Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

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Bitte_Kein_Lexus
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

My favourite are those who speak in pidgin English, but then use advanced vocabulary, expressions/colloquialisms or turns of phrase.

"Me no understand also. Me not know why. A real conundrum"
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xandreu
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by xandreu »

Expats are not the only English speaking foreigners Khmers encounter. They watch western movies, TV shows, YouTube etc...

They are perfectly aware when we are using 'pigeon' English (which is the term we'd use in the UK for that type of speaking, not baby-talk) that we are doing so in order to help them understand what we're trying to say, not because that's how English is usually spoken.
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Alex
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by Alex »

Some of my Khmer friends speak English better than I do, but even with others, I've never seen the need to simplify things beyond speaking slowly and using a somewhat more basic vocabulary than usual.

I've said it many times and I'll say it again. Coming over from Thailand, English skills in Cambodia never fail to impress me.
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John Bingham
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by John Bingham »

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:26 pm They are perfectly aware when we are using 'pigeon' English (which is the term we'd use in the UK for that type of speaking, not baby-talk)..
It's not "pigeon" English, it's Pidgin - nothing to do with birds.
Pidgin derives from a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business, and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean "business; an action, occupation, or affair"
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bong.kuit
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by bong.kuit »

Is using Khmer grammar (no conjugation, less prepositions etc.) in English akin to "baby English"? Does that imply that Khmer grammar is infantile?
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atst
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by atst »

John Bingham wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 8:52 pm There's a big difference between choosing more commonly understood words and simplifying your sentences to speaking like some moron caveman who spent too long in Pattaya.
Nobody can spend too long in Pattaya :beer3:
I'm standing up, so I must be straight.
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NotYourUncle
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by NotYourUncle »

Neverending_Story wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:41 pm I was at a phone shop yesterday and the (Australian?) guy in front of my did his entire transaction in baby talk. Not a verb conjugated.

Currently sitting in a popular expat bar next to a guy who is talking to the staff exclusively in baby talk.

What would ever possess a native English speaker to say “Tomorrow I go Vietnam” or “She have”?

How are Cambodians ever going to learn to conjugate a verb when the native English speakers they encounter are saying “My friend drink beer too much last night” ?
You'll get the hang of it.. or at least get sick of seeing people nodding without the slightest of clues
pronouns- it/that
as quite obviously, I identify as a f***ing watermelon
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xandreu
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by xandreu »

John Bingham wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:05 pm
xandreu wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:26 pm They are perfectly aware when we are using 'pigeon' English (which is the term we'd use in the UK for that type of speaking, not baby-talk)..
It's not "pigeon" English, it's Pidgin - nothing to do with birds.
Pidgin derives from a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business, and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean "business; an action, occupation, or affair"
I'm going to play the autocorrect card on this one.
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Kammekor
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by Kammekor »

bong.kuit wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:35 pm Is using Khmer grammar (no conjugation, less prepositions etc.) in English akin to "baby English"? Does that imply that Khmer grammar is infantile?
Khmer grammar is very different from English grammar, but I wouldn't call it infantile, because using it in the correct way beyond 'pidgin' Khmer will take quite an effort.

In fact, the few words Khmer generally spoken to foreigners in the main area (let's say Riverside & beyond), could easily be considered pidgin Khmer. :lol:
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Spigzy
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Re: Do you conjugate verbs around Cambodians or just use baby talk?

Post by Spigzy »

I don't hang around riff-raff who can't speak the Queen's English, no such trouble with Cambodians.

I can however point with my lips like a local when needs must.
Meum est propositum in taberna mori,
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
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