Chinglish
Encyclopedia
Chinglish refers to spoken or written English language
that is influenced by the Chinese language
. The term "Chinglish" is commonly applied to ungrammatical
or nonsensical
English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative
or deprecating
connotations, reflecting the attitudes of those who apply the label. Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include "Chinese English", "China English", and "Sinicized English". The degree to which a Chinese variety
of English exists or can be considered legitimate is disputed.
Chinglish compares with other international hodgepodge variations of English. Some examples include Czenglish
(from Czech
), Denglisch
(German
), Franglais
(French
), Spanglish
(Spanish
), Swenglish
(Swedish), Hinglish
(Hindi), Konglish
(Korean
), Singlish
(in Singapore
), Orglish (Orcish
) and Tinglish
(Thai
).
The Oxford English Dictionary
defines the noun
and adjective
.
This dictionary cites the earliest recorded usage of Chinglish (noted as a jocular term) in 1957 and of Chinese English in 1857.
Chinglish commonly refers to a mixture of English with Modern Standard Mandarin, but it occasionally refers to mixtures with Cantonese
, Shanghainese
and Taiwanese Hokkien.
Chinglish contrasts with some related terms. Chinese Pidgin English
was a lingua franca
that originated in the seventeenth century. Chinese-Ordered English
and English-Ordered Chinese
are pedagogical techniques for teaching Chinese as a second language. Zhonglish, a term for Chinese influenced by English, is a portmanteau from Zhongwen 中文 "Chinese language" and English. "
Some peculiar Chinese English cannot be labeled Chinglish because it is grammatically correct, and Mair calls this emerging dialect "Xinhua English or New China News English", based on the Xinhua News Agency
. Take for instance, this headline: "China lodges solemn representation over Japan's permission for Rebiya Kadeer's visit". This unusual English phrase literally translates the original Chinese tichu yanzheng jiaoshe (提出嚴正交涉 "lodge solemn representation"), combining tichu "put forward; raise; pose bring up", yanzheng "serious; stern; unyielding; solemn", and jiaoshe "mutual relations; negotiation; representation". "Pure Chinese" is an odd English locution in a Web advertisement: "孔子學院/ CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE/ Teach you pure Chinese." This Kongzi Xueyuan (孔子學院) is Chinese for the Confucius Institute
, but Mair notes that "pure Chinese" curiously implies "impure Chinese".
One author divides Chinglish into "instrumental" and "ornamental" categories. "Instrumental Chinglish is actually intended to convey information to English speakers. Ornamental Chinglish is born of the fact that English is the lingua franca of coolness. Meaning aside, any combination of roman letters elevates a commodity – khaki pants, toilet paper, potato chips – to a higher plane of chic by suggesting that the product is geared toward an international audience."
and Guangzhou
(or Canton). In the 17th century, Chinese Pidgin English
originated as a lingua franca
for trade between British people
and mostly Cantonese
-speaking Chinese people
. This proto-Chinglish term "pidgin" originated as a Chinese mispronunciation of the English word "business". Following the First
and Second Opium War
between 1839–1842, Pidgin English spread north to Shanghai
and other treaty ports
. Pidgin usage began to decline in the late 19th century when Chinese and missionary schools began teaching Standard English
. In 1982, the People's Republic of China
made English the main foreign language in education. Current estimates for the number English learners in China range from 300 to 500 million.
Chinglish may have influenced some English expressions that are "calques" or "loan translations" from Chinese Pidgin English
, for instance, "lose face" derives from diulian 丟臉 "lose face; be humiliated." Some sources claim "long time no see
" is a Chinglish calque from hǎojiǔbújiàn 好久不見 "long time no see". More reliable references note this jocular American English
phrase "used as a greeting after prolonged separation" was first recorded in 1900 for a Native American's speech, and thus more likely derives from American Indian Pidgin English
.
Chinese officials carried out campaigns to reduce Chinglish in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics
in Beijing and the Expo 2010
in Shanghai.
Soon after the International Olympic Committee
selected Beijing in 2001, the Beijing Tourism Bureau established a tipster hotline
for Chinglish errors on signs, such as emergency exits at the Beijing airport reading "No entry on peacetime". In 2007, the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program (BSFLP) reported they had, "worked out 4,624 pieces of standard English translations to substitute the Chinglish ones on signs around the city", for instance, "Be careful, road slippery" instead of "To take notice of safe: The slippery are very crafty." BSFLP chairperson Chen Lin said, "We want everything to be correct. Grammar, words, culture, everything. Beijing will have thousands of visitors coming. We don't want anyone laughing at us." Reporting from Beijing, Ben Macintyre
lamented the loss of signs like "Show Mercy to the Slender Grass" because, "many of the best examples of Chinglish are delightful, reflecting the inventiveness that results when two such different languages collide". The Global Language Monitor
doubted that Beijing's attempt to eradicate Chinglish could succeed; noting that "we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games" is found on the official website of the Beijing Olympics. "Hundreds of scholars have proofed the site and decided that the word charm is most appropriate in describing the Games."
In Shanghai, for Expo 2010, a similar effort was made to replace Chinglish signage. A New York Times article by Andrew Jacobs, source for the "Execution in Progress" sign above, reported on accomplishments by the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use. "Fortified by an army of 600 volunteers and a politburo of adroit English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 10,000 public signs (farewell “Teliot” and “urine district”), rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings." James Fallows
attributed many Shanghai Chinglish errors to "rote reliance on dictionaries or translation software", citing a bilingual sign reading "餐廳 Translate server error" (canting 餐廳 means "dining room; restaurant"). Conceding, "there's something undeniably Colonel Blimp
-ish in making fun of the locals for their flawed command of your own mother tongue"; Fallows observed a Shanghai museum with "Three Georges Dam" banners advertising a Three Gorges Dam
exhibit, and wrote, "it truly is bizarre that so many organizations in China are willing to chisel English translations into stone, paint them on signs, print them on business cards, and expose them permanently to the world without making any effort to check whether they are right." On a Chinese airplane, Fallows was given a wet wipe
labeled "Wet turban needless wash", translating mianxi shijin (免洗濕巾 lit. "wash-free moist towel"). Shanghai's Luwan District
published a controversial "Bilingual Instruction of Luwan District for Expo" phrasebook with English terms and Chinese characters approximating pronunciation: "Good morning! (古的貓寧)" [pronounced gu de mao ning] and "I'm sorry (俺麼搔瑞)" [an men sao rui].
Chinglish is pervasive in present-day China "on public notices in parks and at tourist sites, on shop names and in their slogans, in product advertisements and on packages, in hotel names and literature, in restaurant names and on menus, at airports, railway stations and in taxis, on street and highway signs – even in official tourist literature."
The future of Chinglish is uncertain. The Global Language Monitor predicts it will thrive, and estimates that roughly 20 percent of new English words derive from Chinglish, for instance, shanzhai
(山寨; literally "mountain stronghold; mountain village") meaning "counterfeit consumer goods
; things done in parody" — Huang Youyi, president of the China Internet Information Center
, predicts that linguistic purism
could be damaged by popular Chinese words of English origin
(such as OK
and LOL
). "If we do not pay attention and we do not take measures to stop Chinese mingling with English, Chinese will no longer be a pure language in a couple of years."
Specifying Chinglish to mean "Chinese words literally translated
into English", an experiment in linguistic clarity found that mathematical terms are more readily understandable in Chinglish than English. English words for mathematics typically have Greek and Latin roots, while corresponding Chinese words are usually translations of neologisms
from Western languages; thus quadrilateral
(from Latin quadri- "four" and latus "sided") is generally less informative than Chinese sibianxing 四邊形 (literally, "four-side-shape"). For example, compare the semantic clarity of English axiom
, Chinese gongli 公理, and Chinglish (literal translation) "universal-principle"; median
, zhongshu 中数, and "centre-number"; or trapezoid
, tixing 梯形, and "ladder-figure". The study involved three groups of mathematics teachers who rated the clarity of 71 common mathematical terms. Group 1 with native speakers of Chinese judged 61% of the Chinese terms as clear; Group 2 with native speakers of English judged 45% of the English terms as clear. Group 3 with English-speaking teachers (both native and nonnative speakers) judged the comparative clarity of English and Chinglish word pairs: more clear for 42.3% of the Chinglish and 5.6% of the English, equally clear for 25.4% of the Chinglish-English pairs, and neither clear for 19.7%.
On October 11, 2011, a Broadway play written by David Henry Hwang
named Chinglish
, which deals heavily with the themes of Chinese and American (mis)communication, began performances at the Longacre Theatre.
Linguists and language teachers employ error analysis to fathom Chinglish. Liu et al. list four characteristic features of Chinglish mistranslations,
Chinglish reflects the influence of Chinese syntax and grammar. For instance, Chinese verbs are not necessarily conjugated
and there is no equivalent article
for English "the", both of which can create awkward translations.
Liu et al. differentiate root and ancillary causes of Chinglish. The root causes are outdated Chinese-English dictionaries and incorrect English as a foreign language textbooks. Ancillary causes include misspelling, mediocre English-language teaching, sloppy translation, and reliance on outdated translation technology. They warn that, "today's English-language publishers and teachers in China are passing on obsolete translations and incorrect rules of language to students. In turn, Chinglish gets duplicated across society, particularly now during today's period of rapid opening to the outside world and the widespread use of English. The resultant flood of Chinglish will perpetuate unless it is corrected now."
Common causes include:
, the following examples will exclude common misspellings (e.g., "energetically Englsih-friendly environment") and typographical error
s (a bilingual bus sign reading "往 不知道 To unknow"; wang 往 means "to; toward" and buzhidao 不知道 "don't know") that can occur anywhere in the English-speaking world
.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
that is influenced by the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. The term "Chinglish" is commonly applied to ungrammatical
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
or nonsensical
Nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
or deprecating
Deprecation
In the process of authoring computer software, its standards or documentation, deprecation is a status applied to software features to indicate that they should be avoided, typically because they have been superseded...
connotations, reflecting the attitudes of those who apply the label. Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include "Chinese English", "China English", and "Sinicized English". The degree to which a Chinese variety
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of English exists or can be considered legitimate is disputed.
Terminology
The English word Chinglish is a portmanteau of Chinese and English. The Chinese equivalent is Zhongshi Yingyu .Chinglish compares with other international hodgepodge variations of English. Some examples include Czenglish
Czenglish
Czenglish, a portmanteau of the words Czech and English, is a poor or 'broken' English spoken by native Czech speakers. Examples include confusing verbatim translations , incorrect word order in a sentence and use of inappropriate prepositions and conjunctions because of the...
(from Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
), Denglisch
Denglisch
Denglisch or Denglish is a portmanteau of the German words Deutsch and Englisch. Used in all German-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries, it describes an influx of English, or pseudo-English, vocabulary into the German or Dutch language through travel and the widespread usage of English in...
(German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), Franglais
Franglais
Franglais , a portmanteau combining the French words "français" and "anglais" , is a slang term for an interlanguage, although the word has different overtones in French and English....
(French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
), Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...
(Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
), Swenglish
Swenglish
Swenglish is a colloquial term meaning either:*English spoken with a heavy Swedish accent*English spoken or written as heavily influenced by Swedish vocabulary, grammar, or syntax- English heavily influenced by Swedish :- Pronunciation :...
(Swedish), Hinglish
Hinglish
Hinglish, a blending of the words "Hindi" and "English", means to combine both languages in one sentence. This is more commonly seen in urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of India, but is slowly spreading into rural and remote areas of these states via television, mobile...
(Hindi), Konglish
Konglish
Konglish is the use of English words in a Korean context. The words, having initially been taken from the English language, are either actual English words in Korean context, like 모터사이클 , or are made from a combination of Korean and/or English words which are not used in English-speaking...
(Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
), Singlish
Singlish
Colloquial Singaporean English, also known as Singlish, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore.Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. The Singaporean government and many Singaporeans alike heavily discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English...
(in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
), Orglish (Orcish
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
) and Tinglish
Tinglish
Tinglish or Thaiglish is the imperfect form of English produced by native Thai speakers due to language interference from the first language...
(Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
).
The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
defines the noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
and adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
.
Chinglish, n. and a. colloq. (freq. depreciative). Brit. /ˈtʃɪŋglɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪŋ(g)lɪʃ/. Forms: 19– Chinglish, 19– Chenglish [rare]. [Blend of Chinese n. and English n. Compare earlier Japlish n., Spanglish n. Compare also Hinglish n.2, Singlish n.2]
A. n. A mixture of Chinese and English; esp. a variety of English used by speakers of Chinese or in a bilingual Chinese and English context, typically incorporating some Chinese vocabulary or constructions, or English terms specific to a Chinese context. Also: the vocabulary of, or an individual word from, such a variety. Cf. Singlish n.2
B adj. Of or relating to Chinglish; expressed in Chinglish.
This dictionary cites the earliest recorded usage of Chinglish (noted as a jocular term) in 1957 and of Chinese English in 1857.
Chinglish commonly refers to a mixture of English with Modern Standard Mandarin, but it occasionally refers to mixtures with Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
, Shanghainese
Shanghainese
Shanghainese , or the Shanghai language , is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties...
and Taiwanese Hokkien.
Chinglish contrasts with some related terms. Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English is a Pidgin language between English and Chinese. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin English spoken in Cantonese-speaking portions of China...
was a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
that originated in the seventeenth century. Chinese-Ordered English
Chinese-Ordered English
Chinese-ordered English is the use of English words to represent the meaning of Chinese phrases and sentences that maintains the word order of the original Chinese....
and English-Ordered Chinese
English-Ordered Chinese
English-ordered Chinese is the use of Chinese words to represent the meaning of English phrases and sentences that maintains the order of the original English.-As a Learning Tool:...
are pedagogical techniques for teaching Chinese as a second language. Zhonglish, a term for Chinese influenced by English, is a portmanteau from Zhongwen 中文 "Chinese language" and English. "
Some peculiar Chinese English cannot be labeled Chinglish because it is grammatically correct, and Mair calls this emerging dialect "Xinhua English or New China News English", based on the Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency
The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
. Take for instance, this headline: "China lodges solemn representation over Japan's permission for Rebiya Kadeer's visit". This unusual English phrase literally translates the original Chinese tichu yanzheng jiaoshe (提出嚴正交涉 "lodge solemn representation"), combining tichu "put forward; raise; pose bring up", yanzheng "serious; stern; unyielding; solemn", and jiaoshe "mutual relations; negotiation; representation". "Pure Chinese" is an odd English locution in a Web advertisement: "孔子學院/ CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE/ Teach you pure Chinese." This Kongzi Xueyuan (孔子學院) is Chinese for the Confucius Institute
Confucius Institute
Confucius Institutes are non-profit public institutions that aim to promote Chinese language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally, as well as facilitating cultural exchanges. They are sometimes compared to language and culture promotion organizations such as France's...
, but Mair notes that "pure Chinese" curiously implies "impure Chinese".
One author divides Chinglish into "instrumental" and "ornamental" categories. "Instrumental Chinglish is actually intended to convey information to English speakers. Ornamental Chinglish is born of the fact that English is the lingua franca of coolness. Meaning aside, any combination of roman letters elevates a commodity – khaki pants, toilet paper, potato chips – to a higher plane of chic by suggesting that the product is geared toward an international audience."
History
English first arrived in China in 1637, when British traders reached MacaoMação
Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....
and Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
(or Canton). In the 17th century, Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English is a Pidgin language between English and Chinese. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin English spoken in Cantonese-speaking portions of China...
originated as a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
for trade between British people
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
and mostly Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
-speaking Chinese people
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
. This proto-Chinglish term "pidgin" originated as a Chinese mispronunciation of the English word "business". Following the First
First Opium War
The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...
and Second Opium War
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...
between 1839–1842, Pidgin English spread north to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and other treaty ports
Treaty ports
The treaty ports was the name given to the port cities in China, Japan, and Korea that were opened to foreign trade by the Unequal Treaties.-Chinese treaty ports:...
. Pidgin usage began to decline in the late 19th century when Chinese and missionary schools began teaching Standard English
Standard English
Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country...
. In 1982, the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
made English the main foreign language in education. Current estimates for the number English learners in China range from 300 to 500 million.
Chinglish may have influenced some English expressions that are "calques" or "loan translations" from Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English is a Pidgin language between English and Chinese. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin English spoken in Cantonese-speaking portions of China...
, for instance, "lose face" derives from diulian 丟臉 "lose face; be humiliated." Some sources claim "long time no see
Long time no see (phrase)
"Long time no see" is an English expression used as a greeting by people who have not seen each other for a while. It is vested in an unconventional grammatical garb, and is an imitation of broken or pidgin English. It may derive ultimately from an English pidgin such as that spoken by Native...
" is a Chinglish calque from hǎojiǔbújiàn 好久不見 "long time no see". More reliable references note this jocular American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
phrase "used as a greeting after prolonged separation" was first recorded in 1900 for a Native American's speech, and thus more likely derives from American Indian Pidgin English
American Indian Pidgin English
American Indian Pidgin English - is an English-based pidgin spoken by Native Americans. It is mentioned in World Englishes, by Andy Kirkpatrick as one of many factors influencing American English....
.
Chinese officials carried out campaigns to reduce Chinglish in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
in Beijing and the Expo 2010
Expo 2010
Expo 2010, officially Expo 2010 Shanghai China was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in the city of Shanghai, China, from May 1 to October 31, 2010. It was a major World Expo in the tradition of international fairs and expositions, the first since 1992...
in Shanghai.
Soon after the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
selected Beijing in 2001, the Beijing Tourism Bureau established a tipster hotline
Hotline
In telecommunication, a hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook...
for Chinglish errors on signs, such as emergency exits at the Beijing airport reading "No entry on peacetime". In 2007, the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program (BSFLP) reported they had, "worked out 4,624 pieces of standard English translations to substitute the Chinglish ones on signs around the city", for instance, "Be careful, road slippery" instead of "To take notice of safe: The slippery are very crafty." BSFLP chairperson Chen Lin said, "We want everything to be correct. Grammar, words, culture, everything. Beijing will have thousands of visitors coming. We don't want anyone laughing at us." Reporting from Beijing, Ben Macintyre
Ben Macintyre
Ben Macintyre is a British author, historian, and columnist writing for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.- Author :...
lamented the loss of signs like "Show Mercy to the Slender Grass" because, "many of the best examples of Chinglish are delightful, reflecting the inventiveness that results when two such different languages collide". The Global Language Monitor
Global Language Monitor
The Global Language Monitor is an Austin, Texas-based company that collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language...
doubted that Beijing's attempt to eradicate Chinglish could succeed; noting that "we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games" is found on the official website of the Beijing Olympics. "Hundreds of scholars have proofed the site and decided that the word charm is most appropriate in describing the Games."
In Shanghai, for Expo 2010, a similar effort was made to replace Chinglish signage. A New York Times article by Andrew Jacobs, source for the "Execution in Progress" sign above, reported on accomplishments by the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use. "Fortified by an army of 600 volunteers and a politburo of adroit English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 10,000 public signs (farewell “Teliot” and “urine district”), rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings." James Fallows
James Fallows
James Fallows is an American print and radio journalist. He has been a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly for many years. His work has also appeared in Slate, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The American Prospect, among others. He is a...
attributed many Shanghai Chinglish errors to "rote reliance on dictionaries or translation software", citing a bilingual sign reading "餐廳 Translate server error" (canting 餐廳 means "dining room; restaurant"). Conceding, "there's something undeniably Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character.The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically British...
-ish in making fun of the locals for their flawed command of your own mother tongue"; Fallows observed a Shanghai museum with "Three Georges Dam" banners advertising a Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China...
exhibit, and wrote, "it truly is bizarre that so many organizations in China are willing to chisel English translations into stone, paint them on signs, print them on business cards, and expose them permanently to the world without making any effort to check whether they are right." On a Chinese airplane, Fallows was given a wet wipe
Wet wipe
A wet wipe, also known as a wet nap, wet towel, or a moist towelette, is a small moistened piece of paper or cloth that often comes folded and individually wrapped for convenience...
labeled "Wet turban needless wash", translating mianxi shijin (免洗濕巾 lit. "wash-free moist towel"). Shanghai's Luwan District
Luwan District
Luwan District was a district located in central Shanghai, China until its merger with Huangpu District, Shanghai in June 2011. It had an area of 8.05 km² and population of 350,000 as of 2001.- Location :...
published a controversial "Bilingual Instruction of Luwan District for Expo" phrasebook with English terms and Chinese characters approximating pronunciation: "Good morning! (古的貓寧)" [pronounced gu de mao ning] and "I'm sorry (俺麼搔瑞)" [an men sao rui].
Chinglish is pervasive in present-day China "on public notices in parks and at tourist sites, on shop names and in their slogans, in product advertisements and on packages, in hotel names and literature, in restaurant names and on menus, at airports, railway stations and in taxis, on street and highway signs – even in official tourist literature."
The future of Chinglish is uncertain. The Global Language Monitor predicts it will thrive, and estimates that roughly 20 percent of new English words derive from Chinglish, for instance, shanzhai
Shanzhai
Shanzhai refers to Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics. Literally "mountain village" or "mountain stronghold", the term refers to the mountain stockades of regional warlords or bandits, far away from official control...
(山寨; literally "mountain stronghold; mountain village") meaning "counterfeit consumer goods
Counterfeit consumer goods
Counterfeit consumer goods, commonly called knock-offs, are counterfeit or imitation products offered for sale. The spread of counterfeit goods has become global in recent years and the range of goods subject to infringement has increased significantly...
; things done in parody" — Huang Youyi, president of the China Internet Information Center
China Internet Information Center
China Internet Information Center is a web portal authorized by the People's Republic of China.Its current president is Huang Youyi.- Localization :...
, predicts that linguistic purism
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
could be damaged by popular Chinese words of English origin
Chinese words of English origin
Chinese words of English origin have become more common in mainland China during its reform and opening and resultant increased contact with the West.-Examples:*麦克风 Mài kè fēng microphone*秀 Xiù show*酷 Kù cool*伊妹儿 Yī mèi er email*拜拜 bài bài bye-bye...
(such as OK
Okay
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
and LOL
LOL
LOL is an acronym or abbreviation of "laughing out loud", "lots of luck", or "lots of love". In medical slang, it is used as an acronym for "little old lady", a reference to the novel House of God.LOL or Lol may also refer to:...
). "If we do not pay attention and we do not take measures to stop Chinese mingling with English, Chinese will no longer be a pure language in a couple of years."
Specifying Chinglish to mean "Chinese words literally translated
Literal translation
Literal translation, or direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" rather than conveying the sense of the original...
into English", an experiment in linguistic clarity found that mathematical terms are more readily understandable in Chinglish than English. English words for mathematics typically have Greek and Latin roots, while corresponding Chinese words are usually translations of neologisms
Translation of neologisms into Chinese
Translation of neologisms into Chinese generally follows three principles: free translation and transcription or a combination of the two....
from Western languages; thus quadrilateral
Quadrilateral
In Euclidean plane geometry, a quadrilateral is a polygon with four sides and four vertices or corners. Sometimes, the term quadrangle is used, by analogy with triangle, and sometimes tetragon for consistency with pentagon , hexagon and so on...
(from Latin quadri- "four" and latus "sided") is generally less informative than Chinese sibianxing 四邊形 (literally, "four-side-shape"). For example, compare the semantic clarity of English axiom
Axiom
In traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proven or demonstrated but considered either to be self-evident or to define and delimit the realm of analysis. In other words, an axiom is a logical statement that is assumed to be true...
, Chinese gongli 公理, and Chinglish (literal translation) "universal-principle"; median
Median
In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...
, zhongshu 中数, and "centre-number"; or trapezoid
Trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
, tixing 梯形, and "ladder-figure". The study involved three groups of mathematics teachers who rated the clarity of 71 common mathematical terms. Group 1 with native speakers of Chinese judged 61% of the Chinese terms as clear; Group 2 with native speakers of English judged 45% of the English terms as clear. Group 3 with English-speaking teachers (both native and nonnative speakers) judged the comparative clarity of English and Chinglish word pairs: more clear for 42.3% of the Chinglish and 5.6% of the English, equally clear for 25.4% of the Chinglish-English pairs, and neither clear for 19.7%.
On October 11, 2011, a Broadway play written by David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang is an American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S.He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University...
named Chinglish
Chinglish (play)
Chinglish is a new American play by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang. It is a comedy about an American businessman desperate to launch a new enterprise in China, which opened on Broadway October 27, 2011 with direction by Leigh Silverman....
, which deals heavily with the themes of Chinese and American (mis)communication, began performances at the Longacre Theatre.
Features
- Cultural meanings. The English idiomIdiomIdiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
"work like a horse" means "work hard", but in China horses are rarely used as draft animals and the equivalent Chinese expression uses shuiniu 水牛 "water buffalo". - Problems of direct translation. Some Chinglish menus translate doufu 豆腐 as "bean curd", which "sounds very unappetizing" to English speakers, instead of "tofuTofuis a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
". - Wordiness. Unnecessary words and convoluted sentences are hallmarks of Chinglish translation. For example, the Civil Aviation Administration of ChinaCivil Aviation Administration of ChinaThe Civil Aviation Administration of China , formerly the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China , is the aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents...
announced, "CAAC has decided to start the business of advance booking and ticketing”, which could simply say “CAAC now accepts advance booking and ticketing.” - Wrong word order. A host in Shenyang toasted a group of foreign investors with "Up your bottoms!" instead of "Bottoms up!"
Chinglish reflects the influence of Chinese syntax and grammar. For instance, Chinese verbs are not necessarily conjugated
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
and there is no equivalent article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
for English "the", both of which can create awkward translations.
Causes
Chinglish has various causes, most commonly erroneous Chinese dictionaries and translation software (mentioned above by Fallows).Liu et al. differentiate root and ancillary causes of Chinglish. The root causes are outdated Chinese-English dictionaries and incorrect English as a foreign language textbooks. Ancillary causes include misspelling, mediocre English-language teaching, sloppy translation, and reliance on outdated translation technology. They warn that, "today's English-language publishers and teachers in China are passing on obsolete translations and incorrect rules of language to students. In turn, Chinglish gets duplicated across society, particularly now during today's period of rapid opening to the outside world and the widespread use of English. The resultant flood of Chinglish will perpetuate unless it is corrected now."
Common causes include:
- Lack of inclusion of native speakers of English in the translation or editing process
- Dictionary translation: translating Chinese to English word for word
- Use of machine translationMachine translationMachine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.On a basic...
with no post-editing - Competently translated text which has been subsequently edited by non-native speakers
Examples
Collections of Chinglish are found on numerous websites (see below) and books. Owing to the ubiquity of Chinglish mistakes throughout the SinosphereSinosphere
In areal linguistics, Sinosphere refers to a grouping of countries and regions that are currently inhabited with a majority of Chinese population or were historically under Chinese cultural influence...
, the following examples will exclude common misspellings (e.g., "energetically Englsih-friendly environment") and typographical error
Typographical error
A typographical error is a mistake made in, originally, the manual type-setting of printed material, or more recently, the typing process. The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger, but usually excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors...
s (a bilingual bus sign reading "往 不知道 To unknow"; wang 往 means "to; toward" and buzhidao 不知道 "don't know") that can occur anywhere in the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
.
- Slip carefully. A bilingual sign in SichuanSichuan' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
mistranslates Xiaoxin huadao (小心滑倒 "Be careful not to slip and fall"). - To take notice of safe: The slippery are very crafty. A comparable sign in a Beijing garage reads Zhuyi anquan podao luhua (注意安全 坡道路滑 "Pay attention to safety The ramp is slippery").
- Workshop for concrete agitation appears on a sign in a Sichuan factory. Jiaoban fang (攪拌房), which combines jiaoban meaning "stir; mix; agitate" and fang "house; room", translates as "mixing room".
- Spread to fuck the fruit is a Chinese supermarket sign mistranslation of sàn gānguǒ . Victor Mair noted the fuckFuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
translation of gān (干) was "fairly ubiquitous in China", and discovered this complicated Chinglish error resulted from machine translationMachine translationMachine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.On a basic...
software misinterpreting gānguǒ as gàn guǒ . In written Chinese, sometimes a single simplified Chinese character is used for multiple traditional Chinese characters: gān is the simplified form of two words gān and gàn . Mair's research revealed that popular Chinese-English Jinshan Ciba dictionary (2002 edition) and Jinshan Kuaiyi translation software systematically rendered every occurrence of 干 as "fuck" (later editions corrected this error). Two comparable Chinglish mistranslations of gān "dry" as gàn "do; fuck" are: The shrimp fucks the cabbage for Xiāgān chǎo báicài , and fuck the empress mistakes gàn hòu for gānhòu , with hòu as the Simplified form of hòu .
- Please steek gently appears on a TaipeiTaipeiTaipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
government building door. This form of Chinglish uses obscure English terms, namely, Scottish EnglishScottish EnglishScottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not be considered distinct from the Scots language. It is always considered distinct from Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language....
steek "enclose; chose; shut" instead of the common word. - Bumf Box for shouzhi xiang (手紙箱 "toilet paper box/case"), employs the British EnglishBritish EnglishBritish English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
word bumf, originally a shortened form of bumfodder meaning "toilet paper", now used to mean "useless documents". - Braised enterovirus in Clay Pot appears on a Chinese menu for ganguo feichang (干鍋肥腸; literally "dry pot fatty intestine"), which is a stuffed sausage popular in SichuaneseSzechuan cuisineSzechuan cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, or Szechwan cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine originating in the Sichuan Province of southwestern China famed for bold flavors, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavour of...
-HunaneseHunan cuisineHunan cuisine, sometimes called Xiang cuisine , consists of the cuisines of the Xiang River region, Dongting Lake and western Hunan Province, in China. Hunan cuisine consists of three styles:...
cuisine. This example occurred following the Enterovirus 71 epidemic in China, and mistranslates feichang (肥腸 "pig's large intestines [used as food]") as chang[dao] bingdu (腸[道]病毒 "intestinal virus"). - Fried enema on a menu mistranslates zha guanchang (炸灌腸 "fried sausage [with flour stuffed into hog casings])". The Jinshan Ciba dictionary confused the cooking and medical meanings of guanchang "(make) a sausage; (give) an enema".
- A weak 'pyridaben carbazole' sound is found on translated instructions for a photographic light, "Install the battery into the battery jar, when heard a weak 'pyridaben carbazole' sound the installation is completed." The original Chinese has an onomatopoetic term dada kazuo (噠噠咔唑 "click; tick") rendered into damanling (噠蟎靈 "pyridabenPyridazinePyridazine is a heteroaromatic organic compound with the molecular formula C4H4N2, sometimes called 1,2-diazine. It contains a six-membered ring with two adjacent nitrogen atoms. It is a colorless liquid with a boiling point of 208 °C....
") and kazuo (咔唑 "carbazoleCarbazoleCarbazole is an aromatic heterocyclic organic compound. It has a tricyclic structure, consisting of two six-membered benzene ring fused on either side of a five-membered nitrogen-containing ring...
"). - 4 Uygur theater is printed on the bilingual instructions for a Chinese 4-D film4-D film4-D film is a marketing term that describes an entertainment presentation system combining a 3-D film with physical effects in the theatre, which occur in synchronization with the film...
about dinosaurs. The Chinese term siwei (四維 "4 dimensions") uses wei "tie up; maintain, uphold; estimate" that commonly transcribes foreign names such as Weiwu'er (維吾爾 "UyghurUyghur languageUyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
; Uighur"). - Exterminate Capitalism Lobster Package was the Chinglish rendering of Taotie longxia can (饕餮龍蝦餐 "gourmand lobster meal") on a menu mentioned by the New York Times. Victor Mair analyzed the linguistic impossibility of rendering TaotieTaotieThe Taotie is a motif commonly found on ritual bronze vessels from the Shang and Zhou Dynasty. The design typically consists of a zoomorphic mask, described as being frontal, bilaterally symmetrical, with a pair of raised eyes and typically no lower jaw area...
(Wikt:饕餮) "a mythical beast; glutton; greedy person" as "exterminate capitalism" and concluded somebody "mischievously provided an absurd translation, perhaps with the intention of poking fun at the Chinese Communist system which has given rise to such luxurious and fancy dining practices as reflected in pretentious menus of this sort." - Do not want is a mistranslation of "Nooooo-!" exclaimed by Darth VaderDarth VaderDarth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
in a bootleg version of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, a phrase which has since become an internet memeInternet memeThe term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
. A bootleg copy of the film entitled "Star War - The third gathers: Backstroke of the West" was bought in China, and featured erroneous English subtitles that were machine translated back from a Chinese translation of the original English, i.e. a re-translation, which was posted online due to its humorous use of poor English. Having gone viral, the phrase has spread as a meme used on messageboards online. The mistranslation is an example of translation decay following an English translation to Chinese, which is then re-translated back into English; the exclamation "no" would be correctly translated as 不要 buyao in Chinese, however since 要 yao can also mean "want", and 不 bu is used as a negation particle, 不要 can also be translated as "don't want" or "do not want". As an example, the phrase 我不要去 correctly translates to "I (don't/do not) want to go", however the discussion 「你要不要吃飯？」／「不要。」 translates to "Do you want to eat?"/"No." as well.
See also
- Hong Kong EnglishHong Kong EnglishHong Kong English may refer to two different yet interrelated concepts. The first concept refers to the variation or dialect of the English language used in Hong Kong. The second concept refers to the accent and elements as a result of its use by Cantonese speakers.For the first meaning, Hong Kong...
- Non-native pronunciations of EnglishNon-native pronunciations of EnglishNon-native pronunciations of English result from the common linguistic phenomenon in which non-native users of any language tend to carry the intonation, phonological processes and pronunciation rules from their mother tongue into their English speech...
- Mute EnglishMute EnglishMute English is a phenomenon, especially common in the People's Republic of China, where people can read and understand English as a second language but cannot speak it well. The phrase is a translation of the Chinese phrase, "哑巴英语"...
- Macaronic languageMacaronic languageMacaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages, sometimes including bilingual puns, particularly when the languages are used in the same context . The term is also sometimes used to denote hybrid words, which are in effect internally macaronic...
- EngrishEngrishrefers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
External links
- AsiaObscura.com's collection of Chinglish
- The Chinese-English, Chinglish Archives ChineseEnglish.com
- Chinglish.com Chinese-English dictionary
- The Chinglish Collection : Pocopico.com
- The Chinglish Files
- Engrish.com Chinglish Collection
- Chinglish Collection and more
- LanguageMonitor.com Top Chinglish of the Year
- A Sampling of Chinglish NY Times 2010/05/03
- Strange Signs From Abroad NY Times 2010/05/11
- Chinglish: an illustrated lecture, William Griffin