Chinese Pidgin English (CPE)China Coast Pidgin

(CCP)Origins, Context, Features

J. LloydLing. 455

Introduction• Three Types of CPE identified in Arends ,et.

al. (1994)• 1.China Coast Pidgin (mainland coastal ports

from Guangzhou to Shanghai)• 2. Taiwan Pidgin English ( between maids &

taxi drivers and Europeans)• 3 Nauru Chinese Pidgin/Hamsoi (Cantonese

business owners, restaurant personnel, and other Naurans—mix of CPE and Mid-Pacific Pidgin English)

Characteristics of China Coast Pidgin

• CCP is a trade pidgin developed in commercial ports: first at Guangzhou (Canton), and later at Ningbo, Xiamen (Amoy), and Shanghai

• CCP is extinct like a T-Rex.– “Looking at China Coast Pidgin English is like

studying dinosaurs. Only the barest traces of the pidgin survive.”—Selby & Selby (1995)

• CCP was an English-lexifier pidgin (mostly)+ Portuguese vocabulary+ French vocabulary+ Malay+ Hindi

Sociolinguistic Environment

• British East India Company – 1711 Official trading port established at Canton

• Trade on Chinese side is monopolized and tightly controlled– Chinese working with the English are often literate

and educated– Chinese forbidden to teach the foreigners the native

tongue– Prestige of literacy in the Chinese context– 紅毛通用番語 Hongmao tongyong fanyu, “Everyday

barbarian speech of the Red Hairs” (19th century)

Some phonological features of CCP

• Extra syllabic “spellings” – Early primers for local

traders were lists of words “spelled” phonetically with Chinese characters

– Chinese is largely monosyllabic and each graph represents one and only one syllable. So, “spellings” often inserted extra syllables for gaps in Cantonese phonology, ex. ‘year’ = 夜啞 yeya (no –r)

Some Phonological Features of CCP (cont.)

• Initials of Guangzhou Cantonese:

• p- p’- m- f- w- • t- t’- n- l- • ts- ts’- s-• k- k’- - h-• -

• Final consonants of Guangzhou Cantonese:

• -p• -t• -k• -n -

Phonetic Substitution• Shi Dingxu (1993) provides examples from Hongmao Tongyong Fanyu of

Cantonese substitution of English phonemes restricted in Guangzhou. Also, consonant clusters are reduced.

1. Interdental fricatives replaced by corresponding dental stopsex. English ‘that’ > CCP [ tat ], English ‘mother’ > CCP [mata]2. Lateral [ l ] for retroflex liquid [ r ]ex. English ‘rain’ > CCP [ lin ], English ‘friend’ > CCP [flen]3. Lateral [ l ] for voiced labio-dental [ v ]ex. English ‘heavy’ > CCP [ hipi ]4. Consonant cluster simplification with epenthesisex. English ‘small’ > CCP [ simala ]5. Final voiced fricative [ z ] (no fricative finals in GZ) replaced by

full syllable with voiceless fricative.Ex. English ‘lose’ > CCP [lowsi]6. Final may be dropped completelyEx. English ‘inside’> CCP [insay]

Importance of Dialectal and Phonological Detail in investigating CCP

• Lack of Chinese native speakers of CCP• CCP was in later stages active in other dialect

areas further north• Similarities in lexicon and phonology (and

perhaps syntax) may be traced to CCP’s origin in Canton

• Differences among China Coast Pidgins may later be explained as influences from local dialect phonetic inventories and lexicon