"PIGEON ENGLISH"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 286, 28 July 1932, Page 8

"PIGEON ENGLISH"

ITS USE IN NEW GUINEA. A PilCTURESQUE JARGON. Pigeon, or "pidgin," English has been ' deseribed as "a jargon used by Chinese in intercourse with foreigners," "pidgin" being a corruption of "business." With' people who find the acquiring of the English tongue extremely difficult, this makeshift represents a happy medium, and affords an effective way in which to transaet business affairs (writes Chas. Meredith, in the Sydney Morning Herald). When the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force arrived in German New Guinea, in order to occupy that territory, the troops discovered that the natives all used this manner of intercourse, having assimilated the peculiar dialect, no doubt, from the numerous inhabitants of the local Chinatown, in Rabaul, wherein these simple sons of nature purehar . their meagre requirements. With the dark-skinned people there simple expressions consisted of "Bcat-belong-fight" (man-o'-war), "pinnaee-belong-bush" (motor car). The familiar "Yes, we have no bananas," had its forerunners, in Rabaul of 191415, as "Yes, me no got somedings," when the native had disposed of his bananas, or curios, or whatever he had been trading. However, some of the expressions were rather more circumlocutory in style. For example, the garrison quartermaster, who wore spectacles, was referred to by tbs natives as "Big-feller-boss-glass-stop-along-eye." A mere broom was sometimes deseribed as "one-feller-broom-makeem-dirt-go-way-plenty-too-quick" whilst the proclamation, issued by the Administrator, the late General Holmes, both in English and "pidgin English," is really an historical document To conclude with an amusing incident, the Crown Prosecutor of the Rabaul Court, a member of the force — they were not known as "Diggers" then — washed his socks, and placed them on a hedge to dry. Coming out later he dscovered a large crowd of natives, of all ages, playing football with an improvised ball. He enjoyed the spectacle for a time, until a sudden revelation descended upon him. The "ball" consisted of his socks, one inside the other, and stuffed with grass. An ancient explained their possession o'f the half-hose as "All-time-he-lay-long-grass. Me-t'ink-him-done-broke-finish."