论近代中国最早的洋泾浜语——广东葡语的历史渊源和影响

On the Historical Origin and Impact of Canton-Portuguese

没有屈折形态且学起来简单的"洋泾浜语"①,是一种因为对外贸易与交流需要而形成的语言变体或贸易语言。中葡混合语"广东葡语"或"澳门葡语"就是明末清初中国对葡贸易交流而形成的最早的一种洋泾浜语言。19世纪初至鸦片战争前后,随英美殖民主义者取代葡萄牙成为中国主要对外贸易对象,中英混合语即"洋泾浜英语"逐渐形成,"广东葡语"逐渐失去其重要地位。但是,"广东葡语"对"广东英语"产生了不少影响。通过对"广东葡语"产生、变化及其消亡过程的研究,在一定程度上能够揭示出近代初期中国社会变迁的脉络。

The inflexionless, easy-to-learn pidgin language is a sort of linguistic variation purposefully created for the communication between one group and the other, usually for the sake of mutual trading. Therefore, a pidgin language can be a trade language. And Canton-Portuguese or Macao-Portuguese—the earlieast pidgin language in the modern times of China—came out just for the above purpose. Canton-Portuguese made its debut after 1557 during the late Ming Dynasty when the Portuguese occupied Macao and became popular in the whole port of Canton after the opening of Canton in the early Qing Dynasty till the early years of the reign of Qing's Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795). From the early 19th c. to the First Opium War period, however, British and American colonialists turned out to be the main traders in Canton and Shanghai, Pidgin Portuguese was, as a result, rapidly replaced by Pidgin English, although the former greatly influenced the latter. Canton-Portuguese is a product of the early foreign trade of China and a by-product of the first batch of Western colonialists' infiltration into China. The study of its characteristics and its birth, growth and death will mirror China's vicissitudes in the early modern times as well as the orbit of Pidgin English.