CHINESE PIDGIN ENGLISH

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 got its start in Canton, China, after the British established their first trading post 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 is commonly said to be a corruption of the English word business.) It 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 is 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 "There is rain coming down"; Tumolo mai no kan kum "Tomorrow I can't come"; and Mai no hab kachi basket "I didn't bring a basket."