BIRDS OF A DIFFERENT FEATHER - TOK-PISIN AND HAWAII CREOLE ENGLISH ASLITERARY LANGUAGES

This paper compares the use of two Pacific creole languages, Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea and Hawai'i Creole English in the Hawaiian Island s, as written languages in a literary or poetic function. Although bot h languages are widely used in their respective territories, their soc iolinguistic status and functions differ dramatically. In Papua New Gu inea, Tok Pisin has existed about seventy years as a written language with a codified standard. Hawai'i Creole English has, by contrast, nev er been written as a language in its own recognized orthography. Becau se it has no writing system of its own, Hawai'i Creole English is repr esented as if it were a deviant or nonstandard variety of English. In other words, Hawai'i Creole English is forced to be a literary dialect rather than a literary language. I look at some of the practical prob lems connected with the elaboration process such as standardization an d related theoretical issues associated with narrative technique. Neit her language has been used for extended third person narration in the novel. I will show how literary activity has been connected with cultu ral and political nationalism in the two contexts. The paper concludes by considering the likelihood of successful resolution of these probl ems within the current political situation in the Hawaiian Islands and Papua New Guinea.