Tây Bồi
Native toVietnam
Extinctby 1980[1]
French pidgin
  • Tây Bồi
Language codes
ISO 639-3tas
Glottologtayb1240

Tây Bồi (Vietnamese: tiếng Tây Bồi),[2] or Vietnamese Pidgin French, was a pidgin spoken by non-French-educated Vietnamese, typically those who worked as servants in French households or milieux during the colonial era. Literally, it means "French (Tây) [of- or spoken by] male servants (Bồi)". During the French colonization period, the majority of household servants for the French were male. The term is used by Vietnamese themselves to indicate that the spoken French language is poor, incorrect and ungrammatical.

Bồi is the Vietnamese phonetic spelling of the French word "boy" (from the English word), which refers to male household servants (it also means "to add" as a verb, which incidentally refers to how this pidgin worked).[3]

The French government/colonizers or protectors opened French public schools (from pre-kindergarten through the Baccalaureat II) staffed by all native French speakers to take care of their compatriots/expatriates' children's education. Vietnamese children were admitted as well if they could pass the entrance examination tailored to their age and grade level. The Vietnamese elite class spoke French, and those with French Baccalaureat diplomas could attend French universities in France and in its colonies. After France's withdrawal from Indochina in 1954, Tây Bồi ceased to be used as a common language as standard French was used and is believed to have become extinct around the 1980s. Today standard French continues to be taught at schools and universities in Vietnam as a second language.

Examples

Tây BồiStandard FrenchLiteral EnglishStandard English
Moi faimJ'ai faimMe hungerI am hungry
Moi tasseMa tasseMe cupMy cup
Lui avoir permission reposIl a la permission de se reposerHim have permission rest [noun]He has permission to rest
Demain moi retour campagneDemain, je retourne à la campagneTomorrow me return [noun] countrysideTomorrow, I return to the countryside
Vous pas argent moi stop travailSi vous ne me payez pas, j'arrêterai de travaillerYou not money, me stop work [noun]If you don't pay me, I'll stop working
Monsieur content aller danserMonsieur est content d'aller danserMister happy to go to danceThe gentleman is happy to go dance
Lui la frapperIl la frappeHim her to hitHe hits her
Bon pas allerBon, n'y va pasGood, not to goGood, don't go
Pas travailJe ne travaillerai pasNot work [noun]I won't work
Assez, pas connaîtreAssez, je n'en sais rienEnough, not to knowEnough, I don't know
Moi compris toi parlerJ'ai compris ce que tu as ditMe understood you to speakI've understood what you've said

(Bickerton 1995: 163)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tây Bồi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Trần Khải (23 May 2012). "Ông Hồ viết tiếng Tây". Việt Báo Daily News (in Vietnamese). Garden Grove, California. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  3. ↑ John E. Reinecke (1971). Pidginization and Creolization of Languages. Oxford University Press. p. 47.
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