Chinese Pidgin English (Cantonese: 廣東番話) (also called Chinese Coastal English,Ansaldo, Umberto, Stephen Matthews, and Geoff Smith. "China Coast Pidgin: texts and contexts." Journal of Pidgin and Creole languages 25.1 (2010): 63–94. Pigeon English, or China Coast Pidgin) was a pidgin language lexically based on English, but influenced by a Chinese substratum. 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 a number of varieties of Chinese with variants arising among different provinces (for example in Shanghai and Ningbo).
History The English language first arrived in China in the 1630s, when English traders arrived in South China. Chinese Pidgin English was spoken first in the areas of Macao and Guangzhou (City of Canton), later spreading north to Shanghai by the 1830s.Yamuna Kachru and Cecil L. Nelson, World Englishes in Asian Contexts. Hong Kong University Press, 2006. "Yangjing Bang English" () 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); Yangjing Bang has since been filled in and is now the eastern part of Yan'an Road, the main east–west artery of central Shanghai.
Historically, it was a modified form of English developed in the 17th century for use as a trade language or lingua franca between the English and the Chinese. Chinese Pidgin started in Guangzhou, China, after the English established their first trading port there in 1699. Pidgin English is a mutual linguistic project developed between Chinese and foreign traders. Specifically, it arose under the sociopolitical circumstances where the Qing empire only allowed limited contact between foreign English trade agents and Chinese "Hong" guild traders. Though Chinese Pidgin English only identifies English as its lexifier language, the prior contact of the Portuguese with Canton in 1557 established a prototypical jargon. This Chinese-Portuguese jargon eventually developed into pidgin English as the number English traders rose while Portuguese traders declined. The term "pidgin" itself is believed by some etymologists to be a mispronunciation of the English word "business" by the Chinese .
Chinese Pidgin English began to decline in the late 19th century. Multiple reasons caused its decline. One reason is the common association of Chinese Pidgin English to the low social status of Chinese servants in comparison to their English-speaking masters. After the Second Opium War, the influx of English traders and resources to learn English encouraged the Chinese to acquire standard English. This process was further catalyzed by cosmopolitanism and concurrently English-Chinese bilingualism in Hong Kong, and displacement of the original community after World War II. Concurrently, the introduction of standard English education in the country's education system further discouraged the acquisition of Chinese Pidgin English.McArthur, Tom. (2002). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. hardback, paperback.
Chinese Pidgin English spread to regions beyond the Chinese Coast. Many attestations of the language being spoken come from writings of Western travelers in China. Among these are scattered reports of the pidgin being spoken farther inland, such as in Chungking (Chongqing) and Hankow (Hankou), and farther north, in Kyong Song (Seoul) and even Vladivostok.Baker, Philip, and Peter Mühlhäusler. "From business to pidgin." Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 1.1 (1990): 111 Chinese Pidgin English was also taken beyond Asia: the large numbers of speakers in Nauru influenced the shaping of Nauruan Pidgin English,Kim, Ronald I. "California Chinese Pidgin English and its historical connections: Preliminary remarks." Journal of Pidgin and Creole languages 23.2 (2008). and there is evidence that it was also taken to Australia, where it altered due to the influence of Australian English and other pidgins.Siegel, Jeff. "Chinese Pidgin English in Southeastern Australia: The notebook of Jong Ah Siug" Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 24.2, (2009): It is also reported to have been spoken in Singapore and Java.Baker and Mühlhäusler 1990: 111.
Kim (2008) says that there is debate among linguists, including Baker, Mühlhäusler, and himself, about whether or not CPE was taken to California by 19th century immigrants. Many features present in California Chinese Pidgin English overlap with features of CPE, but also overlap with many other pidgins. Furthermore, some diagnostic features of CPE are missing or different from California Chinese Pidgin English. On the other hand, because many migrants came from the Canton province in China, where CPE was relatively well-known, it is likely that many migrants to the United States from China had knowledge of the pidgin. At the very least, it is clear that California Chinese Pidgin English should be treated as a distinct variety from CPE as spoken in Coastal China, because it has morphological and syntactic features not found in CPE.Kim 2008: 329–339.
Phonology Robert Hall (1944) gives the following phonemic inventory:
+ ConsonantsConsonantsLabialDentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarGlottalNasalmnŋPlosivep bt dk gAffricatet̠͡ʃ d̠͡ʒFricativef vθ ðs zʃ ʒhApproximantwlɹ̠j(w)
+Vowels VowelsFrontCentralBackCloseiuNear closeɪʊClose mideəoOpen MidɛɔNear OpenæOpena
Native speakers of English use this inventory. Because most lexical items in CPE are derived from English, native English speakers simply use the pronunciation familiar to them. For non-native English speakers, who were largely Cantonese speakers, [v, θ, ð, r, ʃ, ʒ] are not present, because these sounds are not present in Cantonese.Hall, Robert A. "Chinese Pidgin English grammar and texts." Journal of the American Oriental Society (1944): 96
Hall also describes a few morphophonemic alterations. Many verbs ending in consonants may optionally add a vowel, as in [tek(i)] 'to take' and [slip(a)] 'to sleep'. Words ending in [r] and [l], and sometimes [d], optionally omit the final consonant, as in [litə(l)] 'little' and [mo(r)] 'more'. Certain stems also frequently lose their final consonant when before certain suffixes, as in [hwat] 'what?' ([hwasajd] 'where?', [hwatajm] 'when?', [hwafæʃan] 'how?'), [ðæt] 'that' ([ðæsajd] 'there'), [awt] 'out' ([awsajd] 'outside').Hall 1944: 96
Baker and Mühlhäusler point out that Hall's data was taken entirely from native speakers of English, several decades after CPE was widely used. For this reason, they are skeptical of the data presented.Baker and Mühlhäusler 1990: 90 Nonetheless, their own presentation of phonology in CPE is largely the same as Hall's. They state that [s] and [ʃ] were not phonemically contrastive for Cantonese speakers. Words ending in [f] in English often had an added [o] as in thiefo. Aside from these additions, Baker and Mühlhäusler have few revisions to make to the phonological claims Hall made.Baker and Mühlhäusler 1990: 97–98
Morphology and syntax
Constructions in Chinese Pidgin English, both at the phrase level and sentence level, vary widely in taking English or Chinese structure. Generally speaking, pidgin languages have isolating morphology and so do not inflect nouns and verbs; CPE is no exception. Some morphological and syntactic phenomena, which frequently appear in linguistic literature, are listed below.
Pronouns SubjectObjectIndependent PronounsAdnominal Possessives1sgmy, I, memy, memymy2sgyouyouyouyou, your3sghe, she, ithe/him, she/her, ithe/him, she/herhe/his, she/her1plweus2plyouyouyouyou, your3plhe, theyhe, themhehe Prior to 1800, pronouns conformed largely to British and American English paradigms. Over time, my came to be the only first person singular pronoun in CPE, replacing both I and me. He was used for subject and non-subject referents alike (Baker and Mühlhäusler 1990: 104). Plural pronouns were expressed as in English by native English speakers;Hall 1944: 97 there is too little data from native Cantonese speakers to determine if they pluralized pronouns.Baker and Mühlhäusler 1990: 104
Topic–comment In CPE, once a noun has been explicitly stated, it does not need to be stated again in following sentences where that item would normally be found. This means that in a given sentence, the subject or object may be omitted. In the example below, "very poor people" is the subject for the following clauses, although they do not explicitly state it. "This have very poor place and very poor people: no got cloaths, no got rice, no got hog, no got nothing; only yam, little fish, and cocoa-nut; no got nothing make trade, very little make eat."Keate, 1788; quoted in Baker and Mühlhäusler 1990: 100 The omitted noun may also be loosely related to the predicate, rather than a subject or object. In the sentence below, meaning "He won't sell at that price", the omitted "that pricee" is neither a subject nor an object. "[that pricee] he no sellum"Instructor IV.77; quoted in Ansaldo et al. 2010: 88
Copula A word derived from English have was the usual copula in CPE until 1830. It usually appears as hab or hap. Belong is also used. After 1830 it became most common to omit the copula entirely.Baker & Mühlhäusler 1990: 103 "Chinese man very great rogue truly, but have fashion, no can help." ("Chinese men are real rogues but that's how it is, can't help it.")Anonymous 1748; quoted in Baker & Mühlhäusler 1990: 103
Piece/piecee This lexical item seems to have been an influence of Cantonese grammar on CPE. Cantonese uses classifiers on nouns described by a number or demonstrative. The word piecee is used where Cantonese would expect a classifier. Chop is another classifier, used only in demonstrative constructions.Ansaldo et al. 2010: 81 Places where Cantonese does not use a classifier, as with the words for "year" and "dollar", likewise do not have a classifier in CPE.Baker & Mühlhäusler 1990: 101 "You wantchee catchee one piecee lawyer." "You will have to engage a lawyer."Instructor IV.32; quoted in Ansaldo et al. 2010: 81 "Thisee chop tea what name?" "What is the name of this tea?"Instructor VI. 15; quoted in Ansaldo et al. 2010: 81
Lexicon The majority of the words used in CPE are derived from English, with influences from Portuguese, Cantonese, Malay, and Hindi.
: fetch (English catch) : westerner (Cantonese 番鬼) : God (Portuguese ) : business (English) : to know (Portuguese ) : supercargo (Cantonese 大班) : extremely (English too much)Ansaldo et al. 2010: 80
Influence on English
Certain expressions from Chinese English Pidgin have made their way into colloquial English as calques. The following is a list of English expressions which may have been influenced by Chinese. long time no see Similar to the Mandarin phrase hao jiu bu jian () and the Cantonese phrase , meaning "haven't seen [you] in a long time", further meaning "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."Oxford English Dictionary, long time no see look-see ( ) This phrase is attributed to Chinese Pidgin English by the Oxford English dictionary.Oxford English Dictionary, look-see No this no that