I've written before that I grew up on a Japanese immigrant sugar plantation camp here on Oahu. We had food to eat, a rental home, a plantation provided health clinic and clothes to sew and wear. As a young child, I figured just about everybody lived like we did (except people on TV or really rich people). I didn't know we were poor.
Our language was pidgin English. I've written before that we often referred to our long ago childhood days as hanabata days. Hana is Japanese for nose. Bata is butter. So hanabata just means nose snot. Local people all know what it means.
A lot of the Hawaiian language is also part of our pidgin English. We all said pauhana for the end of work or after work. We said "Pio the light" for "Turn off the light."
(We almost never said, "Aloha" or "Mahalo" which has become more popular now.)
Uh oh... I just checked my blog posts and see that I've written a lot about Hawaiian pidgin English on my post Hawaiian Words of My Youth in 2021.
Anyway, the other day... out of nowhere, I remembered saying, "Ohana okolele, you bust your okolele." I grew up on Oahu. Art grew up on the Big Island. He said he remembered it as "Hana kokolele." We used it as children to say, "You're in big trouble."
I asked several friends if they remembered saying this. One friend said "you bust your okolele" meant you'd probably get a spanking since okole means your butt. Another friend said they'd heard, "Hana kokolele" also.
You know you can look up anything on the web and get some kind of answer, right?
Would you believe there's even a company called Hanabata Days who sells these t-shirts for kids?
OK.
So I asked my baby brother who remembers everything about our childhood if he'd heard this term and he said, "Nope. Never heard it."
Is he trying to tell me I'm the only one who got in trouble?
Maybe you've found something your brother can't remember . . .
ReplyDeleteDon't discount your memory. He probably heard it a lot and promptly forgot it.
ReplyDeleteI too grew up very poor and never realized it until I was older. I guess that is a good thing not knowing.
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard it both ways. My daughter would say “Hana okolele…peanut butta jelly”.
ReplyDeleteI love your daughter's peanut butta jelly addition!
DeleteSorry, it’s Pat. I often have trouble going in with my Gmail. 😩
DeleteI always love hearing from you, Pat. :-)
Delete❤️
DeleteWe were rather poor but always had enough, so not as poor as some.
ReplyDeleteKay, we weren't poor... but had a small house next to a neighborhood grocery and dad certainly didn't make a lot of money. Dad was from England and Mom (although born in N.O.) was French and her family only spoke French in the house. So I grew up with lots of 'mixed' saying like "Cheerio, ol' chap" (dad) and "Ma Cherie", etc. (mom). So yes, I can see how those old sayings we grew up with stay in our memory.
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about your growing up days. It’s all very interesting.
ReplyDeleteCould you identify yourself with just a first name please. You can even make up a name. :-)
DeleteI remember "hana okolele" which we used to say to others when they might get caught for doing something bad. Later in life, I started hearing "ha laa" which kind of meant the same. I was always a trouble maker so I heard it a lot.
ReplyDeleteWe grew up poor on a little farm in Oregon, but as young children we didn't know it either. We didn't have anything like pidgin language though. My mother was very strict about using proper language and grammar. I find pidgin to be very interesting and fun.
ReplyDeleteGood memories -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteAs someone who loves language, this is fascinating. Also, isn't it fun when our brains dredge up some word, phrase, or ditty from our childhood?
ReplyDeleteI love learning about languages, and this is all new to me. I didn't know anything about pidgin.
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping plantation days and ways alive dear
ReplyDeleteI just can't imagine you getting into trouble very often! I love reading some of the Hawaii autobiographies that put in the pidgen words. Almost sounds musical when combining several cultures. I was changing my grandson's little diaper and told him I was going to change his "didee." My daughter-in-law had never heard of that, so I had to research it for her. I was pretty sure I didn't invent that word. Just saw where a new restaurant opened inside of an old pineapple cannery on Big Island I think. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI don't remember everything from when I tried learning Japanese but I remember hana 🌸 Such a beautiful word
ReplyDeleteIn Spanish it's Flor... Just doesn't have a ring to it.
I enjoyed this and it's so interesting how languages evolve. There were many words and colloquialisms where I grew up and there are now words I don't recognize.
ReplyDeleteLanguage is an interesting thing! Our kids and grandkids are bilingual.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting! I jyst popped in ftom Linda's blog, but now I want to go back and read more of yours.
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