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Grammar pedants - help please.

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Diogenes Mar 2020 2:40pm, 5 Mar 2020 45,764 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes I saw this on the Scrapbook thread and thought it would be appreciated here: bbc.com
Northern Exile Mar 2020 2:40pm, 5 Mar 2020 6,033 posts	Quote Pin Northern Exile Has anyone come across any specific examples of pidgin English being spoken? I used to work with an Aussie SAS guy and his first language was Tok Pisin, a version of pidgin that he spoke growing up in Papau New Guinea. Very interesting (and very tough) guy.
Rosehip Mar 2020 4:47pm, 5 Mar 2020 15,220 posts	Quote Pin Rosehip Not pidgin as such, but Singlish - the facility I used to travel to/work at in Singapore had a very multiracial workforce. English was the official language but Singlish also cropped up on the factory floor lah.
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Mar 2020 4:50pm, 5 Mar 2020 31,210 posts	Quote Pin ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ [Ooh, I feel that I should be speaking Synglish!]
um Mar 2020 5:21pm, 5 Mar 2020 1,821 posts	Quote Pin um Singlish is a bit special - I even have a dictionary. Also, they have (I've been told) 27 ways to say yes. Only one actually means 'yes', the rest all mean 'no' but it will take you some time to realise it. Not strictly 'pidgin', but I've come across quite a few Caribbean island specifics - especially when spending any time with the locals. And (sorry) - back to the German structures and orders, I've found the spoken language (whether French, German or supposed English) can be very different to the theoretical language.
Northern Exile Mar 2020 5:44pm, 5 Mar 2020 6,034 posts	Quote Pin Northern Exile I agree with that um. I can think of several examples of perfectly correct written Russian that would never be used in speech unless it had been sucked into common idiomatic usage, gerunds for instance. I think the same would be true of several other Eastern European languages.
Cerrertonia Mar 2020 6:36pm, 5 Mar 2020 12,061 posts	Quote Pin Cerrertonia Amusingly, Tok Pisin is now classified as a creole rather than a pidgin language (it has native speakers, stable grammar and vocabulary, newspapers, textbooks etc.) Not so amusingly, it's killing off the other 800+ languages in Papua New Guinea, which is easily the most linguistically diverse place on Earth. Although most Papuans speak several languages, many of those languages are not well recorded or studied.
Northern Exile Mar 2020 8:31pm, 5 Mar 2020 6,037 posts	Quote Pin Northern Exile Well, I must confess I didn't know any of that. This was just a bloke I used to go out and have the odd pint with. I bow to your superior knowledge [doffs cap]
Columba Mar 2020 10:27pm, 5 Mar 2020 19,408 posts	Quote Pin Columba I like that link, Dio.
JCB Mar 2020 12:55am, 6 Mar 2020 1,012 posts	Quote Pin JCB Great link Dio.