PIDGIN LANGUAGES
Robert Wallace
Thompson
by
THE :beginnings of pulgin
THE
to
English by people belonging to certain occupations in Hongkong. are obvious, They may often hear griffin "housewives be seen when the Parisian speak a sort of baby-talk agent de police speaks to their omahe, the latter replying the Englishman In the in- in quite respectable Pidgin,
If the first stage in the fornia- finitive, "prendre metro el tion of a Plugin dialect consists descendre station..." They of the simplification of the lan- were seen when European guage of one speaker and of the overseers gave their first use of this simplified tongue,
and its embellishment by an orders to Africans of many other and the second the accept- tribal origin in the plants ance by number of individuals tions of the New World in of the kind of speech as a the 17th and 18th centuries convenient vehicle for the ex-
thunge of ideas, und when the raw alaves tried to speak to their mas- ero or to each other.'.
the
ac-
They were even when "Bounty" mutineers got quainted with their Rolynesian wives on Filcain and when the blackbirders roamed Melanesia in search of hardy labour for North Queensland. The pidgin dialects of the China const arose in much the summe way and wore encouraged by the Imperiat de- crees which forbade the teach ing of the Celestial language to the outer borbarians. It seems too that many Chinese officials delighted in using what to them was a mutilated form of the foreign devils speech.
The Start
A general process which can be postalated for the genesis of alt pidgin dialects is the deliber- ate simplification of a linguage, generally that of a trader, in-
the Third procesa pusets beyond the Imits of piginisation and enters the phase of 'frank creolisation. That le, children begin to speak the contsel jargon as their native language.
up these
Pro- cesses as follows: (1) A speaks a modifirch version of his own language to B and B co-operates.
We can qum
(2) A's and B's compatriots fin
I convenient to use this "neutral" language to con- VETEL.
(3) B's compatriots (sometimes
married to or descended from A and his compatriots) begin to speak the Jorgon
Kulit by Jols of A's und 3's
as their mother tongue. The
Jequ thun becomes Ł "normal" language.
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY
1958.
JAK AT THE FESTIVAL HALL
ARTISTS
ROYAL MEDIAL SAH SATURDAY APRIL 26-
LONDON PHILKARMINIC ORCHESTRA
--
SATURDAY
JAZZ
MILK BOL
CRIS BURAK
KĀRT LICIM FAL
E
"Once, and for all, you're on NEXT Saturday, and we can't aqueoze King Kong Rack' in between
Mozart's Third and fourth Movements."
Cook's officer discussing TROM RAGS TO RICHES:
'ond
Our French paliceman add- resdug the Englishman or 'Cap- fin
Australian with kangaroos Aborigines are cases of (1).
China Const Pidgin, Bazaar vader or slave-owner. In order Mainy, Neo-Melanesion
of the to simplify, speakers tend to Chinook are examples cast aside all but the most "neutral" languages mentioned essential inflections; tensen, I in (2). his language has them oflen go, - see him yesterday, I are him today, I see murrow make quite
lol
the
of
West
London 2012 Borutom
A Few Years
Million In A Few She Spent £6
Yet She Begged On The
B
EAUTY and charm were the only assets of Jeanne Becu, daughter of a humble French яempstress. She Eng grew up in the lowliept of circumstances, As a child she as structure reming one of the--had to beg on the streets for bread.
of pidginalion. vimplification Perhaps, the symbiosis of Scan- and Saxons in the Danelow. and the Norman in- vosions are responsible.
"
Re-pidginised
assets were
But those two dulte sufficient to take her from rags to riches, They captured! the hears and opened the purse of a King.
They brought her the title of Comtesse and made her the richest, most celebrated woman in all-France.
Jeanne Beeu became one of the outstanding figures of 18th century French history. But she la remembered by a different name as the fabulous Madame du Barry, lost of the lett-trand queens of France."
tendant.
Becu that Jeanne caught the eye of a middle-aged hanger-on at the French Court
med du Barry. Du Botry, who called himself a count but was known as The Reu" by his friends anade a living by introducing pretty- women to his wealthy associates
Fateful day
11
Streets As A Child
By JOHN COTTRELL
the King." She was the one herself and her riches, by offering
him really £3,000 69 reward for-its- woman who made
recovery.
The thieves, she was told, had escaped to England, Sc Madame du Barry set off after, them--- and gave her enemies the chance of branding her as on escaping
hajipy'.
The King never tired of har ts he did of his other mistresses. With her light hearted, witty chatter, she kept him constantly amused and litted him out of the dark noods to which he was aristocrat co susceptible;
She made four visits to Lon- Although she -WAS witty, don. On returning from the Jeanne never spoke maliciously last of them in 1793, the Revolu
others tionaries accused her of working of anyone, whatever might say about her. Her hard with anti-Revolutionary agents and humble upisinglag bad in England. taught her that it never pays to make an enemy-especially an enemy in high places."
Amongst the "normal" lan pures defined in (3) are the him to French Creole dialects of the New World and the Indian of sense. In "shnplifying" must Deeun, West Indian and speakers tend to use the langu- African. English Creole dialects, age one employs when talking Pitcairnese and the many creo- 10 11 small chilla
1sed Portuguese dialect of Hence
Muloydla und of 'pidgin Africa, India, superficial similarity
China speech to baby-talk.
Certain features to whom the The person simplified language is addressed learns quickly fend muy well cdd, often quite umkatentionally. fentures from his own native dinavians speech habits. Bo in certain West African Pidgins and in mary dialects spoken south of the Mason-Dixon line u Bound replaces a Y sound as in the nut 100 uuthentic "Way down upon
Suwanie Ribbah," "Ply lice" Most of the mixed languages for fried rice in Anglo-Chinese that we have considered arose xample ond is the from contouts between Euro- Sanny Fatry pens and non-Europeans in the English soldier's Ann" for Ca ne falt rien' or first instance, though of course, "Bonjour, plven the right circumstances i "Bong Jewl for
English new plógia may develop at may where nice homely Rounds are substituted for the time when two peoples meet. Chinese Cars of pidginised outlandish French nasals.
Then, one fateful day in The learner's speech, habits have been reported among some What was the secret of her us, '25-year-old Jeanne met
peoples of
extraordinary Fuccess? How are not confined to sounds but of the non-Han
This young girl who had never could a woman of such humble the King of France. It was Include syntax and some of this Western China.
There was not shred of spent lavishly top is carried over Inlo the new
European pidgins were well urigin win and keep a post the moment du Barry had long.
awaited. He had shrewdly known luxury,
She bought evidence to support the trumped. Think of known in the Mediterranean of tion so close to King Louis XV type of language.
guessed that Louis would foll for but tastefully
Madame du Rembrand and up charge. But of France? Anglo-Irish throughother, we're the Middle Ages and of these a
Jeanne. Through her, he hoped paintings by
Van Dyke, und surrounded Barry was arrested, thrown into after seeing him, he beg here in Pidgin Provencal, Sably is one
It was Jemuie's beauty which to gain more power at Court. Mollereį
herself with beautiful things. a prison cell, and, after a farce. the mornings, where the Gaells of the best known.
first attracted the attention of Louis was indeed infatuated.
cf a trial, condemned to death- substratum sticks out a mile. So, takes off this kind of lingus
Jewelled clocks, magnificent a sentence which
was to be In Chin Count Plugia the Chin- franca in "Le Bourgeols Genill- Louts and he soon become out But there was one majer im clothes, and the finest porcelain carried out within 24 hours. cre classifiers are still repre- home." It is probable that the pletely Infatuated with her. But
to push down there were plenty of women pediment to Jeanne's becoming
By his favourite. unwritten in Europe were. delivered to her sented by the numeral suffix Arst Portuguese
in Versailles and the The former King's favourite, pisl as in wanplai man, a man, the coast of Afrien had the pat- just as beautiful in France and law, the King's mistress had 10 suite
old but sl chateau at Luciennes
60 years which now terns of a Mediterranean plaginthey were all at his disposal, Le married-and titled.
beautiful, wall tili, a tree.
was terror-stricken, Louts had given her. in their minds when they first
She pleaded with her captors, Du Barry himself could not
Within a few years her, ex- offered to tell them where all marry her; he already had
His brother, the elderly penditure reached the staggering her fabulous jewellery and gold total of £0,000,000. In addi- end silver plate were hidden, if "Count" Guillaume du Barry, was available, however, and, liun, she had calates, pensions only they would release her," really agreed to encrifice his und Crown properties showered
She revealed the biding-place, but succeeded in adding only u bachelor status when he learned upon her by the King..
At the same time, Jeanne did few more hours to her life. he would be suitably rewarded...
She her family:
At six o'clock, on a dull ́established her mother In com-
and
The expressloh hu got, there
What really kept Jeanne Becu Is, there are, is more complie made contacts with the inhabit ]!
antits of the Cape Verde Islands in his favour until the day he nted since, although it le
even seems died was her very special brand Nigritia. It perfect translation of the Can- and toncse (ond general Chinese) probable that the jargon which of charm. He loved her for her phrase, It may be reinforced by arose from these first contacts good-naturedness and, most: uf the Macanese and Pidgin Por- became the native language, of all, for her unusual frankness. tuguese ten whle means the Christian nutives or the
She genuinely wanted to either hove or there -19.' there Europranised mulatto offspring
please the King. But unlike the in of the explorers, traders are, This eonstruction is
other courtesans who surround- eldentally command to the stand clergy and served in its turn os
ed Louis XV she did not cringe a pattern for the pluginisation ard Romance languages and is
where
and fawn for the King's favour. frequent, in the créole dialects of Portugurse in India
And unlike so many royal mis- ap- Indies. A Trini ercole dialects, eventually of the West dadion, speaking of a local dance, peared in Bombay, Goa, Daman, tresses before her, she had no wish to meddle in important once said to me "It had a lot of Diu, Bengal and later, further lo
political affairs. pretty girls there last night."
the east, in Malaces, Java, Singa- pore und Macao, and, in the last hundret odd years, at Hongkong and Stonghal.
The Creol
The Maeno dialect was used we have Once the processes described have taken place be extensively of Canton and re- In- pidginised, by Chinese speakers. number of tween a large dividuals, perhaps, for years, the It is possible that to some ex- new contact vernacular that is tent il sel the pattern for the so formed takes on a relatively Pigin English of the Pearl River stable Vocabulary, structure and Estuary. Here, we are; in diff- pronuitelation,
consistent culties, since many of the For- to make enough
communica- tuguese lexical elements to tion possible, Such a language found. In China. Coast Pidgin may be no one's native longu exist in Indo-Portuguese age. Yet it may be widely leamt Anglo-bidlan
ull
bu
and
East India
and may have and used for dealings between been brought to these parts by What was derlaively peoples of widely different way of
known as John Company Eng speech.
Such is Neo-Melanesing, which lish a century ago, the reference had taken such a foothold as the being to the language used by linguo tranet of New Guinea employees of the and the Splohon Islands Such Calapany when speaking to the the idhultants of the sub-continent. wad China Coast Pidgin in
Readers will lind an unusing days of the Cunion factories and the Treaty Ports, when Chihse somewhat spurious collection Leland's and Europeana -traded and oven of pidgin verse in when Chinese from different Pidgin English Sing Songs, regions.conversed together. The copies of which are still knock very word pidgin is said to be ing about Hongkong. The more night consult early pluginisation of English serious amateur -Business. Though China Coast R. A. Hall, Jr., Chinese Pidgin and Texts, Pidgin has lost some of its vigour English Grammar through lack of use, by educated Journal of the Amerleun Orient- LXVIV, pp.03-113. Chinese and by the disappear al Society, ance of the conditions that one Better skill, let him buy a note prevalled in its former strong book and make, his own gram- holds. I believe that it is stili, mår trom the phrases of Pidgin widely learnt a short-out to he hears from day to day.
This article begins a regular weekly feature on Hongkong Pidgin . words you know and words you don't,
wiłę.
Condemned to death
Louis provided Jeanne with a not neglect trousseau and a valuable dowry, and the bridegroom, who was fort for the rest of her life and morning in November, 1703, the forced into the tumbrit that was ilyes, after, tho
to take her on her last journey obliged to leave his beautiful vided handsomoly for rela- immortal Madame du Barry was. bride immediately. wedding ceremony, had the As for du Borry, ""The Rose," to the guillotino,
prollt promise of a handsome pensioni. he reaped a handsome
from his shrewd. Investment, In that rattling cart, she was Jeanne feminine,
a gay exuberant Within a month, Jeanne was goining much power and wealth, trundled over the same robble- who loved to have installed in a suite in the King's. But in the end his demands be- stones she had once covered in woman,
To the King, Palace of Versailles.. beautiful things.
too great, and she was more than a mistress,
Won
essentially
She was the perfect companion;
came
he was a golden conch seated beside the She had a large retinue, ware ordered to retire to his estates: King of France.
jewellery, and he was happy to keep her the most expensive
and enjoyed every luxury, she whatever the cost..
could wish for. She was even presented at Court:
פער
Illegitimate child
It was a nightmare journey. Banished from Court She screamed for mercy as the crowds in the streets jeered and Near pelted her with stones.
cried out for Jeanne's lavish spending end- the scaffold sho The presentation was achieved cd abruptly when Louis XV died her life. only with
Her cries wato in vain. She extreme difficully, of smallpox in 1774. She was "La belle du Barry, as she since the honour was reserved bonlahed to a convent. After six was pushed, stumbling, through came to be culled, was born in for ladies of noble birth, who years of opulent living, he wept the mud and on to the block. 1743. She had no legal father, hod to be introduced by women bitterly on seeing her grim new For a moment she struggled with ond his the executioner and for some years her mother who had already been presented, surroundings..
orsistants. Then the shining had a bitter struggle to keep Scores of noblewomen were But after one year, the now blade of the guillotine, flashed herself and her daughter from siced to present Jeanne du King relented "and" allowed starving.
Barry, but all declined; Some Madame du Barry to leave, the down and the crowd cheered, Thus ended, abruptly, the life For a while Jeanne tived and were genuinely opposed to the convent en condition that she of a woman who had known ex-
educated in, a convent, Idea on principle alone, Many remained at least, ten leagues Then her mother married, and were merely jealous of Jeanne's from Paris and from wherever freme poverty, fantastic wealth, her step-father sent her out on success with the King. They the Court might be in residence, and, at the fast, stark terror, the streets to help. swell the regarded her as an upstart and She settled in her chatebu ut Thus, very had no intention of aiding her Luciennes," family exchequer. early in life, she learned how progress in high society.
There, for many years, sho to, wheedle gifts from men.
Eventually a lady in need of lived in fine style, attended by At the age of 18, she became money was found and Jeanne, an immense statt. She entertain.
extravagantly, but an apprentice In a men's hatters, dressed in a beautiful gown and od Most of the customers showed, exquisite Jewellery bad. Aused harmoney to help tho mory interest in Jeanne than in splendid presentation at Court, pour the hats..
For the pompatres, daughter; tion, in 1769, come "the Men were fascinated by the it was the greatest day of her Revoluilon pretty creature with blue eyes life; The presentation entitled
In thon days of torfor, Jeanno and corn-coloured hair, As the har to several special privileges fame of her beauty, spread, the Se could now rida: in royal du Barry, Behaved in an indi hatter was gratified to find his carriages, intex with members of crest and foolish that lon. Unable trade improving rapidly important Court ceremonios.
the Royal Family, and attend to believe that the Revolution=" Warles would· 'brand her as an A year later, when Jeanne left ou XV bould not give her world were unchanged
CANAVARRs, baaristocrat, she acted as though him to work in a gaming house,, many at his customers/disap (érivinghite Jeanne die Entry, Enpl
"basonched her lo fako sa much She continued, tosubscribe to pbaked as well.
välisk-2 Babure and when a money, as shin' needed, un
i..
also
It was at the gaming, house, inatructed the bolt-Ban wor large quantity of her Josellety where she worked na van, alw, groept her drefnée "Ordery vo? “Ayas“
abeniton lo
FLORIST.
Hill
Pare
My watch is my constant
companion says
PAT SMYTHE
The world's leading woman show
Photograph reposted bythe emistry of Milia Put Style, O ME., and the Bristik Kementrian Farid
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•
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