I was there in 1983 and was struck by that. Was also struck by the flora and its similarities to Louisiana, and the sugar cane fields, and those volcanoes that looked like bagasse hills.
Exactly right Dwight. It gets even more vivid and conclusive than that. They make a killer gumbo using just shrimps. It has a slightly Chinese twist to it with a starchy root thickener similar to arrowroot as a sub for roux. They have a pepper similar to cayenne called a Waialua chili. And like bagasse hills, the cane syrup they make would rival the finest ribbon cane from Abbeville.
Cochon de lait anyone? You bet. The locals do theirs in the ground. Crawfish? The crawfish from Hilo's Wailuku River make the finest graded LA sack look like a field run. Everyone knows about the pedal and lap steel guitars there but in fact there are 2 accordion builders on Oahu that I've heard about but it has been years so not sure if they are still building or have subbed out work to The Phillipines. One guy used to build boxes out of teak wood that were stunning.
I'm not really advocating anything here. I'm just saying they talk a very similar slang English. To me it's creepy how close the cultural connection is.
I was station there a couple years in the early 80's. I guess there's a resemblances in the roughness and the lack of a "th" sound, but the intonation is quite a bit different. Also don't remember finding a boudin likeness.
Not long after visiting there I read a Scientific American article on "Creole Patois", and of course I thought it was about Louisiana from the title, but I think it was primarily about the Hawaiian mixture of languages. Made me start thinking all such things are going to sound cajun, but, probably not.
You're right about the mixture of languages thing. Linguists refer to the mixture any languages to create a new one as creole. I'm also sure that you already know that creole was once used to describe all things "home grown" so to speak. I know at least at one time, in the early days of our nation, it was used to refer to anything made here. In Louisiana people began to identify with the term to distinguish themselves from other cultural groups. So to quote the Good Father Daigle, "all Cajuns are Creole, but not all Creoles are Cajun."
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
