1862: Letter from Nevada Territory + West Coast CPE
There’s an element of stereotyping going on in today’s excerpt from the frontier era…
(Other posts of mine on Chinese Pidgin English.)
Image credit: CHCAUSA
This report from Nevada (the territory, not the then-important little city in California), when it’s not directly quoting Chinese immigrants, has them “named ‘Yung Wo,’ or ‘Hop Sing,’ or something like that”, and wanting to get married ” ‘Melican style”, according to American law.
Actual details, however, follow. See how you do at understanding Chinese Pidgin English, which most Settlers were pretty good at:
After dark, he, or
some one acting in his behalf, strolled into the Chinese
street, armed with a revolver and disguised in the
dress of a white man. He soon met the faithless
woman coming out of an outhouse in company of
another female of the Chinese persuasion. He
held out his hand, saying in “Melican,” “How you
do, sissy,” and at the same instant fired his
pistol, shooting her in the abdomen.
• • •
In order to be sure and get the exact facts of the
case, I cornered a Chinaman who prides himself on
speaking admirable English, and got from him this
version:“Yes, me sabe; him Cheong belly bad man. Him
mally China wife in Hongkong, you sabe; but she no
wantee live him, keep house, Charly John mally him
when they have trial, you sabe. Muchee bad China-
mans come from Virginia City and shooty him pistol,
levolver, last night, you sabe. Him Yung Wo Com-
pany man; all his company make fight for him; he get
away, no catchee him. Mabby bimeby him go San
Francisco, no catch him belly bad man, plity much.”You will instantly perceive from this lucid account
that — well, that there is a desperate villain concerned
in the matter; also, that it is to a slight extent involved
in mystery.
— from the Sacramento (CA) Daily Union of December 5, 1862, page 1, column 7
I’ll part from you with the evaluation that the CPE quoted here looks fairly genuine. For example, its lack of prepositions, as in “him go San Francisco“, is normal for that pidgin language (and it’s a trait partly shared with Chinook Jargon).
It’s also business as usual with Chinese Pidgin English that Westerners could quote considerable chunks of it accurately, but still feel as if they didn’t quite understand all the nuances that were intended by the speaker
