Any 19th Century Mandarin Pirate Speakers?

[JamesPMeyer]

Hello anyone who speaks pirate!

I'm writing a scene based in 19th century England, where a young boy is taking lessons from an English teacher. The boy's pretending to be a pirate (the Barbary pirate Aruj) when he blurts out in Mandarin: "Pirates are coming to pillage and murder." His teacher doesn't speak Mandarin, so asks what the boy just said.

How might a pirate say such a phrase in the early 19th century? I appreciate ideas for colorful pirate speak! The phrase needs to include pirates coming as well as murder.

I'll be writing this out phonetically -- is that what pinyin is? The boy is talking about himself, but his teacher will later repeat the same phrase refering to others, so I'm avoiding anything resembling pronouns.

Thank you for your help with this odd request!

James

[hbuchtel]

How about: "儿儿儿儿儿，木材震动了啊！"

Just a joke, sorry. But seriously, why would Aruj be speaking Mandarin Chinese?

From Wikipedia: "Sources refer to him as a Greek, as a Turk or as an Albanian by origin."

EDIT: I just realized that it is probably the boy who is Chinese, is this the case?

[JamesPMeyer]

Yes, they boy's Chinese -- certainly not the original Aruj, the eldest of the notorious Barbarossa brothers. :-) Wish I got your joke! Google Translator doesn't do it justice.

The boy's dressed as Aruj, wearing a turban on his head and a cape upon his shoulders. This brief exchange would seem a toss away until the phrase returns much later when the boy's tutor finds himself having to communicate something dire to a Chinese official who speaks no English.

Still hoping to find a pirate or two out there to help me out, thanks!

[imron]

Wish I got your joke! Google Translator doesn't do it justice.

Ar, ar, ar, ar, ar, shiver me timbers.

[hbuchtel]

The Google Translate version is pretty funny : "Children children children children children, wood shake ah!"

I was thinking that a boy who travelled from China to England in the 1800s might not be speaking Mandarin, but rather the local dialect from the area he grew up in. Is there a back story for the boy?

Just to throw this out there, I could imagine a pirate saying 海盗来喽！挡我者死！(Haidao lai lou! Dangwozhe si!) (Here come the pirates! If you try to stop me you die!)

For the Chinese experts out there, would it be 'dangwozhe si' or 'dang wo zhe si'?

As an aside, I just came across this wikipedia page about the amazing Ching Shih, a "prominent pirate in middle Qing China, who terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century."

"A brilliant Cantonese pirate, she commanded 1800 ships and more than 80,000 pirates — men, women, and even children. She challenged the world superpower empires at the time such as the British, Portuguese and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, she would become one of China and Asia's strongest pirates, and one of world history's most powerful pirates. She was also one of the few pirate captains to retire from piracy."

[Kenny同志]

Would a Chinese pirate call himself 海盜? I doubt that.

[萌就一個字一控一輩子]

James, Chinese pirates don't say those things like the European ones. And in the earily 19th century there are almost none Chinese pirates out there, more or less there are "River Pirates" which is "河盜" or "水賊". Their leader usually refer themself as "King" (大王), so more then likely, a Chinese pirate at that time will be shouting something like... "大王有令,男的殺了,女的和貨一起押回寨裡!!" (As King's Command! Slay those men, and take those womens and goods back to our fortress!!)

The standard slogan for Chinese Bandit are much more fun...

此山是我開,此樹是我栽,要想打此過,留下買路財!!牙蹦半個說不字,一刀一個不管埋!!

I own this mountain, I planted the trees, you want to get pass here, you going to pay the toll!! Anyone dare to say no, I will slan you all and leave you here to rot!!

[JamesPMeyer]

I appreciate the posts -- thanks. The boy's family is speaking the language of Beijing from around 1832, so I suppose the dialect would be one that preceded Mandarin. hbuchtel: the story is set in an alternate history where China has risen to power, not England. The boy's father in the Chinese Empire's ambassador to England, a backwater country. (Like so many others hopeless souls, I'm working on a novel that has about .0001% chance of ever being published.)

I love your suggestion: "Here come the pirates! If you try to stop me you die!" The whole pirate business is a minor part -- something the boy and his tutor do for amusement during the boy's Latin lessons. The boy blurts out one or two sentences in his native tongue, which I will weave into the plot much later, when the boy's tutor finds he needs to urgently communicate with a Chinese speaker that soldiers are coming to kill, but he only knows the boy's one or possible two short phrases. I'm thinking "Here come the pirates!" might work nicely.

You offer great phrases 萌就一個字一控一輩子 -- certainly something a twelve-year-old might say! I'll have to think how a Chinese constable might respond to hearing such a phrase from an unknown Englander just before dawn.

Thanks again for the great tips! Regarding context, this might give you a better idea of the story's setting:

The world is ending—so say placard-wielding fanatics in a time when science is suspect and reason scorned. Political and religious factions struggle against a government they are convinced is reshaping the very fabric of society, while the country crumbles and power bleeds to the far corners of the world.

The year is 1832. An empire of steam rules the seas, leaving England a backward, impoverished island, lost in the shadow of the empire it never was.

CECIL BARNSWORTH is a reluctant, bookish man who finds himself pulled into a series of seemingly harmless projects by childhood friend Grayson Crane, now a dashing barrister and member of the House of Commons. Yet as each project unfolds, Cecil is thrust further into confrontation until the fate of England hinges upon choices only he can make. But to save his country, Cecil must befriend the enemy—and postpone his own death. Can this unlikeliest of heroes find a way to rise above his flawed nature and save England, and perhaps himself as well?

Set in a time of social upheaval not unlike our own, BOOK'S TITLE HERE is a tale of sorrow, friendship and forbidden love, an ultimately triumphant story that weaves together an endearing cast of characters while illuminating the struggle that rages between faith and reason.

[li3wei1]

leaving England a backward, impoverished island, lost in the shadow of the empire it never was.

for an 'alternate history' this sounds an awful lot like the England I'm living in.

[JamesPMeyer]

And perhaps the United States of the not-so-distant future. It's a dystopia of sorts, based in the past but with overtones resonating strongly in our present.