Content area
Full Text
(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae and/or non-US-ASCII text omitted; see image)
The most widely accepted origin of the word 'Pidgin' is that it is a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business (etymonline.com). Pidgin English in mainland China has another popular localised nickname, i.e. yangjingbang[...]English, a trade jargon term often used in Shanghai. However, this popular Pidgin English has been played down in linguistic research in mainland China because of the assumption of colonial connotations (Jin, 2011). Although it did not thrive or even survive in mainland China, Pidgin English has influenced to no small degree both contemporary culture and language in Shanghai, as well as other Chinese varieties.
This paper reviews the historical background of the interaction between English and the Shanghai dialect, and aims to identify and trace the linguistic marks that this history has imprinted on the cultural and linguistic evolution of a major metropolis that aspires to be an international city. Previous studies have usually focused on what has been borrowed from English by Putonghua (PTH)1or Mandarin (Hu, P., 2004; Wang, 2004; Zhou & Jiang, 2004), and on the nativisation of English by Mandarin speakers (Wei & Fei, 2003). The heavy presence of English loanwords in other Chinese varieties, especially in the Shanghai dialect, has not been particularly studied. This paper also endeavours to extend the loanword study through analysis of the English loanwords in the Shanghai dialect2and to examine its connection with yangjingbang English.
The history of yangjingbang English: Its growth and decline
Pidgin English started taking form in China in the Canton area in the eighteenth century, when British merchants started using it as a business language while trading with the local Chinese (Shi, 1991: 2). In the wake of the First Opium War, the unequal Nanking Treaty forced the Qing government to open up Shanghai as the biggest treaty port in China in 1843 for trade to the West (Jiang, 1933: 96). Owing to its special geographic location, Shanghai began to prosper as an industrial and commercial hub.
Shanghai became a flourishing market where the English language began to emerge as the means of communication between local Chinese and foreigners (Si, 2013: 41). Cantonese agents of foreign traders brought in the early Chinese Pidgin...