Many verbs ending in consonants may optionally add a vowel, as in 'to take' and 'to sleep'. Hall also describes a few morphophonemic alterations. For non-native English speakers, who were largely Cantonese speakers, are not present, because these sounds are not present in Cantonese. Because most lexical items in CPE are derived from English, native English speakers simply use the pronunciation familiar to them. Native speakers of English use this inventory. Robert Hall (1944) gives the following phonemic inventory: At the very least, it is clear that California Chinese Pidgin English should be treated as a distinct variety from CPE as spoken in Coastal China, because it has morphological and syntactic features not found in CPE. On the other hand, because many migrants came from the Canton province in China, where CPE was relatively well-known, it is likely that many migrants to the United States from China had knowledge of the pidgin. Furthermore, some diagnostic features of CPE are missing or different from California Chinese Pidgin English. Many features present in California Chinese Pidgin English overlap with features of CPE, but also overlap with many other pidgins. Kim (2008) says that there is debate among linguists, including Baker, Mühlhäusler, and himself, about whether or not CPE was taken to California by 19th century immigrants. It is also reported to have been spoken in Singapore and Java. Chinese Pidgin English was also taken beyond China: the large numbers of speakers in Nauru influenced the shaping of Nauruan Pidgin English, and there is evidence that it was also taken to Australia, where it altered due to the influence of Australian English and other pidgins. Among these are scattered reports of the pidgin being spoken farther inland, such as in Chungking (Chongqing) and Hankow (Hankou), and farther north, in Kyong Song (Seoul) and even Vladivostok. Many attestations of the language being spoken come from writings of Western travelers in China. Ĭhinese Pidgin English spread to regions beyond the Chinese Coast. Ĭhinese Pidgin English began to decline in the late 19th century as standard English began to be taught in the country's education system. The term 'pidgin' itself is believed by some etymologists to be a corruption of the pronunciation of the English word 'business' by the Chinese (see Pidgin § Etymology). Pidgin English was developed by the English and adapted by the Chinese for business purposes. Chinese Pidgin started in Guangzhou, China, after the English established their first trading port there in 1699. Historically, it was a modified form of English developed in the 17th century for use as a trade language or lingua franca between the English and the Chinese. 'Yangjing Bang English' in Chinese ( 洋涇浜洋泾浜) derives from the name of a former creek in Shanghai near the Bund where local workers communicated with English-speaking foreigners in pidgin (broken English) Yangjing Bang has since been filled in and is now the eastern part of Yan'an Road, the main east–west artery of central Shanghai.

Chinese Pidgin English was spoken first in the areas of Macao and Guangzhou (City of Canton), later spreading north to Shanghai by the 1830s. English first arrived in China in the 1630s, when English traders arrived in South China.

Pidgin english language