Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/233

 bling our own) and the rude substitutes adopted. All native dialects have I, he, we, you, and they, the possessives (in Mandarin being regularly formed by the addition of ti, of: thus, wo, I; wo ti, mine. The article and conjunction are entirely dispensed with in "pidgin" as they are colloquially in Chinese, the word "together" being used as a copulative only in extreme cases. Verbs are in "pidgin English" conjugated by the use of such words as hab, by me-by &c. Thus "I saw him" becomes "my hab looksee he": "I shall get it" is "my by me-by catchee he." The infinitives of most words are made to end in ee: likee, wantsee, waitee. The word belong or b'long also does duty as an auxiliary "I am a Chinaman" being "my b'long Chinee." The subjunctive also is formed by adding this word belong: "you should go" being expressed as "you b'long go." "If I go" is "sposee my go" and beyond this there are no means of expressing the other tenses except by clumsy combinations. "If I had gone" is "sposee my have go." B'long, of course, stands for "it belongs to your business to."

The comparison of adjectives is effected by prefixing the words "more" and "too muchee." though the ordinary comparative form is often used in conjunction with the first-named: thus, good. more better pronounced beitah), too muchee good; largee (also pronounced lahgee), more largee, too muchee big. The Chinese form is simple enough: "I am better than he is" being "I, than he, good;" or in the superlative, "that is the best." "that, than all, exceeding good.” Pidgin English uses our own handy "yes" and "no" in place of the awkward "it is," "it is not," of Chinese. These examples show that, as regards grammatical structure, "pidgin" is in the main an imperfect adaptation of our own rules. But the general construction of sentences is essentially Chinese. “Go to the post-office and bring me a letter" would be rendered just as it would be translated in a native dialect: "You savee that post-officee: go looksee have got one chit b'long my; sposee have got you makee bling." The absence of a relative form necessitates the cutting up of all long phrases into short sentences both in Chinese and pidgin English.

Such being in short, some of the most important grammatical peculiarities of this dialect. Let us turn to its pronunciation. There are certain sounds which the Chinaman has from custom an inherent difficulty in pronouncing. Thus, he cannot sound the final ge of "large" except as a separate syilable, so he adds an e and makes it largee. A similar dis-