The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-14
Pidgin En- Glish.
From the London Globe.


When tie Germans took possession or
Kiao-Chou the attitude of the native Chi
nese on the matter was thus expresseh
by one of them: 80 fashion. This Khiao-
Chau pldgin no b'longee my pidgin, b'lon-
gee government pidgiu. My no care. My
pidgin b'long wool pidgin suppose Ter
man no bubberee me, b'long my all same
same What fashion can bubberee my
nidein7 No can Suppose Chinaman can
INV can sell. can makee squeeze pidgin,
can rnakee cumshah, so fashion can DO.
eunnose German wanchee squeeze, want
sbee bubberee Chinaman, so fashion no
can do" This remark will serve TWO pur-
,oscs II will afford the English reader
Fair notion of the attitude or pniloSoph'-
cal Indifference assumed by the aVerase
C,hinamau of the better class as 70 inc
POLITICAL affairs Of his country so lohs as
his GUN business interests are not mem
~ -. o,a q will. serve as a fair specimen
80 tha curious-almost noadescript-Vehi-
~, ~ communication between the Celes-
tia,s and those foreigners with Wnoih
tha,, are brought INTO contact. Ana "heh
7 exnlain that ''pidgin" rspres ems the ma
,,ye.s hest attempt to pronounce the hns
Itch word busineS IS and thai puppTee
r,aans trouble or disturbance the host
unsonhisticafed reader VIII prooapiy IN
ssta,,d 70 the full the meaning OF the
uers.n ,1 7 have quoted. The language Is
,o.,o,.al all found the coast and Is spoken
e..,-here. In fact, where foreigners ana
lice. meet in the interior as Wei as AT
~ coastal treaty PORTS. II IS not nihcui'
- ,oouire. especially for an EnghShInah
aIthoueh a foreign word has peen
,,cornoreted here and there me PACK
hore az the lingo Is essentially Ehgnsn'
Tha genesis of the speech VIII pe rear
az, understood The foreigners VINO irs'
settled at the Hong hao Tar ~
"a Gar fewer facilities than traders now
an , -. ,or learning the dialect Of the peo-
Ter whom they bargained. The chi
r. wbether from keener desire 10
A. hus,ness or from their natural qulcN-
n,+tedness. or both, picked up more eng
IIsb words and phrases than the Dnghsh
ala chinese. and in this way It happens
.hat the substratum of the tongue pe-
came English. Starting from THIS OASIS
the shopmen came In the enh 10 iorth
,,nca hularies OF words obtained from their
.',sto,oars and expressed the sounds as
oearIv as possible. They committed them
10 memory and formed them into SEN
.ences according 10 the idioms or their
own Language, disregarding all our inhec-
ttons IN which they had no instruction.
Thus the two parties gradually grew 20
understand each other Wen enough TOT al
practical ends. The foreigners were rath-
or nleased to talk broken Chinese" as
II was called. and habit soon made IL
natural to a newcomer to talk 1t 20 the
natives. The great advantage which 1t
nossessed in their eyes was that II OBJ
GATED all necessity for studying Chinese.
The body Of the jargon, as ! have shown,
,s English. the few Chinese, Hindustanee,
Portuguese. and Malay words scattered
here and there. impartiqg certain racin-
ness which. with the hovelty of the ex-
nresslons. makes the new Language" sin
gulariy interesting
The Celestial does his best TO bring his
conversation into line, as II were, with
that of the foreigner to whom ne is speak
ing. But he Is completely Ignorant OF
English syntactica forms. He cannot ap-
preciate the nlcetles OF our idioms, and
though he speaks In another language he
persists IN thinking in his own. Thus IL
is t1at. 10 his mind. no sentence is COM
pese nnless and until II contains the same
number Of words expressed In much the
same idio,ns AZ las equivalent In his own
tongue. II is awkward at first. no doubt
but a short residence in the country Will
render familiar not few things connected
with "pldgin" and itg peculiaritles whlsn