The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-15

long, phrases into short sentences b.,
IN Chlaese and pidgin English. JUL
DIFFICULTIES AND ODDITIES IN ppo,---
CITATION.
There are certain sounds v-b;o.,
Chlnaman mas from custom an inba.oLe3
difficulty in pronOuncing. Thus boouS
not sound the final ge in .jargeu a,-' I'll
as separate syllable, so he adds an . oIS
IuakeS IL Iargee. similar disabiIit,,
eAlsts 70 pronounce under certain circun;,
stances, dependent on the initial 60,
following them, words ending in : ~
th' m, n, and V, which in like man.
have ee or added to them ava =
frequently take see, want, bacorI1iAN
wanIsee There is no apparent reaen6
Tor this latter popularity. unless it NAV h
reIefred TO haolt, arising from the con.
S SuanU recurrence OF the is sound in all
ChlneSe dialects Analogy gives the fDai
ee so many words ending in b and b'lt
they present no difficulty to the notiI.
speaker as pure finals. The letter p ieaL
solutely unprOnounceabl BILE either as initjaI
or medal to the southern Chinaman ana
IS avoided as final when possible in
stflKlng contradiction to the mandarin
speaking portion of the empire In
Picking almost every word is canabIe -
taking final sound by addin,
to or Gliding its primitive ternina7
AS specimens of merely adulterated
English may mention allo for all cbilIo
for child, facey for face or Character
lnk-e-lee for English, kumpat-o for com,
prador and so on. But one becomes puz.
zled at such renderings as put-lut-ta for
brother, hassu-man for husband, or sba-
man for servant. OF compound words
we may quote bull-chilo and cow-chilo for
| boy aud girl; allo polpa for quite riobt
! joss gidgin man of heaven pidgin man for
missionary, and looksee pidgin for osten.
tation or hypocrisy, while anybody rem.
TED TO be cracked IS described as one
who ''hab got water top side!"
1t will be readily understood that. time
transmogritied, English as spoken by ma.
tlVes at the China ports becomes a iargon
rescued only from contempt by the fixed
rules under which it is constructed and
the illustration it affords of Chinese
ldioms. Many words of common use are
OF Portuguese or Malay origin, while a
phrases add to its poIvrIos
character. Some words, again. are
neither English, Chinese nor anvtbins
but pldgln and their derivation cannot he
ascertained. Such are maskee, which
signifies never mind; chin-chin. for
"how do you do or ''good-by," ''to com.
pliment," etc The latter phrase is NOT
as commonly supposed, Chinese. There
is phrase, tsing Using, meaning eff Won
please" but it is never used in the sense
OF the modern chln-chin, and the natives
believe the latter to be pure English.
NOT LIKELY To DIE.
One of the most curious pidgin words
is an eXcrescence pronounced ga-lah. II
has no Specification, and is simply added
to word or sentence to round it off.
Chinaman will thus say, My wantsee 20
topside ga-lah, " for Il shall be going m.
stairs, y or uptown The origin of this
queer word is found in Chinese colloouiaL
Each dialect has certain empty sounds
as the syllables are appropriately
named, which are affixed to the
ends of sentences to satisfy certain
laws of rhythm, and the commonest Of
these is ko-lo or ko-la, which has easily
changed into ga-lah. We must not omit
to mention word which is Of constant
use and without which Chinaman quite
breaks down in the simplest phrases-the
word ''piecey" This represents what is
termed the "classiier," which in Chinese
colloquial precedes most substantives. and
to which close analogy is shown by
such words as orang, buah, biji, etc, in
Malay. AS Chinese however, possesses
some seventy-tive of these useful words
there is no need to look beyond it for the
derivation of their pidgin equivalent
Although pidgin English seems, when
first heard by an unaccustomed stranger
TO be as difficult as a real foreign Ian.
guage, its inverted construction and Gu.
rious INSTRUMENTATION are very easily &C.
qulred, and it therefore continues in ex-
tensive use. The question is often asked:
VIII pidgin English die out2 In the
opinion of the writer this is extremely
unlikely for many years to come. The
acquisition of Chinese will always be a
speciality on the part of Europeans, it be-
ing extremely difficult. while, although the
well-to-do natives are now turning their
attention to European languages (which
they master for cOllOquial purposes very
thoroughly, the enormous lower class OF
coolies and artisans will continue to pre-.
fer the easier pidgin; which, as we have
shown, has some pretensions to be called
language. 1t is not impossible that in &
future centuries somewhat less uncouth
mixture of English and Chinese may be
the milk language of celestial children,
Ihey are even now the two languages OF *
the world, Chinese in one form or another
being spoken by 400, 900, 600 of people, and ~
English being the next for wide use.
Madge-She never reads anything but
fiction, l am sure2
Clara see her every morning study
ing the newspaper with great interest.
Madge-Of course, but it's the write-up
OF herself in the society column.-Chicago
Inter Ocean.
Mrs, Spatz TO her husband You
never agree with me about ANYTHING
Why don't you2 (Sobbing) I believe
you hate me! You do-you know you dol
N-now. don't youl
MIR. Spatz-Nonsense! My love, Of
course 1 don't.
Mrs. Spatz-There! That proves it! |
said you never agreed with me- Boo
hoo?-Chicago Record
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TIERS.
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