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Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

From:Jonathan Chang <zhang2323@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 14, 2000, 19:28
In a message dated 2000/06/14 01:52:34 PM, John Cowan wrote:

>("Pidgin", BTW, is Chinese Pidgin English for "business".)
Yep Yep. Even today I hear Cantonese-speakers & Hakka-speakers here in Chinatown saying the English word "business" as _pidjin_ or _pidsin_. Last week, I actually heard a Cantonese grocery store owner melodramatically yellin' at an English-speakin' Hispanic fish wholesaler: "Yu wan' me pidsin, lah? no? Plice too much, too much, AiYaH!!!, man! ... Fis' not too fukkin' fles', man! Go in tlash in two day!" The discovery that the word _pidgin_ is still used left me grinning like a maniac for an hour or so. zHANg