ABSTRACT
No one of the contiguous forty-eight states and no other region on the continent is so easily distinguished from the others as Hawaii. The reasons in this case are inescapable: a still active (if somewhat declining) native language for the oldest group of inhabitants, Hawaiian Pidgin and Hawaiian Creole English, and the Island Dialect which is clearly related to the last two and incorporates some vocabulary from the first. There is also, however, a large group speaking aggressively mainstream American English and striking assimilation of some of the other groups to that variety. It is generally assumed that at least the pidgin and Creole varieties of Hawaiian English will give way to the last tendency. In this case, the origins of regional distinctiveness are clearer than the eventual result. Almost the opposite would have to be said of the states on the continent.
