Parrot who spoke Chinuk

[Christopher Roth]

Great anecdote.  Let's not exclude the possibility that the author,  
Eisensohn, is muddling up different speech varieties—from her own  
experience, from stereotypes at large—in representing Bemis's speech.

Someone tell me if I'm misremembering, but I don't think -um is used  
in South Seas Pidgin, but it was marked the transitive in the today- 
little-understood American Indian Pidgin that survives today—and this  
was mostly true by the 1920s as well—only as a media stereotype.

Hard to sort out the different influences on this one, but it's a  
great nugget.

Chris

On Feb 25, 2008, at 7:51 PM, David D Robertson wrote:

> I couldn't resist adding a new story to this old thread.  (Sorry, I  
> don't
> have the promised quote about Le Jeune handy!)
>
> In the book "Idaho Chinese Lore" by Sister M. Alfreda Eisensohn,  
> published
> in 1970 by the excellent Caxton Printers of Caldwell, Idaho, page  
> 86 bears
> these anecdotes about Polly Bemis, a Chinese-American woman  
> (1853-1933) of
> the Warren, Idaho area:
>
> "[T]he parrot began to chatter, 'What does Polly want for  
> breakfast?'...The
> Chinese woman was puzzled and wanted to know how the bird knew her
> name...Polly called it a 'talkee bird'.  She said, 'This is the  
> first talkee
> bird me see um since I leave um Shanghai.  Most birds in Shanghai  
> talkee
> hi-yu bad; this talkee bird talkee nice.'...Polly left Grangeville in
> 1923...'Maybe I come back next year,' Polly declared, 'it take hiyu  
> money,
> but maybe I come back.'"
>
> This is great stuff, almost the only quoted use of CJ material (hi- 
> yu) by a
> Chinese immigrant that I've ever found.  And some of the only CJ- 
> related
> speech I've found from Idaho.  You scholars of pidgin languages  
> will notice
> Polly spoke in a recognizably Chinese Pidgin English-influenced  
> way.  But
> that "-um" on the transitive verbs sounds more like South Seas Pidgin
> English influence, or conceivably even inspired by (stereotypical?)  
> American
> Indian Pidgin English.
>
> Thanks to my friend Josh for bringing this book my way.  I can  
> recommend his
> shop, Time Bomb, for visitors to Spokane.
>
> --Dave R.
>
>
>
> On Fri, 13 May 2005 14:09:38 -0700, Leanne Riding  
> <riding at TIMETEMPLE.COM> wrote:
>
>> Polly tikke lebiskwie!
>>
>> :)
>>
>> -- Leanne (http://timetemple.com)
>>
>>
>> On Wednesday, September 29, 2004, at 04:11 , David Robertson wrote:
>>
>>> Did you know...the editor of the Kamloops Wawa, Father Le Jeune,
>>> once tried
>>> to teach a parrot Chinuk Wawa?
>>>
>>> I read this in the Petites Annales of the Oblate missionaries, and
>>> I'll dig
>>> up a quotation for your enjoyment.
>>>
>>> --Dave R
>>>
>>> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond
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>>>
>>>
>>
>> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond  
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> the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!
>> ===================================================================== 
>> ====
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond  
> privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!


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