Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/232

 It is not impossible that events will some day bring about this result, in which case it will probably attract considerable attention on the part of sinologues, as the tonal rules hitherto in force will be subjected to new and curious violations.

Still, with all this granted, none of the dialects or languages I have mentioned are precisely analogous to "pidgin English" which, broadly speaking, chiefly consists of the words of one language more or less mutilated. put together according to the idiom of another. Moreover there is, I fancy, no record of any dialect however uncouth having sprung up in so mushroom-like yet complete a manner. A member of our Council who very kindly took the trouble to send me some notes for this paper writes: "A great difficulty presents itself to my mind at once. How could a system of speech have got itself established so soon as pidgin English must have done, under the common view of its origin? Internal evidence appears to me to point to another source than the first English factory at Canton and a necessity not explained by the difficulties found by English in speaking Chinese or by Chinese in speaking English:" and he points ont that there is no pidgin Portuguese at Macao where the same difficulties should have led to the same results. I do not however quite agree with him. I should be inclined to say that the immense difficulty experienced by average Europeans in becoming fluent in Chinese is quite sufficient to account for any alternative being gladly adopted: while as regards Portuguese, though that spoken at Macao is not exactly "Pidgin" it is much deteriorated in Chinese mouths; moreover it is far easier for a Chinaman to learn than English, which is I imagine the most difficult of all European languages for the Chinese to master.

Let us turn to the principal rules which govern "pidgin English." and if possible. arrive at some conclusion as to its probable future. Altough [sic] only dating back to the early days of the East India Company. a sufficient time has elapsed since its origin to fix its formation within regular limits. Take, for instance, to begin with, the pronoun. This occurs only in the forms my, he, and you, which do duty both as personals and possessives "he" doing duty for "she" and it. "We" and "they" are rendered by thisee man, that man, the context implying when they are used in a personal rather than a demonstrative sense. The sentence "I saw hin" thus becomes "my have see he;" while "we went out" would be rendered "Allo thisee man go out." There is not here any analogy between the Chinese forms (resem-