說
番人亦有
如此之分
番如稔失
印則
但更俱
有三等之介
Bitt m
FE
E***S
129
Fig. 5. Tong explains the pidgin form of comparison of adjectives
That is as far as we want to go in discussing the structure of Pidgin.
As a last topic, however, we want to say something about the etymology of Pidgin. Over the years, a lot of effort has gone into tracing the history of certain Pidgin words, especially where the words have entered standard English. The mass of fresh material in Tong's book lets us throw a little new light, although we have to admit that, as with most attempts at etymology, a lot of guesswork is involved.
Tong cites very many words derived from English, in which all syllables are represented quite fully, given the limitations of the language. To say, then, that the word "pidgin" itself originated just because that was the nearest that Chinese could get to pronouncing "business" is hard to accept. The same people who could say “di-fa-loen-si" could presumably have said “bi-si-nei-st", had they been so inclined.
Our examination of the vocabulary in Tong brings us to believe that at the earliest stage there was a core of words derived not directly from English but from a variety of Portuguese, Malay, and English. These were then added to with a gradually more extensive vocabulary.
We consider that the following should be included in the early layer:
bi-jin, kam-sha, de-lam, se-lam, but-lam, si-bui-lum, gi-lam, go-lam, ma-si-gi, gou-dang, ka-gou, tik-gı, get-ji, dim, gat-ji, dim, waan-sam, jaau-jaau, chin-chin, jo-si, hu-man, mai, ma-sa, ma-jin, mat-sa, jap-jap, gu-lei, mun-ni, bai, sa-bi
說
番人亦有
如此之分
番如稔失
印則
但更俱
有三等之介
Bitt m
FE
E***S
129
Fig. 5. Tong explains the pidgin form of comparison of adjectives
That is as far as we want to go in discussing the structure of Pidgin.
As a last topic, however, we want to say something about the etymology of Pidgin. Over the years, a lot of effort has gone into tracing the history of certain Pidgin words, especially where the words have entered standard English The mass of fresh material in Tong's book lets us throw a little new light, although we have to admit that, as with most attempts at etymology, a lot of guesswork is involved.
Tong cites very many words derived from English, in which all syllables are represented quite fully, given the limitations of the language. To say, then, that the word "pidgin" itself originated just because that was the nearest that Chinese could get to pronouncing "business" is hard to accept. The same people who could say “di-fa- loen-si" could presumably have said “bi-si-nei-st", had they been so inclined.
Our examination of the vocabulary in Tong brings us to believe that at the earliest stage there was a core of words derived not directly from English but from a variety of Portuguese, Malay and English. These were then added to with a gradually more extensive vocabulary.
We consider that the following should be included in the early layer-
bi-jin, kam-sha, de-lam, se-lam, but-lam, si-bui-lum, gi-lam, go- lam, ma-si-gi, gou-dang, ka-gou, tik-gı, get-ji, dim, gat-ji, dim, waan- sam, jaau-jaau, chin-chin, jo-si, hu-man, mai, ma-sa, ma-jin, mat-sa, jap-jap, gu-lei, mun-ni, bai, sa-bi
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