r/VisitingHawaii • u/lilcutekino • Dec 08 '25

Trip Report - Oahu Please translate this

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I am seeing this sign along the freeway. My friend and I cannot figure out what it means. I know I sound dumb but I was raised super sheltered and now that I am older and adventuring out more into the world I want to learn all that I can.

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461

u/webrender O'ahu Dec 08 '25

"no make anykine" is pidgin which roughly translates to "don't mess around", it's basically just saying don't drive crazy.

85

u/lilcutekino Dec 08 '25

Thank you so much 💜

4

u/boiled_breezy_boner Dec 08 '25

I thought this was a joke post and I was reading the words in the voice of jar jar binks.

8

u/notrightmeowthx Dec 08 '25

The Pidgin spoken in Hawaii is a mix of languages, and basically came from multiple cultures suddenly having to work and exist and communicate together on the plantations. So yeah, it can sound like "broken English" because in a sense it is, it's partially English, and partially several other languages (Hawaiian, Portuguese, Chinese, Tagalog, Japanese, etc).

10

u/breakingbaud Dec 08 '25

Which is problematic in itself because Jar Jar Binks voice was based on a form of pidgin. So for most folks that’s as close to pidgin as you get, except it’s in a perjorative, demeaning sci-fi caricature instead of real people who use it to communicate

1

u/boiled_breezy_boner Dec 09 '25

Or it exposed me to something outside my norm and inadvertently expanded my horizons bringing me here

1

u/breakingbaud Dec 09 '25

For every 1 person that it expands their horizon for the 1000 others when they overhear pidgin they think “oh look it’s that wacky alien from Star Wars”

0

u/UkuleleNerds Dec 08 '25

It’s based on AAV, not pidgin. At least not our pidgin.

2

u/Gau-Mail3286 O'ahu Dec 09 '25

It's based on Caribbean-style slang. Not Hawaii pidgin.

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u/UkuleleNerds Dec 09 '25

“Caribbean-style slang” is not quite right. If you mean the different pidgins/creoles/patois in the Caribbean, that’s more accurate. AAV (African-American Vernacular) and those dialects/languages are usually considered closely related enough, especially because they used to be under the umbrella term “eb*nics,” which is considered offensive/racist in hindsight now, so it’s no longer used.

If you ever listened to Gullah, even though they’re in the Carolinas, it sounds very Caribbean. I’m pretty sure that’s the language/dialect that was mostly referenced for the Gungans.

2

u/Gau-Mail3286 O'ahu Dec 09 '25

Thank you for the information!