pidgin » pigeon
Spotted in the wild:
- I agree. Do Japan a favour. Abolish eikaiwa losers and parasite JETS. Bring in professional standards and help purge Japan of pidgeon english by ensuring competent educators with real qualifications. (link)
- i have tried online translators but the pidgeon english it spits out doesn’t make sense. (link)
- His awkward manner, pidgeon French, and wanderlust keep him from settling down. (link)
Analyzed or reported by:
- Arnold Zwicky at Language Log (Still on the eggcorn beet)
1
Commentary by Philip Newton , 2005/02/15 at 5:26 pm
This is what I used to think it was, when our music teacher told us he spoke “pigeon German” — a phrase that made no sense to me at the time. (I must have been about 12 or so.)
2
Commentary by Rod Williams , 2005/08/25 at 4:16 pm
There’s a variation of this in The New York Times, 8/25/05, an Op-Ed piece ironically entitled “Lost In Translation,” by Thomas X. Hannes.
“…unless there is an interpreter… a message as simple as ‘look behind the grade school’ is impossible to convey in hand signals and pigeon English.”