Chinese Pidgin English
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| Chinese Pidgin English | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | China | |
| Total speakers | Extinct (in China) Possibly evolved into Chinglish, and into English loanwords in Chinese dialects |
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| Language family | Creole language
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | cpe | |
| ISO 639-3 | cpi | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Chinese Pidgin English (simplified Chinese: 洋泾浜英语; traditional Chinese: 洋涇濱英語; pinyin: yáng jìng bāng yīng yǔ) is a Pidgin language between English and Chinese. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin English spoken in Cantonese-speaking portions of China. Chinese Pidgin English was spoken by thousands of people. Chinese Pidgin English is heavily influenced by Chinese languages. Other variants of Chinese Pidgin English arose in Shanghai and Ningbo, where they lead to English loanwords in Shanghai dialect and Ningbo dialect. Chinese Pidgin English is no longer spoken in China. Chinglish, i.e. Chinese-influenced English, is not related to Chinese Pidgin English.
A separate Chinese Pidgin English has sprung up in more recent decades in places such as Nauru.
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[edit] History
English first arrived in China in the 1630s, when British traders arrived in South China. Chinese Pidgin English was spoken first in the areas of Macao and Guangzhou, later spreading north to Shanghai by the 1830s[1]. "Yangjing Bang English" in Chinese (洋涇濱, or 洋泾浜) derives from the name of a former creek in Shanghai near the Bund where local workers communicated with English-speaking foreigners in pidgin (broken English)[citation needed].
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 started in Guangzhou (Canton), China, after the British established their first trading port 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.[2] 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 began to decline in the late 19th century as standard English began to be taught in the country's education system.[3] English language teaching has been widespread throughout modern Chinese history- it was made the country's main foreign language in 1982.[4]
[edit] Features
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. The meaning can also be mutual "we have not seen each other in a long time".).
- look-see
- (
看 見 , meaning "to see", "to perceive", "to analyze", "to examine". or "to evaluate".) Also "look, then see", related to "You can see a lot by looking" popularly but erroneously attributed to Yogi Berra."
- lose face
- (
丟 臉 , meaning to bring shame upon oneself.
- no can do
- (
不 能 做 , meaning "to be unable to do". Also the imperative "do not attempt to do!" Recently a song by that name.)
- no-go
- (
不 行 , meaning "not okay", "do not go there" or "option not taken". Also "the latest attempt failed" often used to describe some early space program efforts.).
- where-to?
- (
哪 去 meaning "where are you going to?" or "where are you headed?". Also driver asking passenger "where do you want me to take you?").
- No this no that
- (
沒 票 沒 襯衣 ) meaning "If you don't have a laundry receipt, I won't give you your shirts", said to be a fabricated pidgin English unfairly attributed to the Chinese laundry proprietors. In 1886, a New York City bill cited this phrase in reference to Chinese-owned dry cleaning establishments. In 1921 a movie titled "No Tickee No Shirtee" further popularized the saying. Emphasizing the negative, with details lacking in "quid pro quo", this construction is more popular and is used today without racial or ethnic overtones[citation needed]. Examples include "No pain, no gain" for the Bodybuilding set, "no harm, no foul" as a response to a near miss, "no justice, no peace" as a protest chant, and the recent Democratic response "no plan, no money" to the bailout request of the Big Three automobile manufacturers.
[edit] Influence in Shanghainese
English is well known for being the primary source of loan words in Shanghai dialect, a dialect of Taihu Wu Chinese, which arose from the Shanghai variant of Chinese Pidgin English.
[edit] List of Chinese Pidgin English loan words in Shanghainese
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馬達（motor）、臘克（lacquer）、克羅米（chromium）、泡立水（polish）、馬賽克（mosaic）、水門汀（cement）、水汀（steam）、戤司（gas）、吉普（jeep）、摩托車（motorcycle）、卡（car）、派力司（palace）、開司米（cashmere）、檸檬（lemon）、色拉（salad）、土司（toast）、布丁（pudding）、三明治（sandwich）、白脫（butter）、咖啡（café or coffee）、可可（cocoa）、咖喱（curry）、阿司匹林（aspirin）、來蘇爾（lysol）、凡士林（vaseline）、課程（course）、戳子（chop）、麥克風（microphone）、披耶那（piano）、梵啞鈴（violin）、薩克斯風（saxophone）、倍司（bass）、沙蟹（show hand）、道勃兒（double）、司到婆（stop）、脫去包（touch ball）、搞兒（goal）、捎（shoot）、派司（pass）、維納斯（venus）、沙發（sofa）、派隊（party）、德律風（telephone）、撲落（插撲）（plug）、司答脫（start）、違司（waste）、司的克（stick）、行（hong）、康白度（comprador）、台頭（title）、嘜頭 (mark)、克拉（color）、聖（saint）、安琪兒（angel）、磅（pound）、打（dozen）、聽（tin）、朱古力（chocolate）、牛軋（nugget）、厄戤（again）、派（pass）、哈夫（half）
卡車（Camion）、卡片（card）、啤酒（beer）、酒吧（bar）、沙丁魚（sardine）、雪茄煙（cigar）、雪紡綢（chiffon）、卡賓槍（cabine）、加農炮（canon）、來複槍（rifle）、米達尺（meter）、法蘭盤（flan）、杏利蛋（omelet）、司必靈鎖（spring [disambiguation needed]）、道林紙（dauling）、拍紙薄（pad）、高爾夫球（golf）、華爾茲舞（waltz）、茄克衫（jacket）、車胎（tire）、派克大衣（parka）、貝雷帽（béret）
冰淇淋（ice cream）、蘇打水（soda water）、羅宋湯（russian）、求是糖（juice）、霓虹燈（neon light）、俱樂部（club）、維他命（vitamin）、引擎（engine）、幽默（humor）、烏托邦（utopia）
發嗲（dear）、軋朋友（get）、着台型（dashing）、坍招式（juice）、開大興（dashy）、骯三（on sale）、蹩腳（bilge）、邋遢（litter）、癟三（beggar san）、賴三（lassie）、赤佬（cheat）、戇大（gander）、小開（kite）、大班（banker）、瘟生（one cent）、噱頭（shit）、接翎子（leads）、嘎山河（gossip）、發格(fuck)
Some of these words are still used today as Mandarin words and in Shanghai dialect.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Yamuna Kachru and Cecil L. Nelson, World Englishes in Asian Contexts. Hong Kong University Press, 2006
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pidgin&searchmode=or
- ^ McArthur, Tom. (2002). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3 hardback, ISBN 0-19-860771-7 paperback.
- ^ Kam, A. (2002). English in education in China: policy changes and learners’. experiences. World Englishes, 21(2), 245-256
