Chinese temple architecture also "wu" and "tongji" shamans, may perform services within these temples. Shenist temples are usually small and decorated with traditional figures on their roofs (dragons and deities), although some evolve into significant structures. Chinese temples can be found throughout Mainland China, Taiwan and also where Chinese expatriate communities settled over centuries. An old name in English for Chinese traditional temples is "joss house". "Joss" is an Anglicized spelling of the Portuguese word for "god", "deus". "Joss house" was in common use in English in western North America during frontier times, when joss houses were a common feature of Chinatowns. The
West African Pidgin English book titled "A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone on the Coast of Africa". Matthews refers to West African Pidgin English as a "jargon", and he warns Europeans coming to Africa that they will fail to understand the Africans unless they recognize that there are significant differences between English and the coastal pidgin: West African Pidgin English remained in use in West Africa after the slave trade and, later, European colonization ended. Many distinct regional variants of the language emerged. Looked down upon in colonial times as a bastardization of proper English – a stigma still attached to it by some