Say it ain’t so, Lee.

In her recent column, Lee Cataluna lambasted the Oxford English Dictionary’s decision to include “hammajang” as “trying-to-be-hip-but-not-fooling-anybody,” and said that OED can have the word, because we “weren’t using it” (“1988 called — it wants its word back,” Star- Advertiser, Feb. 8).

To me, hammajang (or hemajang or just jag) is absolutely fundamental Pidgin vocabulary.

To characterize the word hammajang as a relic from the ’80s is to say that Pidgin itself is fading from relevance, which is a sad commentary on life in Hawaii.

While it may be true that in Honolulu, folks have not heard the word “hammajang” in decades, on the neighbor islands the situation is different.

But the fact remains: The more “connected” we get, the more Pidgin is fading from the mainstream in Hawaii.

Want to “Defend Hawaii”? Teach your kids fo speak Pidgin, babooze.

Shane Albritton

Pukalani, Maui

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