Mahalo Hawaiʻi’s Plantation Village, a museum in Waipahu, for recently highlighting three Pidgin words that stem from Hawaiʻi's plantation era — pau, kau kau and bumbai. The origins of each were interesting — from the Hawaiians, Chinese and English, respectively.
"Ever wonder why words like pau, kau kau and bumbai sound so familiar in Hawaiʻi?" the museum wrote in an Oct. 3 post on Instagram. "These everyday words carry stories of the many cultures and languages that came together during Hawaiʻi’s plantation era. What began as a way for workers to communicate across communities became part of the way generations of local families still talk today."
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