ABSTRACT
Of the hundreds of pidgin languages which exist round the world, many are English-based, though it is far from being the case that the pidgin partnership, so to speak, always includes English. The presence of English, for example, would tend to drive out the use of pidgin. Even a casual study of the vocabulary and idiom of the Pidgin English will turn up much that is charming and suggestive of great ingenuity and playful creative power. English has survived in India as a resource that transcends cursing, and even transcends its immense administrative convenience. Australian English implies a character that is by turns laconic, aggressive, idealistic, sentimental and often shrewdly and crudely humorous. The English language may be held suspect in Quebec, and perhaps not unreservedly adored in Cardiff, but its standing remains quite high in, for example, Calcutta.
