American Indian Pidgin English: Attestations and Grammatical Peculiarities Author(s): Douglas Leechman and Robert A. Hall, Jr. Source: American Speech, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Oct., 1955), pp. 163-171 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/453934 Accessed: 14/01/2009 18:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=duke. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Speech. http://www.jstor.org AMERICAN INDIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH: ATTESTATIONS AND GRAMMATICAL PECULIARITIES DOUGLAS LEECHMAN GlenbowF oundatioCn,a lgary and ROBERTA . HALL, JR. CorntlUl niversity W E ARE ALL FAMILIAR with the stereotyped broken English which writers of Western stories, comic strips, and similar literature put into the mouths of Indians: 'me heap big chief,' 'you like um fire water,' and so forth. This type of language,h owever far removed it may be from the usage of most present-day Indians, represents the continuation of an earlier tradition of actual speech, in which a pidginized variety of English served in the contacts between Indians and whites, from the seventeenth century onward. For this contact language,w e may use the term AmericanI ndianP idginE nglish (AIPE), thus indicating its relationshipt o other kinds of Pidgin English.' That AIPE has been a true pidgin (i.e., used by both groups in the contact situation), and not merely broken English used by Indians alone, is well attested; here, as in other instances, the whites (especially traders) were the ones who taught the pidginized language to the aborigines, and even spread words from one native language to speakers of another: When the white trader invadedt he solitudes of the Indian, he took with him, or soon pickedu p, a smalls tock of words which, by his constantu se amongt he tribes,h aveb ecome, I. Includingt he following: A. Chinese Pidgin English (cf. Journalo f the AmericanO rientaSl ociety,L XIV [r944j, 95- 1I3) B. CentralA tlanticP idginE nglish,t he sourceo f: I) West AfricanP idginE nglish. 2) Taki-Taki( cf. LanguageX, XIV [1948], 92- 1I6), and the speecho f the Saramacca Bush-Negroes( cf. H. SchuchardtD, ic Sprachde erS aramakka-Neginer S urinam[ Amsterdam, 19141). 3) West Indiesv arietieso f creolizedE nglish,e .g., in Jamaica,t he Virgin Islands,a nd the Bahamas. C. SouthS eas PidginE nglish,t he sourceo f: I) The now extinct Micronesian Pidgin English (cf. Language, XXI [1945], 214-19). 2) MelanesianP idginE nglish( cf. R. A. Hall, Jr., MelanesiaPni dginE nglish:G rammar, Texts, Vocabular[yB altimore,I 943], here abbreviatedM PE-GTV; and Hands Off Pidgin English! [Sydney, 1955]). 3) Hawaiian 'PidginE nglish' (actually a creolized variety of Englisha t the present time). D. AustralianP idginE nglish( cf. LanguageX, IX [I943], 263-67). 164 AMERICANS PEECH as it were, common property; thus 'squaw,' the Narragansett name for woman, the Algon- quin 'papoose' for child, 'chuck' food, and many other words, have become universal among all the North American Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, when speaking to a white man, or Indian not of their tribe.2 We have attestations of whites using a pidginized variety of English in speaking with Indians down to the present century, as in text 38, below. The present article is an effort to present and analyze such material as has been found bearingo n AIPE, with the aim both of casting light on the linguistic acculturationo f the Indiana nd of aiding the historical study of pidgin English as a whole.3 Not much data is available, since many writers4 make their Indians speak normal English, no matter what their actual speech may have been like.5 However, Leechman has gathered a number of reasonably trust- worthy attestations of AIPE from various sources; we reproduce here the relevant passages. The two authorsh ave discussed the material together, and Hall has prepareda n analysis of its linguistic aspects. The attestationsa re here presentedi n their original orthography,i n chrono- logical order. Each passagei s precededb y its date, and is followed by an indica- tion of its source. 1. 1641: 'They say, Englishman much foole,-Lazie squaes!' Thomas Lechford, Plaine Dealing; or, Newes from New England, Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, XXIII (Cambridge, Mass., 1833), 103. 2. Ca. I673: 'Here is a specimen warrant: "You, you big constable, quick you catch um Jeremiah Offscow, strong you hold um, safe you bring um afore me, Waban, Justice Peace." -"Tie um all up,-and whip um plaintiff, and whip um 'fendant, and whip um witness." ' Francis F. Drake, Indian History for Young Folks (1884) (New York, 1927), pp. 93-94. 2. Richard Irving Dodge, Our Wild Indians (Hartford, Conn., 1889), p. 47. A similar situation existed in Australia in the early days of settlement; cf. S. D. Baker, The Australian Language (Sydney and London, 1945), pp. 220 ff.: 'The mixing of aboriginal dialects-that is, the migration of terms from one district to another-through the agency of the European has probably been so great that it can now never be accurately assessed. . . . The European influence therefore had two clearcut effects: (a) the introduction of pidgin as a lingua franca between black and white, and (b) the spreading of aboriginal terms of limited original use in one district to other, and often remote, districts.' White Australians still behave in this way, e.g., in ascribing Aranta terms such as alcheringa' the eternal dream-time' or churinga 'ceremonial objects' to aboriginal tribes far distant from Aranta territory; most recently in A. W. Upfield, Murder Must Wait (New York, 1953). 3. Cf. R. A. Hall, Jr., 'Pidgin English and Linguistic Change,' Lingua, III (1952), 138-46. 4. For instance, such novelists as the anonymous author of Mtmoirs of an Unfortunate Young Nobleman (London, x743); Mrs. Frances Brooks in The History of Emily Montague (1796; ed. by L. J. Burpee, Ottawa, 1931); Washington Irving; and James Fenimore Cooper. S. Cf. H. N. Fairchild, The Noble Savage (New York, 1928), p. 475: 'I have found hardly any instance in which the Noble Savage of any hue speaks broken English. To make him do so would be to dispel the illusion that surrounds him. Man Friday, though an Indian, talks like an eighteenth century literary negro. Colman's Wowski has a comical jargon for which again burlesques of negro speech are evident models.' AMERICANI NDIAN PIDGINE NGLISH 165 3. 1675: 'About the I5th August (1675), Captain Mosely with sixty Men, met with a Company, judged about three hundred Indians, in a plain Place where few trees were, and on both Sides Preparations were making for a Battle; all being ready on both sides to fight, Captain Mosely plucked off his Periwig, and put it into his Breeches, because it should not hinder him in fighting. As soon as the Indians saw that, they fell a Howling and Yelling most hideously, and said, Umh, umh me no stawmerre [stomach?-D.L.] fight Engismon, Engis- mon got two Hed, Engismon got two Hed; if me cut off un Hed, he got noder, a put on bedera s dis; with such like words in broken English, and away they all fled and could not be over- taken, nor seen any more afterwards.' Charles H. Lincoln, ed., Narratives of the Indian Wars 1675-l699 (New York, 1913), p. 39. 4. 1675: 'They [the Indians] will say three sleeps me walk, or two or three sleeps me do such a thing.' John Josselyn, Account of Two Voyages (1674), Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, XXIII (Cambridge, Mass., 1833), 302. 5. 1675-99: ' . . . an Indian, a Friend of his ... with his Knife made a Hole in his Breast to his Heart, and sucked out his Heart-Blood: Being asked his Reason therefore, his Answer, Umh, umh, nu, Me strongera s I was before, me be so strong as me and he too, he be ver strong Man fore he die.' Lincoln, op. cit., p. 41. 6. 1675-99: ' . . . amongst which dead, was one who had Life in him, and was found by a Friend Indian, he took him up and said: Umh, umh poo Ingismon, mee save yowvL ifc, mee takey ow to CaptainM osee (Mosely).' Ibid., p. 43. 7. 1675-99: 'The Indian answered: "Nay, mee own, English Fashion is all one Fool: you kill mee, mee kill you! No, better ly somewhere, and Shoot a man, and hee no see! That the best Soldier!" ' Ibid., p. 238, quoting Cotton Mather in Decennium Luctuosum. 8. 1720: 'You be de white man, you have soul; when we die we fling in water, big fish come carry us to an oder place, den we live dare and die agen, and fish bring us back to an oder place.' Speech by Indian Will in William Rufus Chetwood, The Voyageso f Captain Richard Falconer( London, 1720). 9. 1756: 'Solomon [a Caughnawaga Mohawk] ended by saying "You don't know Catawba, velly bad Indian; Catawba all one devil." ' Drake, op. cit., p. 196, quoting from Col. James Smith's Captivity (I756). Io. Ca. 1770: An anecdote of an aged Indian who had spent much time among the white people of Pennsylvania and New Jersey: 'One day, about the year 1770, he observed that the Indians had a much easier way of getting a wife than the whites, and were much more certain of getting a good one-"for," said he, in his broken English, "white man court- court, may be one whole year!-may be two year before he marry! Well!-may be he then get very good wife-but may be not!-may be very cross!-Well now, suppose cross, scold as soon as get awake in the morning, scold all day, scold until sleep,-all one; he must keep him. [Footnote: The pronouns in the Indian language have no gender.] White people have law forbidding throwing away wife, be he ever so cross!-must keep him always. Well! how does Indian do?-Indian, when he sees industrious squaw, which he like, he go to him, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one, look squaw in the face-see him smile-which is all one he say yes! so he take him home-no danger he cross! throw him away and take another! Squaw love to eat meat! No husband, no meat! Squaw do everything to please husband, he do same to please squaw; live happy." ' Rev. Peter Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians (London, 1861), p. 80. II. [1790: Quotation from The BasketM aker, a play by John O'Keefe:] WATTLE.-Pray my good people, didn't he owe you a few blows on the back? OTCHEGROS.-Dat put me in de mind, he did give me once a tump in de cheek, I pay you. SOKOKI.-He did with tamahawk once take my ear. WATTLE.--What! THIRDI NDIAN.-If Kikapous liv'd he was dis day to fight me wid hatchet-here (offers hatchet). I66 AMERICAN SPEECH WATTLE.-Oh Help! murder! F. Bissell, The AmericanI ndian in English Literatureo f the EighteenthC entury, Yale Studies in English, No. 68 (New Haven, 1925), p. 147. i. I1794: 'The letters f, v, ph, and r, are wanting in their alphabet. They therefore omit them entirely in foreign words, or pronounce them differently, for example, Pilipp for Philip, Petelusf or Petrus, Pliscilla for Priscilla.' George Henry Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America (London, 1794), p. 19. 13. 1804-6: 'Everything that is incomprehensible to the Indians they call big medicine.' Quoted from Lewis, by Elijah Harry Criswell, Lerwisa nd Clark: Linguistic Pioneers, Uni- versity of Missouri Studies, Vol. XV, No. 2 (Columbia, Mo., 1940), p. Iviii. I4. I823: 'He replied in broken English "Indian no call this an aspen tree quake asp." "What then?" asked the inquisitive hostess. "Woman tongue. Woman tongue," answered the sagacious warrior, "never still, never still, always go." 'John Dunn Hunter, Memoirs of a Captivity among the Indians of North America (London, 1823), p. 376. 15. 1823: 'Man, brave man, no cheat Indian. Indian no cheat white man.' Ibid., p. 399. I6. I82 3:' .. . the Indian replied in broken English: "Why didn't [sic] give fine things to him? He got no beaver, to give for fine things. White man mouth full honey, talk sweet, say many good things. This please foolish Indians. He then cheat him. He no fool Shoma- cassa." ' Ibid., p. 397. 17. I1823: ' ... she indignantly replied in broken English, "White man want poison poor Indian. Whiskey bring my people to want. Whiskey kill poor Peggy. Peggy, poor daddy and mammy have no one to help 'em when Peggy dead." 'I bid., p. 395. 18. I826: 'An Indian woman proposed to a white man as follows: "You silly. You weak. You baby-hands. No catch horse. No kill buffalo. No good, but for sit still-read book. Never mind. Me like. Me make rich. Me make big man. Me your squaw." ' Mary Meek Atkeson, Study of the Local Literatureo f the Upper Ohio Valley 'with Especial Referencet o the Early Pioneera nd IndianT ales (Ohio StateU niversity Bulletin, Vol. XXVI, No. 3 [Contributions in English, No. 2] Columbus, Ohio, 1921), p. 39, quoting Timothy Flint in Francis Berriam (I826), I, 57. 19. 1836: 'I demanded my ducks [previously promised], he looked gloomy, and replied with characteristic brevity, "No duck-Chippewa [personal name] gone up lake with canoe -no canoe-duck by-and-by." ' Catherine Parr Traill, The Backwoodso f Canada (1836; Toronto, 1929), p. 175. 20. 1836: 'When I asked him his name, he replied "Indian name Maquin, but English name 'Mister Walker,' very good man"; this was the person he was called after.' Ibid., p. 176. 21. 1837: Robert Montgomery Bird in his Nick of the Woods makes an Indian say Quakel for Quaker,a very literal following of the idea that Indians pronounce r as 1. Albert Keiser, The Indian in American Literature( New York, 193 3), p. 150. 22. 1843: 'Strike! Nick kill cap'n-major kill Nick.' James Fenimore Cooper, Wyandotte, quoted by Keiser, op. cit., p. 112. 23. 1845: [An Indian, Susquesus, warns a Negro not to flog another Indian, Musquerusque, because the Huron chief] 'got tender back; never forget rope.' James Fenimore Cooper, Satanstoc,q uoted by Keiser, op. cit., p. 113. 24. Ca.I 85I: 'He [an intoxicated Indian] came staggering towards his wigwam, singing out to all whom he met, "Me goes to Methodist; me nod drink little more; me am Method- ist." ' George Conway, Recollectionso f a Forest Life (LondonI, 85I), p. 42. 25. Ca. 1857: 'Pale-faces come, take our land, and drive us away. Pale-faces give us red- water, which make our heart feel bad and burn us up. Ugh! Den dey bring us good book, to tell 'bout Great Spirit, and make us good.' Tonowaha speaking in Preuss's Fashionsa nd Follies of Washington Life (1857), quoted by Perley Isaac Reed, Realistic Presentationo f American Charactersi n Native American Plays prior to 1870 (Columbus, Ohio, 1918), p. 114. AMERICANI NDIAN PIDGINE NGLISH 167 26. 1861: ' "Me very great chief, me got dree wives, all broders," meaning they were sisters.' Jones, op. cit., p. 81. 27. 1864: Thoreau says definitely from his own observation that a Penobscot [?] Indian travelling with him 'generally added the syllable um to his words when he could, as padlum, etc.'; e.g., 'Sometimes I lookum side-hill'; 'Sometimes I lookum locks [rocks].' Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods (1864; Boston, Riverside Edition, 1884-94), p. 230 and passim. Cf. also 'That make hard paddlum thro'; hold 'em canoe. So say old timers.' Ibid., p. 228. 28. 1864: 'Me been sick. Oh, me unwell now. You make bargain, then me go.' Ibid., p. 105. 29. 1871: 'His name was Ottawa, and he was a war chief of the Ogalalla band of the Sioux nation. He struck himself on his breast, saying "Good Indian, me," and pointing to those around him, he continued, "Heap good Indian, hunt buffalo and deer." ' Fanny Kelly, Narratives of My Captivity among the Sioux Indians (Hartford, Conn., 187I), p. 22. 30. 1871: 'Me understand English; my boy make two chairs next week; pay ten shillings for 'em, eh?' Alexander Begg, Dot It Down: a Story of Life in the North-West (Toronto, i871), p. 147. 31. 1871: 'Injun very hungry-something to eat, eh?' Ibid., p. 148. 32. 1871: 'Thank ye! Chairs next week; good-bye, Injun glad; good young squaw.' Ibid. 33. 1871: 'Lying tongue; bad Sioux did that; I will have blood for it; travel-travel- will kill bad Sioux for that.' Ibid., p. I49. 34. 1892: [Old Jake has just seen an Indian climbing up the face of a cliff towards a cave; the rope breaks and the Indian is dashed on the rocks below. Old Jake runs to his assistance and pulls him out of the water in which he is lying. The Indian:] ' . . . were just able to say "Wild Cat paleface's friend. Cache up thur. Paleface can keep all." His head fell over, limber-like, and he slipped from my hands as dead as a last year's straddle-bug.' Achilles Daunt, In the Land of the Moose, the Bear, and the Beaver (London, I892), p. 69. 35. 1938: 'Sure take um home.' Edna Ferber, Cimarron (Garden City, N. Y., 1938), p. 31 2; other examples of -um, passim. 36. 1946: ' "S'pose you in brush," he began tentatively. "You no got nothin', no gun, no bow'n arrow.-You savvy bow'n arrow?" .. . "You walk in brush, no make noise, pretty soon you see rabbit. ... You throw 'em bone. Make big noise. Rabbit, he hear that. He scared. He know big bird make noise like that when he catch rabbit; maybe eagle, maybe big owl. He too scared, he stay, no move for long time. You go slow, go easy, catch 'em rabbit. He no run away.... You savvy?" ' Douglas Leechman, 'Balaam and the Old Times,' Queen's Quarterly,L III (1946), 447-58, 449-51. 37. 1946: ' "Cold last night," he greeted me one morning. "Pretty soon winter. Pretty soon trees go yellow. Some little leaves go red. All the hillsides strong yellow and red. Very fancy. Awh, good!" ' Ibid., p. 455. 38. 1946: ' "Plane come," I announced, rather needlessly. "I hear." "I go now." "Too bad," said Balaam. "Old friend now. First day you see me, you say 'like meet old friend.' " ' Ibid., p. 457 Our attested material consists largely of quotations adapteda t least in part to standardE nglish, with occasional pidginized forms, phrases, or sentences left in their original form. We are thereforen ot in a position to give a complete outline of the linguistic structure of AIPE, and can only enumerate its pecu- 168 AMERICANS PEECH liarities in terms of the respects in which our material differs from standard English. The phonology of AIPE is characterizedc hiefly by reductiono f the phonem- ic inventory, through certain substitutions and the loss of certain phonemes, together with other scattered phenomena. The substitutions involve chiefly the replacemento f a fricative by a stop: /w/ > /d/ in broder,d are 'there,' dat, de, den, dey, dis, oder 'other,' wid (in the texts, ??8, II, 25, 26 above); /0/ > /t/ in tump 'thump' (?II); /0/ > /d/ in dree 'three' (?26); /f/ > /p/ in Pilipp (?12); and /v/ > what was presumably /b/ (mentioned in ?I2, without any example). The retroflex or flap /r/ is replaced by /1/ in locks 'rocks,' Petelus' Petrus,' Pliscilla, Quakel,v elly (??9, I2, 21, 27); and /t/ is voiced to /d/ in beder' better' (?3). Loss of a vowel is found in ver < very (?5). Among the consonants, /]/ is lost in clusters in Engismon,I ngismon,a nd Mosee 'Mosely' (??3, 6); final /-r/ is lost in poo 'poor' (?6). The initial syllable /di-/ disappearsi n 'fendant 'defendant' (?2). Other phenomena of phonological change include the as- similation of /t/ to /d/ before a following /d/ in nod drink 'not drink' (?24), and the insertion of a vowel into the consonantc luster /tl/ ( </tr/, see above) in Petelus 'Petrus' (?I2).6 In the morphology, we find a noun used uninflected,i n its singularf orm, in two Hed (?3). Among the pronouns,t he use of the single form me as both sub- ject and object is very widespread (??3, 4, 5, 6, 7, i8, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30), SO much so that one wonders whether the use of I as subject (e.g., ??5, 33) is an Anglicism.7 In the third person singular, he is used as a feminine (?1o); and we find the reduced form a (?3). Verb structure is characterized especially by very widespread loss of inflectional features, i.e., by the exclusive use of the simple form of the verb (??3, 5, 8, 10, I4, 15, I6, 17, I8, 19, 22, 23, 30, 35, 36, 38). This phenomenon manifests itself in the use of the simple form where standard English has differentiated forms in the first sg. or third sg. present, or in the past: e.g., me be (?5); big fish comec arryu s (?8); he go (?10); Nick kill Cap'n (?22); etc. The form beeno ccurs (?28) as the past of be;8i s was (?5) an Anglicism? 6. This development is parallel to that found in consonant clusters in Melanesian and most other varieties of Pidgin English: e.g., Melanesian Pidgin /sekis/ 'axe'; /bDkss/ 'box'; /strozr/ [sstx'roT]']h ard'; etc. 7. The same phenomenon is found in the Melanesian Pidgin of the British Solomon Islands: the normal first sg. pronoun is /mi/, but /aj/ is found in Anglicizing set phrases such as /aj promis/ (e.g., as used in court procedure). 8. Similar to the use of /bin/ as a past for 'be' and also as a past-tense auxiliary in Aus- tralian Pidgin (cf. Language,X IX [I943], 265), whence it has been introduced by speakers of Australian English into Melanesian Pidgin (cf. R. A. Hall, Jr., 'Innovations in Melanesian Pidgin' [to be publishedin Oceania],? ?3.24.2, 5.24.1). AMERICANI NDIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH I69 The suffix /-9m/, spelled 'em, um (either suffixed to the verb or separate in orthography) and sometimes 'im or him, occurs widely as a transitive suffix (??2, Io, I4, i6, 17, I8, 27, 35, 36);9 in one instance it forms a verbal noun:'0 paddlum' paddling'( ?27). The only other peculiarity on the level of inflection is the use of all one in the meaning 'like, as, the same as' (??7, 9, Io); from the attestations it is not clear whether we are to phonemicize this as /'1ol 'wan/ or /'ol,wan/." In word formation,t he only item of note is the compound-typen oun plus noun, in baby-hand'sh aving hands like a baby' (?18). Passing to the level of syntax, we find certain peculiaritiesi n the structureo f phrases. In noun phrases, the absence of both definite and indefinite articles is especially widespread (??8, Io, 13, i8, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38): e.g., we fling in water, big fish come (?8); white man court (?10o);e tc., etc. A noun or pronoun attribute, with the meaning of 'possessor,' occurs preceding a noun head whose meaning is 'thing possessed,' in simple juxtaposition,'2a s in yowv life (?6); white man mouth (?I6); Peggy poor mammy and daddy (?1I7). In one instance, a noun attribute is found following a noun head: JusticeP eace 'Justice of the Peace' (?2). Two types of adjective phrase call for special attention. In one, an adjective head is followed by a noun modifier, with partitive meaning: full honey 'full of honey' (?I6). With a comparative, the term of comparisoni s introduced by as 'than': bedera s dis (?3); strongera s I was before (?5). Among verbal phrases, there are five types worthy of note. The verb is repeated, with meaning of 'continued action,'"3 in court-court( ?IO) and travel-travel( ?33). A verb is followed directly by another verb acting as complement in stawmerref ight (?3) and want poison 'wants to poison' (?7). In talk sweet (?I6), an adjective attribute with adverbialm eaning follows the verb it modifies; but in quicky ou catchu m . . . strongy ou holdu m, safey ou bring um (?2), this type of attributep recedes the verb and its subject. An adverb of 9. This suffix is used similarly in Melanesian and Australian Pidgin; cf. MPE-GTV ?2.13; LanguageX, IX (1943), 265. 10. This case is similar but not wholly parallel to the Chinese Pidgin use of /-am/ as a passive-transitive suffix forming a verbal adjective or passive participle: e.g., /spljbm tli/ 'a ruined tree' (cf. Journalo f The AmericanO rientaSl ociety,L XIV [1944], 98). I1. For the combination of all plus another element in similar meaning, cf. Melanesian Pidgin /olsem/ 'like, as.' 12. This type of simple juxtaposition in possessive phrases (regardless of the order of the elements) is found in many pidginized and creolized languages, e.g., Chinese Pidgin (/hi haws/ 'his house'); Taki-Taki (/tigri mama/ 'the tiger's mother'); Haitian Creole (/kaj papa li/ 'his father's house'); etc. 13. Cf. similar phrases in Melanesian Pidgin (e.g., /go go go go/ 'keep going,' MPE- GTV 4.40) and Taki-Taki (e.g., /dyompo dy6mpo/ 'jump and jump,' /naki naki naki/ 'keep on hammering,' LanguageX, XIV [1948], 109). 170 AMERICAN SPEECH time precedes its verb in several instances (??io, I , 14, 16): e.g., he then cheat him. In the structureo f predicates,t he center is often a noun or adjective, giving the predicate the meaning of 'equation,'r ather than of 'action' as in standard English (??i, 7, o, 14, 15, i8, 23, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37): e.g., Entglish- man much foole (?i); that the best Soldier (?7); he cross (?io); etc., etc. In two instances, the center of the predicate is an adverb or a phrase introduced by a preposition, and the meaning of the predicate is 'location': cacheu p thur (?34); you in brush( ?36).14 Predicates are rendered negative by the use of no preceding the center of the predicate (??7, ij, 16, 18, 36): e.g., he no run away (?36). In ?24, the negativizer is not ( > nod), preceding the center of the predicate: nod drink. The subject is zero ('omitted') in a number of instances (??io, 14, IS, r8, 19, 23, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38): e.g. upposecr oss 'if he is cross' (?Io); neverf orget rope (?z3); etc., etc. In one place, a third sg. verb is used with a first sg. subject: me goes (?24). The order of elements in a clause is occasionally different from that of standardE nglish. The predicatep recedes the subject in goodI ndian,m e (?29), and the verbal attributep recedes subjecta nd predicatei n quicky ou catchu m ... strongy ou hold umns, afe you bring um (?2). The subject is recapitulatedb y a pronoun in rabbit,h e heart hat (?36).15 A stylistic feature to be noted is the use of a third sg. noun subject instead of a first sg. pronoun: Injun very hungry (?3I); Injun glad (?32). Among items of vocabulary, we list here such as show marked change of meaning, or have come to be consideredc haracteristico f American Indianu se of English: Bow' n arrow /'bonera/ fused to one word (as shown by spelling with 'n), ?36; cf. MelanesianP idgin /bonaera/ 'bow.' Broder's iblingo f same sex,' ?26. Heap 'very,' ?29. Medicine'm agic,s omethingi ncomprehensible?,'1 3 . Much 'very,' ?i. Savvy 'know,' ?36. Squaw 'woman, wife' (< Narragansett), ??z, 1o, 18, 32. The spelling sques in ?s probablys tands for /skwa z/, with ae as a graphicd evice to indicate a long vowel. Stawmerr'ed are, ?3-/'stzmara/ or /'st3mar/ (< stomach?) 14. These two types of predicateh ave parallelsi n MelanesianP idgin (/disfela haws i-bigfla/ 'this housei s big'); AustralianP idgin (/drs on kantri ba'lba7m iu 'this is my own country'); Taki-Taki (/ninsi k6ni man/ 'Anansi is a clever man'); Haitian Creole (/u gaso/ 'you are a boy'); etc. 15. Such a constructioni s the source of the predicatem arker /i-/ in Melanesiana nd AustralianP idgin (e.g., /jumi tufeiai -go/ 'the two of us go'). AMERICANI NDIAN PIDGINE NGLISH I7I Suppose 'if,' ??lo, 36; cf. MelanesianP idgin /spos/, Chinese Pidgin /sapoz/ id. Tamahawk, ? 1I. In conclusion, we may say that, so far as can be seen from the present materials, AIPE presents basically the same characteristics of linguistic reductiona nd restructuringa s do the other varieties of pidgin English (cf. the referencesg iven in footnote i). It is worth noting that the most frequenti tems in our list of grammaticalp eculiarities are: (i) replacemento f fricatives by stops; (2) use of me as the only first sg. pronounf orm; (3) use of a single verb form derived from the English simple form; (4) the objective suffix /-om/; (5) loss of the definite and indefinite articles; (6) the equational predicate. These features are common to American Indian, Melanesian, and Chinese Pidgin English; they are also among the earliest features attested in our documentation. Their presence and extent lend fiurthers upport to Hall's suggestion16t hat pidgin English, as a whole, is of basically English origin and structure, going back to substandardE nglish and baby talk of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially as used by sailors, traders, and slavers in dealing with supposedly ignorant, childlike savages. The authorsa re of course aware that the materialp resented in this paper is by no means exhaustive, and will be grateful for indication of further docu- mentationo r attestations of AIPE. i6. Lingua, III (1952), 145-46.