Courtesy is important in social interactions. Therefore, the first Chinese Pidgin English expression introduced here is chin-chin, an expression of salutation. The featured postcard travelled from Honolulu, Hawai‘i to Hong Kong in 1888. The sender correctly showed us how the word was used then.
“Chin Chin to all old acquaintances”
Chin is derived from the Chinese word 請, which is pronounced as cing2 or ceng2 in Cantonese and qǐng in Mandarin Chinese. As a verb, the Cantonese verb 請cing2 has multiple meanings and functions: it means ‘employ, invite, request, ask’, depending on the types of objects following the verb.
Canton was the main port for foreign trade before the First Opium War (1839–1842). Chinese Pidgin English has a limited vocabulary and draws most of its words from English. The grammar is made up of features from Cantonese and English. The emergence of Chinese Pidgin English is directly connected to the Sino-British trade in the early 18th century. Facing a language barrier, the Chinese and English speakers resolved to create a new variety of English now known as Chinese Pidgin English. Most people seemed pleased with the new language and used it in matters involving intercultural communication such as international business, daily shopping, entertainment, or household chores were completed through Chinese Pidgin English. The expression chin-chin is one of the few words of Chinese origin in Chinese Pidgin English. However, it differs from Cantonese in that the pidgin uses the reduplicated form chin-chin.
“A few days before the ship sailed, while in my room, occupied with my luggage, one of the Chinese servants came to me, and said, ‘Mr. Talbot chin-chin you come down.’ I went accordingly, and was introduced to Mr. Samuel Russell, the chief of the house of Russell & Co.”1
In the pidgin sentence above, chin-chin is a verb meaning ‘invite, ask’. The example is taken from William C. Hunter’s book The ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844, a reminiscence of his days at Canton. William C. Hunter (1812–1891) was an American and a partner of the Russell and Co. He was one of the celebrated “fan kwae” (番faan1鬼gwai2), a Cantonese term to refer to foreigners or “foreign devils” as they were called then. Being an old China hand, Hunter knew Chinese Pidgin English well.
請cing2 can also be used before a verb to show politeness and express meaning similar to ‘please’, for example, 請cing2坐co5 ‘please sit down’. When occurring independently, 請cing2 usually appears at the beginning of an utterance and means ‘please’ too. The dialogue below illustrates a typical exchange between a Chinese shopkeeper and a foreign customer in Chinese Pidgin English.2
Shopkeeper: Chin-chin, how you do; long time my no hab see you.
Customer: I can secure hab long time; before time my no have come this shop.
Shopkeeper: Hi-ya, so, eh! What thing wantchee?
Customer: Oh, some litty chowchow thing. You have got some ginger sweetmeat?
Shopkeeper: Just now no got. I think Canton hab got velly few that sutemeet.
These sentences appear in an article titled “Jargon spoken at Canton” in the Chinese Repository (1836). The word “jargon” here refers to Chinese Pidgin English or Canton-English. The saluting began with chin-chin, followed by another common greeting ‘how do you do?’ and a longer version of “long time no see”. Another word imported from Cantonese is the exclamation Hi-ya, i.e., 哎ai1吔jaa3. The customer wants to buy some food (chowchow thing). Chowchow is a peculiar pidgin word referring not only to ‘food’ but also to the action ‘eat’. A good illustration of the combination of grammatical features from Cantonese and English is the usage of have/hab got. In English, have got means ‘to have, to own’. This meaning is illustrated in the sentence You have got some ginger sweetmeat? However, in the next line Canton hab got velly few that sutemeet, the use of hab got expresses the position of a thing, not ownership. While English have (got) and be are semantically and grammatically different, where does the meaning of position or existence come from? The answer lies in the Cantonese verb 有jau5, which conveys both possession and existence. So, if uttered in Cantonese, have/hab got in the pidgin sentences would be expressed as 有jau5. You would notice that some words are not spelt conventionally, even though they originate from English. This suggests that the pronunciation of Chinese Pidgin English words deviates from English. A well-known change is substituting the /l/ sound for the /r/ sound like velly due to the absence of /r/ in Cantonese. The spelling hab is another example of sound substitution.
1. Hunter, William C. 1882. The ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825–1844. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.
2. Anonymous. 1836. “Jargon spoken at Canton”. The Chinese Repository, Vol. IV. Canton.