Abstract
China Coast Pidgin (CCP) has long been recognized by linguists as the first historical example of pidginization. However, comprehensive research regarding its impact on British and American English, has yet to be conducted. This paper serves as an introduction to the study of these concepts, exploring the etymology of words and phrases originating in CCP, as well as analyzing its history, structure, and relationship to culture.
Highlights
Languages in the western hemisphere are often thought of as very different from those of their eastern counterparts
Thanks to what is today known as China Coast Pidgin (CCP), several words and phrases, Romanized or translated, have been adopted from Chinese into the English lexicon
The use of China Coast Pidgin declined in the 20th century, largely as a result of English instruction and Hong Kong’s conversion to “a modern, Anglo-Chinese bilingual identity (Ansaldo, 197)
Summary
Languages in the western hemisphere are often thought of as very different from those of their eastern counterparts. Thanks to what is today known as China Coast Pidgin (CCP), several words and phrases, Romanized or translated, have been adopted from Chinese into the English lexicon. The first English trading post in China was established in 1644 (Todd 61). This makes CCP the oldest Chinese-English pidgin to be discovered, leading eventually to its status as the “mother of all pidgins” (Ansaldo 184). One theory of origin for the word pidgin itself is a humble beginning as a Chinese mispronunciation of “business” (Todd 8). Such distance in time leaves CCP in a position to be misunderstood
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