The Kiautschou German pidgin is a minor extinct
pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
spoken by German-educated Chinese in the
Kiautschou Bay concession
The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German leased territory in Imperial and Early Republican China from 1898 to 1914. Covering an area of , it centered on Jiaozhou ("Kiautschou") Bay on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula (g ...
.
Background
There are records of some sort of a German pidgin developing since 1898.
However, despite the high number of Germans within the concession, due to trade reasons, many preferred to use
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
instead.
Thus, vigorous promotion of education of the German language commenced, and a slow transition from English to German began in the concession.
Sample sentences
The German pidgin never fully developed on its own, instead branching off of the pre-existing English pidgin. Though not extensively recorded, it can be inferred many different local variations exist.
The following are samples of the pidgin:
References
{{Reflist
German-based pidgins and creoles
Extinct languages of Asia
Chinese-based pidgins and creoles
Languages attested from the 20th century
Languages extinct in the 20th century