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{{quote|'''Vietnamese Hooker:''' Hey baby! You got girlfriend Vietnam?
'''Joker:''' Not just this minute!
'''Hooker:''' Well baby, me so horny! Me so horny, [[Me Love You Long Time]].
|''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''}}
When a character or group needs to be portrayed as foreign, primitive, and/or inferior in intellect, yet still able to communicate
This trope is [[Older Than Print]], going all the way back to Chaucer, and is [[Truth in Television]] - [[The Other Wiki]] refers to this as [[wikipedia:Pidgin|pidgin language]], and it is rarely pointed out that omitting speech elements is not actually incorrect for many languages. Many languages already do—such as Chinese, Russian, American Sign Language, and especially [[Japanese Language|Japanese]]. In English, "Me go Seattle three day ago, visit Uwajimaya, buy fifteen manga. Me new manga very good; you want read?" is still understandable, and many languages never employ much more complexity than that. There is already a precedent for people copying the syntax of their native tongue into English (e.g., native speakers of Italian, Irish, Yiddish, German).
Therefore, while not as [[Race Tropes|overtly racial]] as its [[Sub-Trope]] [[Asian Speekee Engrish]], the implications of this trope are [[Unfortunate Implications|likely to be just as unkind]], especially if the work is taking on a "superior versus inferior" viewpoint. On that note, where the inferior race is often shown speaking pidgin English and often referring to themselves in third person, the "superior" beings might use [[Spock Speak]] or [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]] to contrast the barbarism of the other group.
This trope is quite similar to [[Hulk Speak]], though even non-combatants can or will use it. If a character speaks English 'poorly', but can handle their own language just fine, it's [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue]]; in some cases where this is applied to aliens or sufficiently strange creatures, it is a form of [[Aliens Speaking English]].
One might consider English this generally going by [[Altum Videtur|conventional Latin rules]], which is where "no split infinitive" comes from — Latin, like most languages ''besides'' English, has single-word infinitives which aren't easily split). For a long time Chinese and ASL were sometimes considered "deficient" languages because they lacked the extra words English uses.
Unrelated to [[You Can't Get Ye Flask]], except in the sense that we suck compared to [[Master Computer|computer overlords]]. Compare to [[Hulk Speak]] and [[Strange Syntax Speaker]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Xiaoxing from ''[[Real Bout High School]]'' is a Chinese transfer student whose grasp of the Japanese language is somewhat limited. To be fair, she hasn't been in Japan for very long. However, even her thoughts are presented this way; she might just be a [[Third Person Person]]. Also, as a subversion, she isn't treated as "inferior"; other characters don't even mention her language problems, and she's a valuable member of the group.
* Shampoo from ''[[Ranma ½]]'' is also Chinese, and speaks in a similar manner. Oddly enough, she and the Jusenkyo Guide are the ''only'' Chinese characters who exclusively talk this way - Mousse is as Chinese as them and even talks in the [[Tohoku Regional Accent]]. In Shampoo's case, this is apparently blamed on learning a language by instructional tape rather than conversation; the official dub's adaptation of this quirk into ''broken'' English has the [[Unfortunate Implication]] of fans assuming she is much stupider than she is.
{{quote|'''Ranma''': Who'd want to date a stupid selfish cat girl like you?
'''Shampoo''' ''(pushing Ranma into Koi pond)'': [[I Take Offense to That Last One|Shampoo selfish, not stupid.]] }}
:* Her Mandarin in the dub is almost worse than her English - though this is more than justifiable, considering there are well over ten major "dialects" of Chinese which are generally less mutually intelligible than, say, Swedish and Norwegian, or Swedish and German. In light of that, [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue|she speaks her native language well enough]].
* Ikuto/Keenan from ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' speaks somewhat pidgin Japanese/English, due to having been raised by Digimon. However, for some reason, the rest of the digimon speak ''perfect'' Japanese/English, including the two who were specifically his parental figures.
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', I-Pin's Japanese is rendered in the manga as written sloppily to the point of being nearly unreadable. Granted, she is from Hong Kong and normally speaks Chinese, and doesn't even attempt to speak Japanese at first - it helps that she's about the same age as Reborn and Lambo. I-Pin becomes more fluent as she gets older during the 10-year period the story occurs in.
* Kuu Fei in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', in both Japanese ''and'' English - she's studying one while still learning the other. The DelRey English translation just renders this as pidgin. [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue|Her best moments have her speaking in her native Chinese]].
* Ling Yao of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' hilariously invokes this when trying to weasel out of fixing the collateral damage brought upon the town of Rush Valley.
{{quote|'''Edward Elric''' ''(points to Ling)'': This guy and his little entourage should be paying for everything!
'''Ling''': So solly, I no understand much language of this country. Okay, bye-bye now!
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Superman]]'' has nearly every incarnation of Bizarro. "[[Superman: The Animated Series|You no am Superman!]] ''Me'' am Superman!" Subverted in that characters have come to learn '[[Bizarro Speak]]' as a recognized language. Bizarro isn't stupid, just complicated (and homicidal).
** ''Extremely'' complicated - it's practically impossible to say which parts of the phrase are to be inverted or misconjugated. He says the opposite of what he means, but [[Depending on the Writer]], that would mean "You no am Superman" could mean "You are Superman," "''I'' am not Superman," or "I am Superman," or even "I am Bizarro" (because Bizarro is the opposite of Superman, you'd expect him to switch their names). And since even the comic has more than one version of the character, it can even mean "you are not Superman."
* ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'' comics have the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Hulk Speak]], though he doesn't do as much talking as most other incarnations. Count on at least one of the people he's trying to smash at the moment to tell him third-person speaking is a sign of conceit.
** Miek is an example from the ''[[Planet Hulk]]'' storyline, though strictly speaking he actually ''doesn't'' speak English - his speech is just translated by Sakaaran talkboxes, and "is [verb]ing" is the form he uses for pretty much every verb in every context. In general, his lack of aptitude for speech is implied to be due to his people not naturally communicating verbally, but by "chemming".
* Miranda Cross from ''[[Ruse]]'' uses a variant similar to Miek's example. {{spoiler|Considering she's with the Negation and possibly a [[Eldritch Abomination|Lawbringer]], [[Obfuscating Stupidity|it's probably deliberate]].}}
* Grimlock from the ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' comics. He's even specifically ''noted'' to not be dumb, at least in comics where [[Author Appeal|Furman takes over]] - he just has problem with speech circuits. [[Obfuscating Stupidity|He uses underestimation by others for his own good]]. Note that his original toy lists his intelligence as a 7 out of 10 (compared to poor Sludge's 3), decently above-average.
** To put this in perspective, if Optimus Prime is sidelined, Grimlock's generally accepted as the next most-capable leader in the good guys, across almost all media in which he appears. Someone else got the job in [[Transformers (film)|the movie]], and gets gunned down in the next fight; Grimlock is not only the most prominent old-school survivor in the movie, he led an army in revolution in a subplot.
* Played straight in ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'': Natalya Zamyatin is a Russian secret agent whose English is described as being "beyond broken", making her sound somewhat stupid. However, whenever she has a chance to speak in Russian, [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue|she waxes loquacious]]. While not explicitly [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]], she is well aware of the overall effect.
{{quote|'''Natalya''' (in Russian): "<Thank Christ! I sound like a ''retard'' when I try to speak English!>"
'''Agent 355''' (an American, also speaking Russian): "<Slow down. Who ''is'' you?>" }}
** In the epilogue, decades later, one character remarks on meeting Natalya and being impressed with her excellent English. An older character who knew her during this time laughs at this.
* Subverted in the post-Zero Hour ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' with [[Shape Shifter|Chameleon]], who starts out speaking none of the language the other characters use, and spends quite a while gradually learning the language and speaking it very brokenly... right up until [[Wham! Episode|the payoff]] of an [[Arc]] which [[The Reveal|reveals]], among other things, that he's been perfectly fluent for quite a while and was simply [[Obfuscating Stupidity|concealing it]] so that nobody would suspect him of impersonating certain key figures.
* Corollary: Starfire of [[DC Comics]] can leap over the whole hurdle of communication by kissing someone to learn their language. Any brief physical contact will do, granted - she just likes to kiss.
* Vlad in ''[[Hack Slash]]'' talks in broken English, thanks to being brought up in isolation by a reclusive Czech-American butcher who didn't speak English very well himself.
* In the ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' comics, the Black Widow speaks English this way, {{spoiler|until it's revealed she's actually Natasha Romanova impersonating Yelena Bolova, and consequently imitating her comparatively lacking grasp of the English language.}}
* Yondu Udonta of ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]'' spinoff ''[[Guardians of the Galaxy]]'', originally spoke like this. However, when the Guardians got their own series, he'd become quite articulate... even as he [[Character Development|became more of a believable alien tribal shaman]] and less of a [[Noble Savage]] in blue body paint.
** In the revamped ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', a telepathic Russian dog named Cosmo conveys his thoughts to others in a thick Russian accent, despite the fact that Cosmo is only directing his thoughts, and can convey them to people perfectly no matter what language they speak.
* In ''[[Final Crisis]]'', Superman notes that Overman speaks English this way because
* Cleaner Slugs from ''[[Green Lantern]]'' comics are used by other species as literal organic garbage disposals. They'd probably get more respect if they could use pronouns.
* One short story from ''[[Empowered]]'' had [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|princess Arkashia]] and a [[Husky Russkie]]-like guy who talked that way.
* A [[Thor]] [http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2152242.html story] has Amadeus Cho drugging Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of destruction, turning her into Hathor, goddess of love... who talks like a [[LOLcats|LOL Cat]] (someone [[Sadly Mythtaken|confused her with Bast]])! [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* [[Krypto the Superdog]], in a sort of meta-example, has his thoughts presented to the reader this way to emphasize the difference between the thought processes and language uses of dogs and humans.
** Similarly, Dex-Starr from the [[GL Red Lantern Corps/Characters|Red Lantern Corps]] in the ''[[Green Lantern]]'' comics does this for the same reasons, although his thoughts are usually verbalized by his ring.
== Fan Works ==
* The clumsily written fanfic ''[[Lisa Is Pregnant]]'' reads like this. "You awake. Bart is d'oh."
* [[Ranma ½|Shampoo]] still speaks this way in ''[[My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character]]'', despite the setting's version of the [[Translation Convention]] making her as fluent in English as she is in her native dialect of Chinese. This hasn't been explained in-universe; [[Word of God]] is that she does it on purpose to hide her fluency, and gets away with it because people expect her to speak this way.
== Film ==
* Neytiri in ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' switches between Na'vi
* The mutants in the obscure [[René Laloux]] film ''[[Gandahar]]'' (called ''Light Years'' in the English translation) said everything in both the past and future tense (example: "was will be" instead of "is").
** {{spoiler|However, they play with the trope; the mutants are trying to tell the main character that he needs to [[Time Travel]]...}}
* ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''. "Me love you long time."
* [[
* The [[Eenee Meenee Miny Moai|Moai]] in ''[[Night at the Museum]]''. "Dumb dumb bring me gum gum?"
** You better run run, from Atilla the Hun Hun.
* Averted
* In ''[[A Bug's Life]]'', Dim the beetle has very simplified speech.
* Examples from
** To begin with, ''Nevada Smith'' (1966).
* From ''[[Alexander]]'', the Persians (and much of the Greeks/Macedonians) speak fairly and eloquently ("If only you were not a pale reflection of my mother's heart"), whilst the Baktrian Roxane speaks in this manner: "Great man, Alexander? You I kill now." Potentially justified in showcasing that Roxane was not very fluent in the native language of the Greeks, while her father Oxyartes speaks it perfectly
* Subverted in, of all things, an outtake shown during the ending credits of ''[[Rush Hour]]'' when [[Jackie Chan]] points out that Chris Tucker cannot speak even three words of Chinese.
** Though perhaps ends up proving a real-life example when Jackie berates him by saying "Now you see how difficult I am!"
* ''[[Borat]]'', very, ''very'' deliberately.
* Mongo
{{quote|'''Mongo:''' Mongo only pawn in game of life.}}
* In the 1975 film ''[[The Wind and The Lion]]'', the concept is parodied by the use of an old vaudeville joke. U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, seated at a diplomatic dinner next to a Japanese representative, asks him as each course is served, "Likee fishee?" and "Likee soupee?" (the "pidgin" English of the period); at the dinner's end, the Japanese gentleman rises and delivers a long and eloquent toast in English to President Theodore Roosevelt, and then, seating himself by Hay, turns to him and asks, "Likee speechee?" The same bit is used in one of the Charlie Chan films.
* Played for laughs in ''[[Fear Of A Black Hat]]''. A video is shown with an attractive, Asian singer with an impressively booming voice, but when she is interviewed, she can barely speak a word of English. The real singer, an overweight, unattractive woman, then confronts her. This was a parody of the video for "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)", which also featured a beautiful woman who, it later came out, did not do the actual singing. You can compare the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_F74xBvkk original] to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9rJpomD-U parody] yourself.
* In ''[[7 Faces of Dr. Lao]]'', the titular wizard casually switches back and forth between this and speaking perfect English.
* Vanko from ''[[Iron Man 2]]'' feigns this with Hammer, basically because he doesn't like him. Also, it serves as [[Obfuscating Stupidity]], leading Hammer and his guards to underestimate Vanko.
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'''Wendy''': Squaw no get-um firewood. Squaw go home! }}
* The Russians in ''[[One, Two, Three]]''. "We have emergency meeting with Swiss Trade Delegation. They send us twenty car-loads of cheese. Totally unacceptable... [[Comically Missing the Point|full of holes.]]"
== Literature ==
* Seemingly averted in [[J. R. R.
** One character speaking sub-fluently is Ghan-buri-Ghan, though it's [[
* Subverted in the ''[[Phule's Company]]'' novels. Tuskanini, one of the Legionnaires of the titular military company
* ''Five Get Into a Fix'' by [[Enid Blyton]] has Aily, a Welsh girl with extremely broken English ("Aily hide", "Aily not tell"), but [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue|speaking beautiful Welsh phrases]] no one is able to understand.
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' has the Hork-Bajir, who talk in very broken English with some of their own language thrown in. It's said by many characters that Hork-Bajir are "not the geniuses of the galaxy" - but in what appears to be an unintended subversion, the books that feature them heavily have shown them to demonstrate [[Book Dumb|street smarts]] that exceed their linguistic skills.
** It's later revealed that the trope is justified. The Hork-Bajir's intelligence and language skills were being kept down and manipulated by an ancient conspiracy on their own planet. An alien race originally created them for ecological purposes and actively worked to keep them as dumb as possible so they wouldn't discover the truth. The low-language skills were intentional, as it prevented smarter members of the race from conveying complex concepts they had grasped to the slower members - e.g., a Hork-Bajir genius that lacked the ability to represent abstract elements in his language. When he said an etching was of a friend, others heard that he was insisting the markers were the friend, which lead them to believe he was crazy.
* [[Anthony Boucher]]'s science-fiction story ''Barrier'' presents a future in which this has been done deliberately: only four languages remain extant, and all of them have been "regularized": there are no longer any irregular verbs ("is" becomes "bees"), all plurals are formed by adding s or es ("men" is now "mans"), articles have been dropped completely, and so forth. It sounds odd, but in fact probably would be considerably easier to learn.
* In [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''[[Chanur Saga]]'', the Mahendo'sat, though no more nor less intelligent than the other oxygen-breathing space-faring species, have a difficult time learning the languages of other species. When speaking to other species, their merchants use a pidgin language which is rendered in English in a "primitive" sounding manner. They speak it among themselves as well, having hundreds or thousands of different dialects on their home planet akin to Chinese - because it's simplified so much, it's used as the de facto trade language between the various aliens.
* Lampshaded to a degree by the titular character of the ''[[Firekeeper]]'' series, who was [[Raised by Wolves]]. She insists that using more words than she needs to make her point is pointless. Also [[subverted]] to a degree in that, when speaking with animals (which is her native "language"), she is depicted as having normal grammatical skills.
* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel ''The Galactic Whirlpool'', a culture stuck on a lost [[City in a Bottle|Generation starship]] for three centuries develops a dialect of pigin English. They still know full English and use it in religious ceremonies, but consider it stilted and overly ornate for everyday use.
* ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked]]'': Turtle Heart is to be surprised he is not to be mentioned yet. But Turtle Heart is to have been a small part that is to be served purely to be questioning Nessarose's father.
* The Party was deliberately imposing this trope on the people of Oceania in ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. [[Newspeak]] was an effort to chop down the English language and strip away words for concepts (like love and rebellion) which were dangerous to the leaders, under the guise of efficiency.
* [[C. S. Lewis]]' ''[[The Space Trilogy|Out of the Silent Planet]]'' inverts this — the supposedly civilized scientists who intend to conquer Malacandra don't bother much with the local lingo, and as a result sound crude and vicious next to the linguist they've brought as a hostage.
* Various species of ''[[Redwall]]'' use different varieties of English, mostly based on actual British accents, but a few fall into this trope. The Sparra inexplicably use what seems to be old-stereotype Native American accents ("Can you imagine Friar Hugo's face when Warbeak tells him to 'burn fishworm good'?"), and some of the vermin use very broken English ("Dis de blade wot stop your breath"). It doesn't seem to be a sign of stupidity in the case of the Sparra, though, just that they have very little contact with the mammals.
* ''[[Riverworld]]'': Mark Twain's caveman buddy Kazz speaks in heavily accented, broken English. He's smart enough, but his vocal tract is not sufficiently evolved toward speech. Flashbacks have to be told in a generic style.
* In the ''[[Xanth]]'' novels by [[Piers Anthony]], Ogres supposedly speak in broken-English couplets. However, as evidenced by more than one book, if one abandons their prejudices, they can hear the ogre as he actually is speaking, in complete sentences. Now, Ogres pride themselves on being both ugly and stupid, but seriously.
* In ''[[Manifold: Origin]]'', Neanderthals speak more English, but the grammar is still broken. The Daemons (no relation) hear something similar when humans try to speak their language, though it's poorly represented since [[Most Writers Are Human]].
* In David Sedaris' essay collection ''Me Talk Pretty One Day'', the essays detailing his attempts to learn French contain many examples of the translated English of his horribly mangled French. For example, when attempting to ask a butcher if those are indeed cow's brains, he asks "Is [[Pluralses|thems]] the thoughts of cows?"
* Kimy, Henry's mother figure and neighbor, in ''[[The Time Traveler's Wife]]'' is a subtle example.
* Lakota Indian Nannie Little Rose talks like this in the book ''[[Dear America|My Heart Is on the Ground]]'', which is supposed to be her diary as she goes to [[wikipedia:Carlisle Indian Industrial School|Carlisle Indian Industrial school]], an (actual) school meant to teach Native Americans how to be "white" (no, really). Then, as if to make up for this, she learns fluent English in ten months of being there.
** Actual Lakota were [https://web.archive.org/web/20120202063423/http://www.oyate.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111:my-heart-is-on-the-ground&catid=35:avoid rather less than pleased] by the language used.
* [[Chuck Palahniuk]]'s novel ''Pygmy'' is written entirely in pidgin English.
* The titular character of the novel ''So B. It'' is mentally disabled and has a vocabulary of twenty-three words. Her daughter, the protagonist, has a list of them taped to the refrigerator.
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* Ayla in the ''[[Earth's Children]]'' books tends to do this when she's learning a new language.
* This backfired on Alexandra (Zan) Ford in the YA novel ''[[Saturday The Twelfth Of October]]''. Thrown back into prehistoric times by a convenient glitch in the space-time continuum, Zan is discovered by two cave people about her own age. She goes into the "me Tarzan, you Jane" routine and says "Me Zan". For the rest of the book, the cave people call her Meezzan. She even starts thinking of herself as Meezzan during the year or so she lives with them.
* Tiger Lily and her tribe in ''[[Peter Pan]].'' Oddly enough, they use an [[Asian Speekee Engrish]] accent, despite being
* The 1911 Polish novel ''[[In Desert and Wilderness]]'' (Polish: ''W pustyni i w puszczy'') by [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]] has Kali, the enslaved pidgin-speaking black son of a Muslim tribal chief. He is one of the earliest Polish literary depictions of a black person, and thus a major influence on Polish perceptions of them - albeit [[Unfortunate Implications|not for the better]]. His broken English/Polish is frequently quoted (e.g. "Kali jeść, Kali pić"/"Kali eat, Kali drink"), and there is a saying known as "Kali’s morality" based on the following quote:
{{quote|[[Double Standard|If somebody takes Kali’s cow, it’s a bad deed. If Kali takes somebody’s cow, it’s a good deed]].}}
== Live Action TV ==
* Subverted in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', where Zathras spoke in a primitive manner (actually based on creator [[J. Michael Straczynski|JMS's]] <s>Russian</s> Polish grandmother's way of speaking English, as the syntax is unmistakably Slavic) but was
{{quote|"Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people's needs. Very sad life... probably have very sad death. But at least there is symmetry."
"But only, Zathras have no one to talk to. No one manages poor Zathras, you see. So Zathras talks to dirt. Sometimes, talks to walls, or talks to ceilings. But dirt is closer. Dirt is used to everyone walking on it. Just like Zathras. But we have come to like it. It is our role. It is our destiny in the universe. So you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. And Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet."
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{{quote|"Just my luck. I get stuck with a race that speaks only in macros."}}
* ''[[Star Trek]]: [[The Next Generation]]'' has the Pakleds, who speak in extremely basic sentences (though the grammar is correct). "We look for things. Things to make us go." (Their ship's navigation system has broken down. {{spoiler|But not really — it's a trap for Geordi.}}) Although the Pakleds' ship is probably stolen, it's questionable whether they're as stupid as they sound — ever try to fly an airplane? Or to kidnap a military officer?
** On the other hand, they are fooled by a ''very'' obvious ploy. So while they're not as dumb as they seem, they aren't much brighter than, say, TV executives. In fact, the Pakleds are a textbook example of the importance of the Prime Directive: clearly, some or another idiot species made First Contact with the Pakleds long before they were ready — and witness the result.
** In a similar vein, an early ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' episode features a lost colony of humans whose language has "devolved" into a primitive form after 70 years of non-contact with Earth.
*** To be fair, everyone except for the very youngest children had died off all at once several generations back; so everyone living there now learned to speak from people who had barely learned to speak themselves, having no adults to teach them better.
** There's the the epically cheesy "Brain and Brain, what is brain!" brought to us by the... questionable episode fittingly titled "[[Star Trek: The Original Series/Recap/S3/E01 Spock's Brain|Spock's Brain]]".
** Or "The Omega Glory" where warfare reduced two nations to "tribes" speaking a mangled, devolved English.
** Who could forget "Devil in the Dark", featuring the Horta, which at one point carves the words "NO KILL I" in the cavern floor using its searing-hot flesh?
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* The Indians in the stage musical of ''[[Peter Pan]]'' get this treatment. Their introductory song and dance has such gems as "Ugga wugga meatball!" Another one of their songs is called "Ugg-a-Wug," where most of the lyrics consist of "Ugg-a-wugg", "Gugg-a-bluck", "Puff-a-wuff", "Boop a doop," and so on. The Indians' spoken dialogue isn't any better.
{{quote|'''Tiger Lily:''' We go up now. Keep guard. Watch for pirates.}}
** Fortunately, the newest{{when}} movie incarnation of Peter Pan has a very talented First Nation girl play Tiger Lily, who gives an extremely rude speech in one of the First Nation languages (Cree, if I recall correctly.){{verify}}
** The original play of ''Peter Pan'' combined this trope with [[Asian Speekee Engrish]], oddly enough.
* Bloody Mary in ''[[South Pacific]]''.
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* Tituba talks like this in ''[[The Crucible]]''. If you can't find a black actress to play the part, it's gonna be all kinds of jarring.
* Billy in ''[[The Bat]]'' is a "Jap" who speaks in such phrases as "You give candle, please?"
== Video Games ==
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** One of the classic battle cries of kobolds is [[Trope Namer|"You no take candle!"]]. Incidentally, kobolds are one of very few races depicted as almost universally stupid. Later lampshaded/parodied by the mushroom-stealing ogres of Zangarmarsh, who sometimes shout "You no take mushroom!" Oddly, the phrase isn't echoed by the snobolds of Northrend.
*** This has become such a recognized line among the fanbase that the novel ''Stormrage'' has kobolds shouting this in a dream sequence, with another character responding "I-don't-want-your-damn-CANDLE!"
*** Also parodied in a later quest where you have to catch
*** For those who don't know, kobolds put ''burning'' candles on their heads presumably to function as a miner's light even when ''they aren't in a mine''.
*** However, if you spend time around one of their above-ground lairs in Loch Modan, you can overhear a kobold practicing archery—and remarking on his accuracy in crystal-clear Common.
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* In ''[[Sunset Riders]]'', the third boss, Dark Horse, who rides a [[Meaningful Name|dark horse]] covered in plate armor, introduces himself with, "You in big heap trouble!" When you defeat him, it turns into, "Me in big heap trouble!" The sixth boss, [[Knife Nut|Chief Scalpem]], talks like this, too; he shouts, "Me ready for powwow!" when you meet him, and "Me powwowed out!" when you take him out.
* In the English language version of [[Rumble Roses]], Aigle, the Mongolian girl, speaks like this.
* Zeman the Ape King's monkey-like henchmen speak like this in the card battle game, ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!|Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia]]'', despite being perfectly articulate in the anime.
== Webcomics ==
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* In ''[[Narbonic]]'', there is an awards convention interrupted by a giant robotic foot that speaks like this.
{{quote|"MASTER ALSO RUN OUT OF FUNDS TO PROVIDE FOOT WITH ARTICLES OR PAST TENSES."}}
* In ''The Law of Purple'', we have [https://web.archive.org/web/20110913161230/http://lawofpurple.comicdish.com/index.php?pageID=328 Thud], who hails from the "primitive" Claw Jungles of Caligula. Subverted in that Thud and his tribe are all quite intelligent (not to mention far less racist than their supposedly "civilized" counterparts).
{{quote|"Me Thud NOT STUPID! Me have VERY THICK accent!"}}
* Parodied in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' with Grammer Gorilla, "the super-strong simian who likes to talk good!"
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* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', back in the days, Anja and Brinnie didn't quite speak in a perfect English.
* In ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', the Mongrelman Bort speaks like this (when he speaks at all).
** Lies. When he spoke, he said "Bye." [[Talking with Signs|He]] ''[[Talking with Signs|writes]]'' [[Talking with Signs|like this.]] Ex: [https://web.archive.org/web/20140913015844/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2008-08-22 "Bort'z gardun. Pleez no eet."]
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*** Cats aren't very bright? ''You'' try getting a human to house you, feed you and generally adore you, while you generally treat them with contempt.
**** It worked, until about when I turned five!
* Used for horror in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130618040542/http://www.somethingawful.com/series/34.php Instruction for a Help] and [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/daily-dirt/instruction-for-america.php the explanation].
{{quote|Human The Bodie is wonderful thing. It is is made from ''{{color|red|MEAT}}.''}}
* ''Far'' too many [[Drive-By Updater]]s to All The Tropes write in this manner, when they're not simply [[Plagiarism|plagiarizing]] [[TV Tropes]]. <!-- A few regular contributors, too, on occasion. -->
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** And then there's Fry, who - being Fry - just does this randomly.
{{quote|Bender need brain for smart-making!}}
* The ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' spoof ''Edward the Less'' features a barbarian strongman who speaks in the typical caveman dialect. However, he explains that he ''can'' use articles and personal pronouns, and just finds that they take up too much time in an eloquent speech that is nonetheless completely lacking in articles and personal pronouns.
** "Few! Happy few! Band brothers!"
* ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]'' had the Siamese cats [http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=fxpN2XrYDLM speaking this way].
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** Recently, Twitter has brought back this mode of English-mangling. With only 140 characters, you either sacrifice grammar or risk running o
*** Another option would be the logical one to shorten the message...
*** Not all messages can be shortened, though. You could of course relay messages across multiple tweets, as well.
*** Or post the whole thing to your blog or to a pastebin such as [http://twitlonger.com/ twitlonger] and summarize with a link in your Tweet.
** Text messaging can be this way. Originally, it could be chalked up to character limits and an inconvenient 'keyboard' (the phone's dialing pad).
* Justified in newspaper headlines, which routinely omit "the" from phrases for brevity's sake.
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** Both are true to an extent- in that the "bar bar bar" is specifically Greek.
** Latin too. "Barba" means beard, and "barbarus" means unintelligible/jargon. Barbarian can be called a bearded babbler then.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121213231550/http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Now_he_dead_from_coke "Now he dead from coke".]
* Afrikaans sounds this way compared to Dutch. Although the language has naturally matured over the centuries and has become a solid and distinct part of the Germanic language family, many, ''many'' aspects of it sound like "baby speak" to the average Dutch person. This, in turn, makes the stereotype of an African person speaking in very broken and primitive syntax a very valid (and definitely not dead) trope in Dutch media, because this is exactly what the linguistic roots of Afrikaans are. The indigenous people were forced to speak Dutch, with no way of actually learning the syntax and grammar - and several centuries later, the language still retains many "you no take candle" type phrases.
** While not exactly "baby speak", particular Dutch expressions and phrases sound like "oversimplified" or colloquial German to Germans.
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* The development of English itself is bound up in this trope. Old English, having developed from several west germanic dialects along the North Sea coast and later came into extensive contact with Old Norse, was losing many inflections well before 1066. As for afterwards, many described the developing standard as what Norman soldiers used to chat up Saxon barmaids.
== Other Media ==
* "Confucius say, he who no take candle not very bright."
* ''The Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show''. Explains itself, really.
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[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
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