Chinese Pidgin English
Encyclopedia
Chinese Pidgin English 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 is heavily influenced by various Chinese languages with variants arising among different provinces (for example in Shanghai
and Ningbo
).
A separate Chinese Pidgin English has sprung up in more recent decades in places such as Nauru
.
and Guangzhou
, later spreading north to Shanghai by the 1830s. "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).
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. 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. English language teaching has been widespread throughout modern Chinese history- it was made the country's main foreign language in 1982.
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 rening kum daun (Have got raining come down) “There is rain coming down”; Tumoro 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.”
. The following is a list of English expressions which may have been influenced by Chinese.
No ____, no ____ predates the origin of Chinese Pidgin English, but is also a notable example of fabricated pidgin English:( ) 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.
of Taihu
Wu Chinese, which arose from the Shanghai variant of Chinese Pidgin English.
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
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
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Chinese Pidgin English is heavily influenced by various Chinese languages with variants arising among different provinces (for example in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
).
A separate Chinese Pidgin English has sprung up in more recent decades in places such as Nauru
Nauru
Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
.
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 MacaoMação
Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....
and Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, later spreading north to Shanghai by the 1830s. "Yangjing Bang English" in Chinese (洋涇濱, or 洋泾浜) derives from the name of a former creek in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
near the Bund
The Bund
The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District...
where local workers communicated with English-speaking foreigners in pidgin (broken English).
Historically, it was a modified form of English developed in the 17th century for use as a trade language or lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
between the British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
and the Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
. Chinese Pidgin started in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
(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
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
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. 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
Standard English
Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country...
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. English language teaching has been widespread throughout modern Chinese history- it was made the country's main foreign language in 1982.
Features
Chinese Pidgin English was based on a vocabulary of about 700 English words, with a small number of words from other sources. GrammarGrammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
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 rening kum daun (Have got raining come down) “There is rain coming down”; Tumoro 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.”
Influence on English
Certain expressions from Chinese English Pidgin may have made their way into colloquial English, a process called CalqueCalque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
. The following is a list of English expressions which may have been influenced by Chinese.
- long time no seeLong Time No See"Long time no see" is an English expression used as a greeting by people who have not seen each other for a while.Long time no see may also refer to:* Long Time No See , an album by Chico De Barge...
is similar to the Mandarin phrase, meaning "haven't seen [you] in a long time") and 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"). The Oxford English Dictionary states that "long time no see" originated in the United States as "a jocular imitation of broken English." . - look-see This phrase is attributed to Chinese pidgin English by the Oxford English dictionary.
- lose face
- no can do Also the imperative "do not attempt to do!".
- no-go Also "the latest attempt failed" often used to describe some early space program efforts. No-go areaNo-go areaA no-go area or no-go zone is a region where the ruling authorities have lost control and are unable to enforce the rule of law.-Rhodesia:The term 'no-go area' has a military origin and was first used in the context of the Bush War in Rhodesia...
means forbidden place. - where-to? Also driver asking passenger "where do you want me to take you?".
- No this no that
No ____, no ____ predates the origin of Chinese Pidgin English, but is also a notable example of fabricated pidgin English:( ) 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.
Influence on Shanghainese
English is well known for being the primary source of loan words in Shanghai dialect, a dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
of Taihu
Taihu Wu dialects
Taihu Wu dialects , or Northern Wu dialects , are a group of Wu dialects spoken over much of southern part of Jiangsu province, including Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, the southern part of Nantong, Jingjiang and Danyang; the municipality of Shanghai; and the northern part of Zhejiang province, including...
Wu Chinese, which arose from the Shanghai variant of Chinese Pidgin English.
See also
- PidginPidginA pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
- Mixed languageMixed languageA mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
- Lingua francaLingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
- Chinese-Ordered EnglishChinese-Ordered EnglishChinese-ordered English is the use of English words to represent the meaning of Chinese phrases and sentences that maintains the word order of the original Chinese....
- ChinglishChinglishChinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language. The term "Chinglish" is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations, reflecting the attitudes of those who apply...