Nowadays, this is called Chinese Pidgin English, because pidgin is a more widely used term.Ī “pidgin” today refers to the form of communication that arises when two (or more!) different languages collide.
Instead, somewhat improbably, it comes from the Chinese pronunciation of the word “business.” Its earliest uses in the 19th century referred specifically to what was called “business English,” or the English that a Chinese speaker would learn to communicate with English businesses. The word pidgin has nothing to do with the city bird that everyone loves to hate. But what would happen if two people spoke different languages and there was no intermediary? Pidgins start to form. You can learn their language, they can learn your language, you can have some third language you both know, or you can use some sort of translation tool to facilitate. When you meet someone who doesn’t speak the same native language as you, there are a few methods you can use to get your point across.
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