History Main / ElectiveBrokenLanguage

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Just like a character may [[ElectiveMute choose not to speak]] or [[ElectiveUnintelligible not to speak coherently]], he or she may also willfully employ [[YouNoTakeCandle broken]] or [[StrangeSyntaxSpeaker idiosyncratic language]]. There may be various reasons for this: for instance, it can be part of ObfuscatingStupidity, a part of {{Fauxreigner}}'s image, or a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}'s peculiar way of self-expression. An increasingly common use of this trope is a subversion of JapaneseRanguage, AsianSpeekeeEngrish and other similar tropes: an exotic foreigner who actually has a good command of English may amuse him/herself by deliberately playing up with racial stereotypes.

* ''Videogame/{{Undertale}}'' has the Tem Shop Keeper, who speaks in poorly-capitalized broken English like all the other Temmies. However, if you refuse to sell an item she really wants, she glares sternly at you and says "You will regret this." If you help her pay for college, she has an even more elaborate response:

* ''Videogame/{{Undertale}}'' has Temmie, who speaks all lowercase in broken English. However, when you deny to sell an item she really wants, she says:

Just like a character may [[ElectiveMute choose not to speak]] or [[ElectiveUnintelligible not to speak COHERENTLY]], he or she may also willfully employ [[YouNoTakeCandle broken]] or [[StrangeSyntaxSpeaker idiosyncratic language]]. There may be various reasons for this: for instance, it can be part of ObfuscatingStupidity, a part of {{Fauxreigner}}'s image, or a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}'s peculiar way of self-expression. An increasingly common use of this trope is a subversion of JapaneseRanguage, AsianSpeekeeEngrish and other similar tropes: an exotic foreigner who actually has a good command of English may amuse him/herself by deliberately playing up with racial stereotypes.

May overlap with LanguageFluencyDenial.

* In the "Mysterious Caravan" book of ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'', the Hardys' friend Phil Cohen had to sneak into a restaurant to spy on a trio of treasure hunters. The chef who intercepted him (Phil tried getting in through the back/kitchen door) tried reasoning with him with perfect English (this part if the book is set in Jamaica, and the chef is a local), and Phil replies with gibberish to not attract attention. When his quarry leaves, so does Phil (again through the back), and the chef mutters that wherever Phil came from, he sure has strange traditions! When Phil reports to his friends later, they all burst out laughing.

* In {{Dune}} one character speaks very oddly with random pauses, spacings, and emphasis. This odd speech is to prevent the Bene Gesserit [[LivingLieDetector True Seeing]] on him.

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Master of ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'' speaks some kind of broken English until Blaster gets killed, at which point he reverts to a perfect English.
* As quoted above, the eponymous wizard in ''Film/SevenFacesOfDrLao'' casually switches back and forth between speaking in a heavy Chinese accent and perfect English.
[[/folder]]

Just like a character may [[ElectiveMute choose not to speak]] or [[ElectiveUnintelligible not to speak COHERENTLY]], he or she may also willfully employ [[YouNoTakeCandle broken]] or [[StrangeSyntaxSpeaker idiosyncratic language]]. There may be various reasons for this: for instance, it can be part of ObfuscatingStupidity or a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}'s peculiar way of self-expression. An increasingly common use of this trope is a subversion of JapaneseRanguage, AsianSpeekeeEngrish and other similar tropes: an exotic foreigner who actually has a good command of English may amuse him/herself by deliberately playing up with racial stereotypes.

!! Examples

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

--> “Lee,” he said at last, “I mean no disrespect, but I’ve never been able to figure why you people still talk pidgin when an illiterate baboon from the black bogs of Ireland, with a head full of Gaelic and a tongue like a potato, learns to talk a poor grade of English in ten years.”
--> Lee grinned. “Me talkee Chinese talk,” he said.
--> “Well, I guess you have your reasons. And it’s not my affair. I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe it, Lee.”
--> Lee looked at him and the brown eyes under their rounded upper lids seemed to open and deepen until they weren’t foreign any more, but man’s eyes, warm with understanding. Lee chuckled. “It’s more than a convenience,” he said. “It’s even more than self-protection. Mostly we have to use it to be understood at all.”

[[AC:Film - Live Action]]

[[AC:{{Web Comics}}]]
* Yuffie of ''WebComic/AnsemRetort'' invokes AsianSpeekeeEngrish because it makes people think that she knows martial arts.

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]
* In ''{{VideoGame/Fahrenheit}}'', a Japanese-American bookstore owner Takeo speaks in stereotypical AsianSpeekeeEngrish fashion. It is later revealed that he does it merely because customers like "that wise old Japanese master stuff", and he was actually born in the US.

-->-- '''Film/SevenFacesOfDrLao'''

-->'''Edward Cunningham:''' Hey! How come you speak perfect English all of a sudden?\\

* In the ''God Letters'' employed in the early days of ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}},'' [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Guthix]] talked using antiquated English, as compared to the other gods addressed, who spoke in formal, though unremarkable ways. Guthix explains he is perfectly capable of understanding modern language conventions, but doesn't bother to do so because constantly updating his speaking style is inconvenient.

* A downplayed example from Creator/EnidBlyton's ''Literature/TheFamousFive'' series: in ''The Mystery of the Vanished Prince'', Bets and her friends pose as Princess Bongawee and her retinue as a part of a prank. They speak broken English and their own made-up language.