people in Hawaii pronouncing “an” instead of “un” when words end in “on.”

Whereas you and I would say “CAR-tun” when we refer to a box, Hawaii long-timers might say “cah-TAN,” with an accent on the last syllable (they often have difficulty rounding out a syllable that ends in “r”).

It also carries over to the pronunciation of “tion.” Whereas it’s normally pronounced “NAY-shun,” they say “NAY-shan.”

It’s just another interesting localism you can pick up on if you just keep your ears open in Hawaii.

You Said What?

Here’s something interesting about how Hawaii speaks, and how you can pick out Hawaii people in a crowd. Long-time local residents (okay, okay, OLD people) often transpose words in familiar phrases.

When I was growing up in Hilo, we kids bought a lot of shaved ice at neighborhood mom and pop stores. Y’know, sno-cones. We’d run into the store, pull out our nickel, and ask for an “ice shave” instead of “shaved ice.” We all did it. And the older generation still does.

When I’m in Las Vegas, I often have breakfast at the California Hotel’s Market Street Café counter. A lot of Hawaii residents stay at the Cal because of their terrific marketing in Hawaii. You can pick them out in a flash when they order eggs for breakfast. They will ask for “easy over” instead of “over easy.”

Oh, oh … and the Guinness Book of World Records? Over here it’s often called the “Guinness World Book of Records.”

I don’t know exactly what causes this. Maybe living in paradise promotes “word dyslexia”?

Pah-dan Me

Here’s another Hawaii “speak-ism” that caught my ear the other day. Many people born and raised in Hawaii pronounce the short “e” in some words like an “a” as in bag.

Here are some examples:

· “Beg” becomes “bag.”
· “Better” becomes “battah.”
· “Sweater” becomes “swattah.”
· “Forget” becomes “forgat.”
· “Cigarette” becomes “cigarrat.”

I think it has something to do with the inability to form what used to be called “pear-shaped” tones. Instead of keeping the jaw steady and widening the lips, people drop their jaw and open their mouths more.

Try it.

What da ...?

People born and raised in Hawaii have a peculiar way of pronouncing words, that's for sure.

It seems that many, especially those from certain demographics, are "th" deficient. This particular idiosyncracy is prevalent in other parts of the nation and world, for sure, but especially noticeable in Hawaii.

The substitution of "d" for "th," or the dropping of the "h," is sometimes very subtle, but if you listen carefully, you suddently become very sensitive to it.

There's one particular weather guy that comes to mind immediately. His reports on "da wedder" and how "da surf is up" grate on my nerves sometimes, so I'm constantly reminding myself that he's a local and has to be forgiven. Yet, if his profession puts him in front of thousands who hear him giving his reports, shouldn't he get some lessons in diction?

The Hawaii accent is choppy enough without widdout having to tink about how de locals are pronouncing words, don't you tink?

The Hawaii Local Accent, Part 2

Play a game with yourself. Next time you meet someone who you think is from Hawaii, ask them to pronounce the word “council.” If s/he says “couns-oh,” you’ve found one.

Apparently, many from the Islands have difficulty with “il” or “el” syllables. Instead of pronouncing it as “ell” (couns-el), they’ll say “oh” – couns-oh.

I never really noticed this until a particular person was elected to the Honolulu City Council. He was always referring to the governing body as the “couns-oh,” and himself as a “couns-oh-man” to the point where it began to get on my nerves. I was sorely tempted to write to him and correct him, but decided against it.

Those with this … er, affliction, will refer to a pencil as a “pens-oh,” and a stencil as a “stens-oh.” They’ll call a manual a “manu-oh,” and a rebel a “reb-oh.” There may be other examples, but I can’t think of any others right now.

So if the person you test proves this point, make sure you give him some gentle counsel. Okay?

The Hawaii Local ‘Accent’

People who were born and raised in Hawaii often have an identifiable accent that is not exactly Hawaiian ebonics (what we call “pidgin English”) but I guess is kind of an offshoot of it.

First, a clarification: You’ll notice I didn’t say “Hawaiian.” People outside our state often refer to our residents as Hawaiians, just as we would refer to residents of other states as Californians or Illini or Floridians. If there were no native Hawaiians then I guess that would be acceptable, but it’s not an accurate description of Hawaii residents. In fact, those with Hawaiian ancestry would find it quite objectionable and offensive. Okay, that’s taken care of.

Here’s an example of the accent: How would you pronounce the word “street”?

Most Americans would say “s-chreet,” ‘cause that’s the way they taught us in school. Or, if we are more particular in our pronunciation and conscious of what we say, we’d say “s-treet,” as it was meant to be pronounced.

But in Hawaii, many say “sh-chreet.” I don’t know what it is about the letters “str” at the start of the word. It’s just shchrange how local Hawaii people shchruggle with those three little letters.
That’s enough for today. But I promise that I’ll shchress more peculiarities of the Hawaii local accent later.