Da kine wurd/frayze/turm uv da day: try fo go wait/stay
If Bud and Lou couldn’t figure out “who’s on first?” I pity the non-Pidgin’ speaker trying to figure out today’s subject matter! Ha!
“I stay goeen, but!” Huh? Wha? Are you staying or going? Local lingo uses the word stay as Texans would use the term fixin’; as in: “I’m fixin’ to carry my butt down the road a’piece! (I’m getting ready to go somewhere!)
“Eh brah, I tot yu wuz goeen beech?” reply: “I stay tryeen fo go, but!” (I thought you were going to the beach?) (I’m trying to get going!) Wot yu stay wayteen fo?” “I no kan go ‘teel da kine kum!” (what are you waiting for?) (I can’t go until da kine gets here!)
Now, for those of you who were paying attention earlier, it’s obvious that both parties know exactly who da kine is! Lol! An eavesdropping OTB haole bystander would have no clue!
In local vernacular, stay can also replace are or am in question form; as follows: “Eh bruddah, wey yu stay?” (Dude, where are you?) answer: “Wot, yu no kan see me? I stay rite ovah heah! (what, can’t you see me, I’m right over here!)
Figure this one out: “Eh brah, yu goeen stay go, oh wot?” (Yo, are you going or what?) answer: I goeen bumbye, aftah I pau kau kau, lah dat!” (I’ll be going later, after I eat!)
Clear as mud, huh? Ha! OK, let’s take a break!
Back when Bud Abbott and Lou Costello did their iconic “Who’s on first?” schtick, no one dreamed that Oriental ballplayers would be as commonplace on MLB rosters as they are today! My Hilo forefathers would have said simply: No kan, but!”
So, unless you’ve really been paying attention, you probably missed Vin Scully announcing: “and, Hu’s on first!” as in Chin Lung Hu, a Taiwanese player who’s had a few cups of coffee with the Dodgers, Indians and the Mets. Lol! True story!
Local skeptics back in the ’30s or ’40s would have been met with “Try fo go way’t but, bumbye goeen get Buddhaheads, Pakes an Yobos eensai da mayjahs, lah dat!” Ha! (You just wait, sooner or later Japanese, Chinese and Korean players will be in the majors!)
In closing, with a tip of my papale to Bud and Lou, imagine what they coulda done with “Hu’s on first and Oh’s at the plate!” (as in Sadaharu Oh, Japan’s Babe Ruth)
Pau fo nau.
Nex wun: Yu no wuz, but!
Wally Camp is a Big Island resident and linguist who writes a biweekly column. He can be reached at hilowally@gmail.com