Chinese Pidgin English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Chinese Pidgin English is today a Pidgin language of Nauru and other countries in Asia and Oceania. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also a "Chinese Pidgin English" spoken in Cantonese-speaking portions of China. Chinese Pidgin English is spoken by thousands of persons, most of them not living in Nauru. Chinese Pidgin English is heavily influenced by Chinese languages.
Contents |
[edit] History
Historically, it was a modified form of English developed in the 17th century for use as a trade language or lingua franca between the British and the Chinese. Chinese Pidgin got its start in Guangzhou (Canton), China, after the British established their first trading post there in 1664. Because the British found Chinese an extremely difficult language to learn and because the Chinese held the English in low esteem and therefore disdained to learn their language, Pidgin English was developed by the English and adapted by the Chinese for business purposes. The term "pidgin" itself is a corruption of the pronunciation of the English word "business" by the Chinese.[1] Chinese Pidgin continued in use until about the end of the 19th century, when Pidgin came to be looked upon by the Chinese as humiliating (because English speakers considered it ridiculous) and so preferred to learn standard English instead.
Chinese Pidgin English was based on a vocabulary of about 700 English words, with a small number of words from other sources. Grammar and syntax are simple and positional; that is, grammatical categories are indicated by the position of words in the sentence rather than by inflectional endings, prepositions, or the like (e.g., in English “John loves Mary” is distinguished from “Mary loves John” by the position of the words in the sentences). Typical sentences in Chinese Pidgin are Hab gat lening kum daun (Have got raining come down) “There is rain coming down”; Tumolo mai no kan kum (Tomorrow my no can come) “Tomorrow I can't come”; and Mai no hab kachi basket (My no have catch basket) “I didn't bring a basket.”
[edit] Influence on English
Certain expressions from Chinese English Pidgin have made their way into colloquial English. The following is a list of some of these expressions and the Chinese expressions they were literally derived from:
- long time no see which in Mandarin would be
(好 久 不 見 , meaning "haven't seen [you] in a long time") but more likely it was based on the Cantonese 好耐冇見 (meaning the same). - look-see
(看 見 , meaning "to see, to perceive") - no can do
(不 能 做 , meaning "to be unable to do") - no-go
(不 行 , meaning "not OK" or "option not taken"). - where-to?
(meaning "where are you going to?" or "where are you headed?").
