Why pigeon English and not magpie English etc?

Answer 1

It's pidgin English.

A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. Pidgins have simple grammars and few synonyms, serving as auxiliary contact languages. They are learned as second languages rather than natively.

For more of the Pidgin language go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin

Pidgin English

Originally a trade jargon developed between the British and the Chinese in the 19th century, but now commonly and loosely used to mean any kind of ‘broken’ or ‘native’ version of the English language.

Pidgin is believed to have been a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business. There have been many forms of pidgin English, often with common elements because of the wide range of contacts made by commercial shipping (see pidgin languages). The original pidgin English of the Chinese ports combined words of English with a rough-and-ready Chinese grammatical structure. Melanesian pidgin English (also known as Tok Pisin) combines English and the syntax of local Melanesian languages. For example, the English pronoun ‘we’ becomes both yumi (you and me) and mifela (me and fellow, excluding you).

I got this from the web to be sure but that's how I remember it. We discussed this before in college.

Answer 2

Good question. Magpie English. Its probably the way pigeons wander hither and dither without a plan. Although the same cannot be said of Pigeon English itself.

Answer 3

It's spelled "Pidgin." It has nothing to do with pigeons. I don't know where the word comes from, but it refers to mishmash languages that incorporate some English. Hawaiian Pidgin was developed by children of migrant workers of many ethnicities who played together and largely raised themselves while their parents slaved away in the fields.

Answer 4

Pigeons and magpies are two completely different birds.

Answer 5

I would imagine that it's a bastardisation of a cross between english and the west african language, pigone. It most likely changed the way pratts today make up thier own words in an attempt to sound "cool".
knobs.

Answer 6

"Pidgen" english is a term that was coinded back when slaves were still around. They made up their own language so that their white owners could not understand what they were talking about. Pidgeon is just another term for a code name/

Answer 7

I hate magpies, we got lots round here, they are greedy noisey birds

Answer 8

because magpies are quite estute you know

Answer 9

The term is "pidgin" and has nothing to do with flying rats