![]() ![]() But how and why did such a grammatically awkward phrase become a widely accepted part of American speech? How many times has the average person been greeted with the phrase “long time, no see” after running into an old acquaintance? My guess is plenty. Who First Said “Long Time, No See” And In Which Language? Alternatively, it may have been coined by native speakers in imitation of Native American pidgin (as in the pidgin used in cinematic portrayals, as in the language spoken by the character Tonto in the 1930s). If from Chinese pidgin, it may be of US Chinatown origin, or alternatively British Far East. It may be compared to the Cantonese phrase 好耐冇見 ( Jyutping: hou2noi6 mou5 gin3) and the Mandarin phrase 好久不見 ( Trad.) / 好久不见 ( Simp.), or hǎojiǔ bù jiàn (Pinyin), which is translated literally as “long time, no see” (or, word for word, “very long-time no see”). The phrase is often portrayed as originating either in Native American or in Chinese pidgin English. Long time no see you.” This example is intended to reflect usage in American Indian Pidgin English. Drannan’s Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, in which a Native American man is recorded as greeting the narrator by saying, “Good morning. The earliest appearance of the phrase “long time no see” in print recorded in Oxford English Dictionary dates to 1901, found in W. ![]() “Ma-am-long time no see wife-want go to Colombo see wife.” OriginĪn early use of the phrase, though not as a greeting, is from Lieut.-Colonel James Campbell’s Excursions, Adventures, and Field-Sports in Ceylon (published 1843): The lexicographer Eric Partridge notes that the phrase is akin to “ no can do” and “ chop chop“. It may derive ultimately from an English pidgin such as that spoken by Native Americans or Chinese, or an imitation of such. The phrase is a multiword expression that cannot be explained by the usual rules of English grammar due to the irregular syntax. ![]() Its origins in American English appear to be an imitation of broken or pidgin English, and despite its ungrammaticality, it is widely accepted as a fixed expression. “ Long time no see” or “ Long time, no see” is an English expression used as a greeting by people who have not seen each other for a while. ![]()
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