Kjakhta pidgin

[John Dunn]

Further to yesterday's postings there is an article on the Kjakhta pidgin by Günter Neumann: 'Zur chinesisch-russischen Behelfssprache von Kjachta', Die Sprache, XII, Vienna, 1966, pp. 237-51.  It seems that the codification question is a little more complicated than I thought: there may not have been any grammars, but on the Chinese side dictionaries were compiled, in which the Russian words were 'transcribed' using Chinese characters.  It seems that the Chinese were keen to encourage their traders to learn Russian (or at least the pidgin), allegedly because they didn't want the Russian traders to learn Chinese (see also G. Osokin, Na granice Mongolii. Ocherki i materialy k ètnografii jugo-zapadnogo Zabajkal'ja.  Spb., 1906, pp. 57-9).   

John Dunn.

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