Long time no see

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... "It originates in the pidgin English phrases used by the colonial
>British and Americans in the Far East and dates probably from the
>beginning of the 20th century. Expatriates and servicemen imported the
>phrase on their visits home, when it became well established on both sides
>of the Atlantic. ... The variant 'long time no see - short time buckshee'
>(i.e. free) was how servicemen hoped they would be greeted by their
>favourite prostitute after a long absence."

I went over to the library. I failed to find the authoritative but
imaginary "Comprehensive Dictionary of Coolie Chinese in the Major Coastal
Dialects" (London, 1899). However, I found a few items.

Partridge (1984, Appendix) discusses the expression "long time no see". He
states that it comes from Chinese/pidgin in its British use but he
expresses uncertainty about its origin in American English. [Parsimony
impels me to assume Chinese/pidgin origin in American also.] Partridge
asserts that the Chinese equivalent is "hao jiu mei jian" (without any
reference).

The extended variant 'long time no see -- short time buckshee' is dated
from about 1960 (Hong Kong).

[I presume 'buckshee' = 'free' is a version of the non-Chinese 'baksheesh'
-- a wander-word of the Empire -- one of many which refute any Francophone
assertions that English does not embrace all cultures. (^_^)]

[Of course 'short time' is a conventionalism in the 'pidgin' of East Asian
prostitution: it's transparent, denoting a brief encounter, lasting perhaps
30 minutes (no all-night stuff) ... More experienced hands are invited to
correct me on this.]

Recent Chinese dictionaries show "hao jiu bu jian" and also "hao jiu mei
jian" as exact equivalents of "long time no see".

Huang's dictionary (1970) gives the Cantonese equivalent as "hóu noih móuh
gin". I think the third character is a Cantonese negative (= 'wu' in
'Mandarin'); I don't know what the  second character is.

The earliest exactly pertinent entry which I found was in the Yale
"Dictionary of Spoken Chinese" (1966). "Long time no see" is explicitly
(and in distinction to 'synonymous' expressions) equated to "hén jyôu
méijyàn" [^ upside-down]. [The first character = 'very', I guess, with a
2nd-tone diacritic to indicate its realization in the current phonetic
environment?] The alternative with 'hao' does not appear here.

I like something similar or equivalent to 'hen jiu' (or 'chang jiu' if
attested) better than 'hao jiu' as the original form because I think 'hao
jiu' might have given 'good while', at least as an alternative, in English.
[I fully concede that my preference is very weakly supported!]

-- Doug Wilson