Pidgin: A Form of Language and Commuincation The focus of Lisa Kanae’s Sista Tongue is to explain that the Hawaii Creole Language, or “Pidgin” is a not necessarily a language spoken by those that back then would be considered inferior, but rather shed light about the true background behind this type of language. Throughout her book, Kanae gives a personal story about her younger brother and the struggles he faced as child regarding speech impairment. Along with her story she gives the reader a history about how the people of Hawaii came to speaking pidgin. Pidgin in it’s own way is a language that was developed by multiple ethic groups in a way to communicate with each other in the plantation fields. The result was a form of communication derived from standard…show more content… Kanae includes an excerpt written by Madorah E. Smith that explains a study on the children of Hawaii of a Non-American Ancestry have a problem with speaking proper English. Smith concludes within her report that “the children in Hawaii from non-haole homes are retarded in language development to a degree so marked that, on most criteria, at the time of school entrance they are at the level of three-year old children from a less polyglot environment” (qtd. In Smith 271). According to this report the cause for this retardation is the use of pidgin and the bilingualism in homes. Smith’s piece is included in Kanae’s book because it relates back to Kanae’s explanation about how pidgin users were considered to be inferior and to be part of a lower class than those who spoke English well. Kanae includes this piece from Smith, because Kanae mention that pidgin speakers were often treated badly. Only those who spoke proper English were considered to be of a higher social class than those who spoke pidgin or could not speak fluent in their mother tongue. Though, Kanae’s main point of her writing is explain that those who couldn’t speak English well are not of a lower