History YouNoTakeCandle / Literature

* In the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novels by PiersAnthony, 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.

* Subverted in the ''PhulesCompany'' novels. Tuskanini, one of the Legionnaires of the titular military company speaks, rather brokenly, the [[TranslationConvention English equivalent]] of the series. However, he is the company clerk, incredibly intelligent, capable of reading 10-15 books in a night, and plans to become a teacher. He speaks it brokenly because he learned the language manually, and chooses not to rely on a translator, despite the presence of normally functioning [[TranslatorMicrobes translation devices]].

* Mila, of ''Literature/TheMusicOfDolpins'', had several odd quirks in her speech due to being a WildChild, including a seeming inability to use anything but present tense.

* Ayla in the ''EarthsChildren'' books tends to do this when she's learning a new language.

* This backfired on Alexandra (Zan) Ford in the YA novel ''SaturdayTheTwelfthOfOctober''. 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.

* In ''GalaxArena'' by Gillian Rubinstein, the peb - children abducted from various third-world countries around the world, now imprisoned on a hostile alien planet - have developed a form of pidgin English they call ''patwa'', which serves as the only common language and means of communication between them all.

* A fairly realistic one is done in {{Harry Turtledove}}'s ''Supervolcano: Eruption'' with a Filipina store clerk, whose English is understandable but displays some grammatical problems that actually do tend to happen to many Filipinos in RealLife. However, it gets ridiculous when a police officer has to mime out the word "mask" to get her to understand. English is common enough in the Philippines that many English-language shows and books are left untranslated, and the word ''maskara'' (a localized spelling of the Spanish word ''mascara'') is found in the major Filipino languages and dialects. She should have had no problem understanding "mask."

* Happens several times in HarryTurtledove ''WorldWar'' books with the Race, reptilian conquerors to invade Earth during WorldWarTwo, although subverted in that they are a highly-advanced species. Their representatives learn major human languages, but tend to speak in this manner (e.g. "maybe you help us now"), often trying to find proper equivalent in the given human language for a specific word with the typical "[[HowDoYouSay how you say]]". This differs from lizard to lizard, though, and some get better as the series progresses. Given their physiology, though, their speech is also peppered with SssssnakeTalk. It also happens, as a necessity, between Liu Han and Bobby Fiore, as neither initially knows the other's language. They eventually develop a mix language of sorts, a mishmash of Chinese, English, Race, and sign. Only the two of them can understand it. The books show this as a YouNoTakeCandle-like speech.

* Creator/ChuckPalahniuk's novel ''{{Pygmy}}'' is written entirely in pidgin English.

* Lakota Indian Nannie Little Rose talks like this in the book ''[[DearAmerica My Heart Is on the Ground]]'', which is supposed to be her diary as she goes to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School Carlisle Indian Industrial school]], an (actual) school meant to teach Native Americans how to be "white" (no, really). [[labelnote:*]]The school founder's motto was "Kill the Indian to save the man!"[[/labelnote]] Then, as if to make up for this, she learns fluent English in ten months of being there.

* 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.

* Creator/CSLewis' ''[[TheSpaceTrilogy 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.

* ChuckPalahniuk's novel ''{{Pygmy}}'' is written entirely in pidgin English.

* Somewhat a subvertedtrope in ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' with Ella; who despite her intelligence speaks like this because she is a harpy and that's just what they do.

* In Primo Levi's Auschwitz memoir ''Literature/IfThisIsAMan'', this trope occurs frequently, owing to the communication difficulties inherent in living in close proximity to a group of strangers from all the nations of Europe. If two prisoners have no other language in common, they most often converse in butchered German, that being the language they all have rudimentary knowledge of by necessity. One Pole says to the author "Du Jude, kaputt. Du schnell Krematorium fertig." ''(You Jew, finished. You soon ready for crematorium.)''

* Friday from ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'' may be considered a TropeCodifier. He is a Caribbean tribesman rescued from cannibals by the eponymous castaway. Friday's English is basically a broken pidgin, which never, ever improves ([[UnfortunateImplications he's non-white servant, after all]]), even after being with Crusoe for years and living in England for a time (as established in the [[FirstInstallmentWins little-known sequel]]). An example from a dialogue between Crusoe and Friday:

* Lakota Indian Nannie Little Rose talks like this in the book ''[[DearAmerica My Heart Is on the Ground]]'', which is supposed to be her diary as she goes to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School Carlisle Indian Industrial school]], an (actual) school meant to teach Native Americans how to be "white" (no, really). [[labelnote:*:]]The school founder's motto was "Kill the Indian to save the man!"[[/labelnote]] Then, as if to make up for this, she learns fluent English in ten months of being there.

* Lakota Indian Nannie Little Rose talks like this in the book ''[[DearAmerica My Heart Is on the Ground]]'', which is supposed to be her diary as she goes to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School Carlisle Indian Industrial school]], an (actual) school meant to teach Native Americans how to be "white" (no, really). [[hottip:*: The school founder's motto was "Kill the Indian to save the man!"]] Then, as if to make up for this, she learns fluent English in ten months of being there.

* Manny's narration in ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' comes off like this, as it's in Lunar English. He reveals in the narrative that he ''can'' in fact speak standard English, but it's not what he prefers. And anyone who says differently is a yammerhead.

* The Coyote Dialect as we hear it in the ''HankTheCowdog'' series. Hank talks about it as if it's an actual language, but it's never clarified whether or not we're just hearing a translation.

* The Chinese Assistant Premier in ''CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator''.

* Tiger Lily and her tribe in ''PeterPan.'' Oddly enough, they use an AsianSpeekeeEngrish accent, despite being Indians. (Perhaps justified in that everything in Never Land is based on children's imagination, and children rarely [[DidNotDoTheResearch do the research]].)