Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/236

Government schools at Hongkong, now learn to talk English with fluency and correctness; and the number of foreigners who acquire one or other of the Chinese dialects is increasing, the latest estimate, counting all nationalities, being somewhat over five hundred. But there is always a large fluctuating population of foreign soldiers, sailors, and visitors, to whom the acquisition of Chinese would involve a toil quite disproportioned to its use. To these a means of communication with the natives, based on a European vocabulary, is too serviceable to be dispensed with, and for them pidgin English will hold its ground. So far from dying out, it seems rather probable that in the course of years it will take rank as a dialect beside the lingua franca of the Mediteranean Sea. Those who are curious to see how pidgin English looks when printed may be referred to Mr. Leland's little book of Pidgin English Sing-Song in the Raffles Library. Although some of its phrases are rather far fetched it will give any one a tolerably fair idea of this singular dialect.