Page:Pidgin-English sing-song; or, Songs and stories in the China-English dialect (IA pidginenglishsin00lelaiala).pdf/13

 INTRODUCTION.

IDGIN-ENGLISH is that dialect of our language which is extensively used in the seaport towns of China as a means of communication between English or Americans and the natives. In its first and lowest form, as given in the vocabularies published for the use of servants, Pidgin is a very rude jargon, in which English words, strangely distorted, owing to the difficulty of representing their sounds in Chinese writing, are set forth according to the principles of Chinese grammar. It is, in fact, word-for- word translation, with very little attempt at inflection or conjugation, as such forms of grammar, as we understand them, do not exist in Chinese. The result of this is naturally that as the vocabulary is very limited, a Chinese learns Pidgin-English with no more difficulty than is presented by acquiring a few hundred words, the pronunciation and grammar of