pidgin English and "Nix Forstay"

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

-- Doug Wilson 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"?

Doesn't have to be a subordinate clause.  It could be short for "Ich kann nichts verstehen."  Not uncommon in colloquial speech (altho 'kann' would normally be spoken)

>Or is it pidgin- German with English word order, "nix" = "nicht" ("not") +
>"forstay" ("understand")?
Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>The pidgin link is obvious to me; fronted negative is common, with no
>subject, in all pidgins.  Cf. "No can do," "long time no see," etc.  The
>German pronunciation of "nicht" could easily be transmuted to "nix" by a
>nonnative speaker of German, 'ver' [fEr] may become 'for', [St] in German
> easily becomes [st], and the final schwa is often deleted by NNSs.

Already explained the lack of subject and word order.  [st] for standard German [St] is the rule in some dialects, as is the dropping of final [n] on infinitives.  Schwa dropping is also very common in colloquial speech.

Really, this sounds to me more like an an intended attempt by Americans to mock German.
Fritz Juengling