Exploring Multilingual Hawai'i

Book excerpt: Employing an approach 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. This book 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, and the languages of Micronesia, and also the occurrence of language mixing in Hawaiian society. Scott Saft’s discussion and analysis underscore how continued exploration of language usage in Hawaiʻi can contribute to our general understanding of multilingualism as a dynamic phenomenon.