Kinakusten

DESCRIPTION: Swedish/English pidgin. Hauling shanty. "Fran Canton till Macao, Fran Hong King o Luliao, The sodgers and sailors de sjungit hennes lore." "I no like you-hu, You no like me-hee, You all belong to sodgers, You no belong to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 187, "Kinakusten" (1 dialect text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Das Sampanmadchen (The Sampan Maiden)" (general feeling)
NOTES [61 words]: Hugill claims this song is in Swedish/English pidgin, but looking at the text, I incline to think it is a deliberate mangling of English intended to sound like a pidgin. Frankly, it reminds me of the sort of stuff that turns up in musicals like "South Pacific" and "The King and I" where Americans are supposedly communicating with locals who have limited English. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HSoSe187

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