The average Englishman who is only acquainted with this humorous jargon from the clever impersonations of Chinamen by Mr. Huntley Wright and others of our leading musical comedy actors, will scarcely credit the fact that "pidgin English" is a language of its own used by hundreds of our fellow-countrymen and other foreign devils" as a medium through which to -transact business with the wily celestial in the treaty ports of China. Yet it is so, and a study of its expressions and the derivations thereof is both interesting and amusi "Pidgin " means ' business," hence the term " pidgin English " or business English." How this particular word esme into vogue is an utter mystery, no plausible derivation being possible. "Chop chop—hurry up" and' bobbery—angry are other common expressions which are incapable of having their origin traced to any known language, save perhaps that mysterious tongue in which mothers are wont to address their babes. Some of the words used are naturally Chinese, as "man man—wait a bit," chow chow—food and chin chin—greeting," always duplicated; while others come from foreign Janguager, "s " maskee—never mind " from the Portuguese, savvy—know " from the French and '"kumsha~a present" from the Japanese. Again we find two or three words brought over by the East India merchants who were the first We to do business in China; notably o-called because the original traders in India had to guard their merchandigo by storing it in subterranean vaults and perforce bad to go down to grt at it, while "chit—a letter" and " tifin—luncheon" are from the Hindustani. But, of the bulk of the words in use is English, though often so grotesquely varied in form and meaning as to be moarealy recognisable. For instance ''cold" an "old" are rendered by "colo" and ole "ole custom" is a very favourite phrase with the conservative chinaman, and usually his strongest argument against foreign innovations is "no belong ole custom."
Too" ix always used instead of " very, a Celestial says "too muchee" he very much." Thus, on seeing the of the Municipal Council for one of the foreign Settlements com" out of their chamber after n prolonged meeting, a Chinaman was herd to remark "Hi Yah! too muchee talked" unconsciously taking in the exact situation. ' Hi Yah!" isa very frequent exclamation, and made to convey anything from surprise to disgust by the tone in which it is spoken. For the first person "my" is always used, never "I" or mp," while "you" and "he" are the only words ever usot respectively. for the sozinnd and third. The auxili sry verb "to be" is invariably rendered in all its parts by "belong." Once the writer asked a sick Celestial how he felt, and got the reply "inside belong too muchee hot," a rather apt description of the effect of a little too free indulgence in the opium pipe.
Another curious technicality of "pidgin English" is the use of the word "so" instead of "that" as an adverb. "My think so you no wanchee this fashion pidgin" is how a Chinaman would say "T don't think that you want this kind of business." The only negative used is "no," never not." When one calls on a lady in China the "boy" answers the bell and you demand Missisee have got?" to which he either replies "have Boglish "at-home" or not at home, cot" or "no gob" meaning in up to dat though he occasionally varies the no got" by "have go out." Ladies, no doubt, can fully appreciate the subtle difference of the two phrases. The words ' who?" "what?" "how?" are never used by themselves, but are always qualified as "who man? what thing? fashion ' Fashion" means "kind" or "sort." the degrees of compari more" invariably forms the comparative, while t.e expression "number one" is as much of " superlative as the phlegmatic Chinese mind can arrive at; "more better," "more large," "more cheap" and "number one good," number one large," " number one cheap" are familiar examples.
_A missionary is described s a "joss pidgin man," a joss being a Chinese god, and a bishop as a "number one top-an sichbishop came along what title he side joss pidgin man." "One, wonders if would obtain in pidgin Englial Some of the quaintest expressions in this extraordinary language are or obtain," "xn do—all exn do—impossible," " pay—give," side, downside—upstairs, downstairs,' used for Paradise Pattee book ud Hades.
"puttes soup," "plenty face—digni-"no got." face—undignified, il'um—break" and' plenty," ""Targee," " little," "all same," "suppose," "just now," "look see," "must wanchee make die," which explain themselves.
speaking of morning or evening one says "morning time" or "night "yesterday ® is "last day" which is also a Scotch idiom, and similarly next d morrow." Any time" is their peculiar rendering of *alwa; while "never" is translated by "any time no." The name of a place, too, always followed by "as "home sid which from frequent intercourse wi igners a Chinaman cals Eureps, or "Japan side." When you start to go anywhere you " walkee," whether you are ing by road, rail or sea, It sounds fanny to be asked what time that ship can walkee' Can is used in this sense as expressing the future tense which is always formed in this way, as is the past by substituting have." a' Celestial calls wild duck a "flyaway duck" while he describes the domestic variety as a " walkee walkee duck." The Chinese boy," as one's personal servant is dubbed in the Far East often expresses himself in an extremely curious manner. Once, in a bachelor's mess, a large crab, a great delicacy, appeared on the dinner table but with only one claw. As the claws are the tit bits one of the diners pointe! out this defect to the hoy, who replied "my look see before time make boil that clab no got other hand!" A Chinaman can never pronounce an rand nearly always takes refuge in the letter 1.
Although the "pidgin English" voeablary is necessarily a very limited one the Yeute Celestial is s-idem at a loss for a word, and contrary to his custom when speaking his own flowery language usually manages to express himself both suvcinetly and laconically, a habit, which, unfortunately, his Westera contemporaries do not always share with him.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.