pidgin English and "Nix Forstay"

[Peter A. McGraw]

--On Sunday, February 29, 2004 3:35 PM -0500 "Douglas G. Wilson"
<douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

> But "nix-forstay" appears to be German, i.e., "nicht[s] versteh-". Why is
> it not "forstay-nix" (= "[ich] verstehe nichts" = "[I] understand nothing"
> or "[ich] verstehe nicht" = "[I] don't understand")?
>
> Is the expression from a subordinate clause like "... weil ich nichts
> verstehe" = "... because I don't understand anything"?
>
> Or is it from a word like "Nichtsversteher" = "one who understands
> nothing"?
>
> Or is "Nicht[s] verstehe" alone a conventional utterance in some form of
> German?
>
> Or is it pidgin-German with English word order, "nix" = "nicht" ("not") +
> "forstay" ("understand")? [This interpretation seems likely to me, and it
> is perhaps supported by a memoir of 1910:
> http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/Biltmore_Project/Esser30oct1910.pdf ]
>
> [Maybe the answer is trivially obvious to anyone well-versed in German ...
> but not to me.]

The answer is far from obvious to someone well-versed in German, but to me
an explanation involving English word order is equally nonsensical.
"Nothing understand"???

Peter Mc.


*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************