132
with the Chinese word for "to fry”.
Cumsha
This word denotes a payment, tip or alms
A wealth of folklore has grown up around it. One stream has it that the word derives from the payment made to boat people to “come ashore" from a ship at anchor. Another popular theory is that it derives from a Chinese dialectal word for “thank you”.
Dr Batalha describes a word in Patoa, cumesse (or camesso). She gives as the origin a Chinese term gam se, meaning a tip or present. Dr Batalha's explanation would be convincing if it could be shown that the Chinese word existed. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that it ever did: we suspect that the word is apocryphal. The existence of a word corresponding to the Cantonese gam je, (to feel grateful), but in another dialect with a pronunciation like cumsha is more plausible. Unfortunately, I cannot discover what that dialect is.
Tong does not list Cumsha at all, but Hunter mentions that the Chinese wrote the Pidgin word with the characters for “gold sand”, so that it would have been pronounced “gam-sa”.
The following information in Hunter is, we think, significant;
"Before she (any ship) could open hatches, the formality of “Cumisha and Measurement" had to be gone through. The first word signifies "present", and was a payment made by the earliest foreign vessels for the privilege of entering the port;"
If this information is reliable, it indicates that the word was applied from early times (i.e. to the vessels of the Portuguese traders), and was considered - notwithstanding Hunter's definition of "cumsha" - an official levy - not just squeeze or a gratuity,
If this is so, then we think that the correct origin should be the Portuguese word, comissāo, which means "commission, agency, percentage, gratification, recompense, brokerage, factorage." This covers its application in Pidgin admirably.
132
with the Chinese word for "to fry”.
Cumsha
This word denotes a payment, tip or alms
A wealth of folklore has grown up around it. One stream has it that the word derives from the payment made to boat people to “come ashore" from a ship at anchor. Another popular theory is that it derives from a Chinese dialectal word for “thank you”.
Dr Batalha describes a word in Patoa, cumesse (or camesso). She gives as the origin a Chinese term gam se, meaning a tip or present. Dr Batalha's explanation would he convincing if it could be shown that the Chinese word existed. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that it ever did: we suspect that the word is apocryphal. The existence of a word corresponding to the Cantonese gam je, (to feel grateful), but in another dialect with a pronunciation like cumsha is more plausible. Unfortunately, I cannot discover what that dialect is.
Tong does not list Cumsha at all, but Hunter mentions that the Chinese wrote the Pidgin word with the characters for “gold sand”, so that it would have been pronounced “gam-sa”.
The following information in Hunter is, we think, significant;
"Before she (any ship) could open hatches, the formality of “Cumisha and Measurement" had to be gone through. The first word signifies "present", and was a payment made by the earliest foreign vessels for the privilege of entering the port;"
If this information is reliable, it indicates that the word was applied from early times (ie. to the vessels of the Portuguese traders), and was considered - notwithstanding Hunter's definition of "cumsha" - an official levy - not just squeeze or a gratuity,
If this is so, then we think that the correct origin should be the Portuguese word, comissuo, which means "commission, agency. percentage, gratification, recompense, brokerage, factorage." This covers its application in Pidgin admirably.
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