The West African Languages Are Not
Difficult To Pick Up; Nevertheless, There Are An Awful Quantity Of
Them And They Are At The Best Most Imperfect Mediums Of
Communication.
No one who has been on the Coast can fail to
recognise how inferior the native language is to the native's mind
behind it - and the prolixity and repetition he has therefore to
employ to make his thoughts understood.
The great comfort is the wide diffusion of that peculiar language,
"trade English"; it is not only used as a means of
intercommunication between whites and blacks, but between natives
using two distinct languages. On the south-west Coast you find
individuals in villages far from the sea, or a trading station, who
know it, and this is because they have picked it up and employ it in
their dealings with the Coast tribes and travelling traders. It is
by no means an easy language to pick up - it is not a farrago of bad
words and broken phrases, but is a definite structure, has a great
peculiarity in its verb forms, and employs no genders. There is no
grammar of it out yet; and one of the best ways of learning it is to
listen to a seasoned second mate regulating the unloading or
loading, of cargo, over the hatch of the hold. No, my Coast
friends, I have NOT forgotten - but though you did not mean it
helpfully, this was one of the best hints you ever gave me.
Another good way is the careful study of examples which display the
highest style and the most correct diction; so I append the letter
given by Mr. Hutchinson as being about the best bit of trade English
I know.
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