Exploring Multilingual Hawai'i

Language Use and Language Ideologies in a Diverse Society. Through an approach informed by language ecology and linguistic ethnography, this book examines Hawaiʻi as a complex multilingual society. Focusing on situated language usage as well as underlying ideological beliefs, the book offers analyses of Hawaiian, Pidgin, Japanese, the languages of Micronesia, and the phenomenon of language mixing. Employing an approached informed by language ecology and linguistic ethnography, Exploring Multilingual Hawaiʻi examines situated language usage and underlying ideological beliefs to explore and understand Hawaiʻi’s multilingualism. The books begins with a description of the ideologies that developed as a result of contact with the west and then offers analyses that concentrate specifically on the roles of Hawaiian, Pidgin, Japanese, the languages of Micronesia, and also the occurrence of language mixing in Hawaiian society. Finally, discussion of the analyses underscores how continued exploration of language usage in Hawaiʻi can contribute to our general understanding of multilingualism as a dynamic phenomenon.