Given a number of white traders, a wide area of land, and scores of savage languages and dialects, the result will be that the traders will manufacture a totally new, unscientific, but perfectly adequate, language.This the traders did when they invented the Chinook lingo for use over British Columbia, Alaska, and the Northwest Territory.So with the lingo of the Kroo-boys of Africa, the pigeon English of the Far East, and the beche de mer of the westerly portion of the South Seas.This latter is often called pigeon English, but pigeon English it certainly is not.To show how totally different it is, mention need be made only of the fact that the classic piecee of China has no place in it.
There was once a sea captain who needed a dusky potentate down in his cabin.The potentate was on deck.The captain's command to the Chinese steward was "Hey, boy, you go top-side catchee one piecee king." Had the steward been a New Hibridean or a Solomon islander, the command would have been: "Hey, you fella boy, go look 'm eye belong you along deck, bring 'm me fella one big fella marster belong black man."It was the first white men who ventured through Melanesia after the early explorers, who developed beche de mer English--men such as the beche de mer fishermen, the sandalwood traders, the pearl hunters, and the labour recruiters.In the Solomons, for instance, scores of languages and dialects are spoken.Unhappy the trader who tried to learn them all; for in the next group to which he might wander he would find scores of additional tongues.A common language was necessary--a language so simple that a child could learn it, with a vocabulary as limited as the intelligence of the savages upon whom it was to be used.The traders did not reason this out.Beche do mer English was the product of conditions and circumstances.
Function precedes organ; and the need for a universal Melanesian lingo preceded beche de mer English.Beche de mer was purely fortuitous, but it was fortuitous in the deterministic way.Also, from the fact that out of the need the lingo arose, beche de mer English is a splendid argument for the Esperanto enthusiasts.
A limited vocabulary means that each word shall be overworked.
Thus, fella, in beche de mer, means all that piecee does and quite a bit more, and is used continually in every possible connection.
Another overworked word is belong.Nothing stands alone.
Everything is related.The thing desired is indicated by its relationship with other things.A primitive vocabulary means primitive expression, thus, the continuance of rain is expressed as rain he stop.SUN HE COME UP cannot possibly be misunderstood, while the phrase-structure itself can be used without mental exertion in ten thousand different ways, as, for instance, a native who desires to tell you that there are fish in the water and who says FISH HE STOP.It was while trading on Ysabel island that Ilearned the excellence of this usage.I wanted two or three pairs of the large clam-shells (measuring three feet across), but I did not want the meat inside.Also, I wanted the meat of some of the smaller clams to make a chowder.My instruction to the natives finally ripened into the following "You fella bring me fella big fella clam--kai-kai he no stop, he walk about.You fella bring me fella small fella clam--kai-kai he stop."Kai-kai is the Polynesian for food, meat, eating, and to eat: but it would be hard to say whether it was introduced into Melanesia by the sandalwood traders or by the Polynesian westward drift.Walk about is a quaint phrase.Thus, if one orders a Solomon sailor to put a tackle on a boom, he will suggest, "That fella boom he walk about too much." And if the said sailor asks for shore liberty, he will state that it is his desire to walk about.Or if said sailor be seasick, he will explain his condition by stating, "Belly belong me walk about too much."Too much, by the way, does not indicate anything excessive.It is merely the simple superlative.Thus, if a native is asked the distance to a certain village, his answer will be one of these four:
"Close-up"; "long way little bit"; "long way big bit"; or "long way too much." Long way too much does not mean that one cannot walk to the village; it means that he will have to walk farther than if the village were a long way big bit.
Gammon is to lie, to exaggerate, to joke.Mary is a woman.Any woman is a Mary.All women are Marys.Doubtlessly the first dim white adventurer whimsically called a native woman Mary, and of similar birth must have been many other words in beche de mer.The white men were all seamen, and so capsize and sing out were introduced into the lingo.One would not tell a Melanesian cook to empty the dish-water, but he would tell him to capsize it.To sing out is to cry loudly, to call out, or merely to speak.Sing-sing is a song.The native Christian does not think of God calling for Adam in the Garden of Eden; in the native's mind, God sings out for Adam.
Savvee or catchee are practically the only words which have been introduced straight from pigeon English.Of course, pickaninny has happened along, but some of its uses are delicious.Having bought a fowl from a native in a canoe, the native asked me if I wanted "Pickaninny stop along him fella." It was not until he showed me a handful of hen's eggs that I understood his meaning.My word, as an exclamation with a thousand significances, could have arrived from nowhere else than Old England.A paddle, a sweep, or an oar, is called washee, and washee is also the verb.
Here is a letter, dictated by one Peter, a native trader at Santa Anna, and addressed to his employer.Harry, the schooner captain, started to write the letter, but was stopped by Peter at the end of the second sentence.Thereafter the letter runs in Peter's own words, for Peter was afraid that Harry gammoned too much, and he wanted the straight story of his needs to go to headquarters.
"SANTA ANNA
