fredag 25. mars 2011

Chinese Pidgin English

One of the curriculum goals this year is to”give examples of other varieties of English than those that are used in the Anglo-American area core”, and reflect on their distinctive character”. First I had to determine which countries that are not considered Anglo-American. Wikipedia states that: “Anglo American is often used in legal, economic and political writing to refer to those countries that have similar legal regimes that are generally based on the English common law.” A lot of countries are that, so giving examples might be a little hard.
When I was googeling facts on Japanese English, I came across some words on the Chinese Pidgin English. So I continued my research on that topic, and found some interesting facts. For example does people who speak Chinese Pidgin English use b instead of v in the word have (hab). Thay also use the personal pronouns in a very different way than in regular English; Tumoro mai no kan kum (Tomorrow my no can come/tomorrow it can’t rain)*. The language is only based on 700 words inits vocabulary, and the grammar is very simple. I watched a movie on youtube where two people were talking to each other in this language, and I realized; you don’t have to have a rich vocabulary or perfect grammar to be able to hold a conversation, but still, it was almost impossible for me to understand!

*Example borrowed from Wikipedia

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1 kommentar:

  1. Interesting post about Chinese pidgin. Many facts I didn't know at all. I like how you have a video to show us how they speak too.

    SvarSlett