120
He told me his name was Ayou and that he had lived two years in Boston; that formerly he was a comprador to Mr. Cushing at Canton, and afterwards lived with him in America. Preferring his own country, he returned, and now has a large alum establishment, in which, he says, he is doing good business; he added that a Chinaman who speaks both English and Chinese can make "plenty money" in China.
The many critics of Pidgin have, I think, missed the point: Pidgin worked. It allowed people to communicate quite effectively in a situation where to learn or teach standard English would have been totally impractical. I believe that Pidgin had, in addition to the advantage of overcoming superficial communication problems, the subtle advantage of bringing together people from totally different socio-linguistic backgrounds to speak in a language that was native to neither—that was not a minefield of cultural conventions which could make normal communication break down.
Sources of Pidgin
Some readers will, I am sure, have had personal experience of China Coast Pidgin. I am indebted to a number of old people who have told me anecdotes of Pidgin from before the Pacific War. Unfortunately, this anecdotal evidence is very limited. I have only been able to obtain it from Europeans: we have not yet come across a Chinese who still has a working knowledge of the language. What we have taken down from native English speakers has often been "normalized" towards standard English. We shall now take some time to cover some of the more important written sources available to us.
The most frequently cited sources for Pidgin are by native English speakers. W.C. Hunter's books, mentioned earlier on, quote extensively from conversations in Pidgin.
Hunter's quotations cover an early period (1806-1854) and are generally consistent in style. They are, however, part of two books written for the casual reader. All the spelling is normalized to standard English; but they form a useful source and I have found his quotations in Pidgin generally consistent with other, unrelated sources.
Another source with a quantity of quotations from Pidgin is B. L.
120
He told me his name was Ayou and that he had lived two years in Boston; that formerly he was a comprador to Mr. Cushing at Canton, and afterwards lived with him in America. Preferring his own country, he returned, and now has a large alum establishment, in which, he says, he is doing good business; he added that a Chinaman who speaks both English and Chinese can make "plenty money" in China."
The many critics of Pidgin have, I think, missed the point: Pidgin worked, It allowed people to communicate quite effectively in a situation where to learn or teach standard English would have been totally impractical. I believe that Pidgin had, in addition to the advantage of overcoming superficial communication problems, the subtle advantage of bringing together people from totally different socio- linguistic backgrounds to speak in a language that was native to neither that was not a minefield of cultural conventions which could make normal communication break down.
Sources of Pidgin
Some readers, will I am sure, have had personal expenence of China Coast Pidgin. I am indebted to a number of old people who have told me anecdotes of Pidgin from before the Pacific War. Unfortunately, this anecdotal evidence is very limited. I have only been able to obtain it from Europeans: we have not yet come across a Chinese who still has a working knowledge of the language. What we have taken down from native English speakers has often been "normalized” towards standard English. we shall now take some time to cover some of the more important written sources available to us.
The most frequently cited sources for Pidgin are by native English speakers. W.C. Hunter's books, mentioned earlier on, quote extensively from conversations in Pidgin.
Hunter's quotations cover an early period (1806-1854) and are generally consistent in style. They are, however, part of two books written for the casual reader. All the spelling is normalized to standard English; but they form a useful source and I have found his quotations in Pidgin generally consistent with other, unrelated sources.
Another source with a quantity of quotations from Pidgin is B. L.
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