| Chinglish | |
|---|---|
| Chinese English, China English, Engrish, Sinicized English | |
 A 2007 warning sign inGuilin states in Chinese: "(When there are) thunderstorms / Please do not climb the mountain." | |
| Native to | PRC andROC |
| Region | East Asia |
Early forms | |
| Latin (English alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
 Map ofChina. Territory controlled by the People's Republic of China shown in dark green; territoryclaimed but not controlled is shown in light green. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Chinglish | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 中式英文 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中式英文 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Chinese Style English | ||||||
| |||||||
Chinglish is slang for spoken or writtenEnglish language that is either influenced by aChinese language, or is poorly translated.[1] InHong Kong,Macau,Guangdong andGuangxi, the term "Chinglish" refers mainly toCantonese-influencedEnglish. This term is commonly applied toungrammatical ornonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may havepejorative ordeprecating connotations.[2] Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include "Chinese English", "China English", "Engrish" and "Sinicized English".[3] The degree to which a Chinesevariety of English exists or can be considered legitimate is still up for debate.[4]
The English wordChinglish is aportmanteau ofChinese andEnglish. The Chinese equivalent isZhōngshì Yīngyǔ (simplified Chinese:中式英语;traditional Chinese:中式英語;lit. 'Chinese-style English').
Chinglish can be compared with otherinterlanguage varieties of English, such asBritalian (from Italian),Czenglish (from Czech),Denglisch (German),Dunglish (Dutch),Franglais (French),Greeklish (Greek),Manglish (Malaysia),Runglish (Russian),Spanglish (Spanish),Swenglish (Swedish),Hunglish (Hungarian),Hebrish (Hebrew),Engrish (Japanese),Hinglish (Hindi),Konglish (Korean),Taglish (Tagalog),Bislish (Visayan),Singlish (in Singapore),Ponglish (Polish) andTinglish (Thai).
TheOxford English Dictionary defines thenoun andadjective.
Chinglish,n. and a. colloq. (freq.depreciative). Brit. /ˈtʃɪŋglɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈtʃɪŋ(g)lɪʃ/. Forms: 19–Chinglish, 19–Chenglish [rare]. [Blend of Chinesen. and Englishn. Compare earlier Japlishn., Spanglishn. Compare also Hinglishn.2, Singlishn.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
Badj. Of or relating to Chinglish; expressed in Chinglish.[5]
This dictionary cites the earliest recorded usage ofChinglish (noted as ajocular term) in 1957 and ofChinese English in 1857.[6] However,Chinglish has been found to date from as early as 1936, making it one of the earliest portmanteau words for a hybrid variety of English.[7] Other colloquial portmanteau words for Chinese English include:Chenglish (recorded from 1979),Chinlish (1996),Chinenglish (1997),Changlish (2000) andChinelish (2006).[8]
Chinglish commonly refers to a mixture of English withModern Standard Mandarin, but it occasionally refers to mixtures withCantonese,[9]Shanghainese andTaiwanese Hokkien.[10]
Chinglish contrasts with some related terms.Chinese Pidgin English was alingua franca that originated in the 17th century.Zhonglish, a term for Chinese influenced by English, is a portmanteau ofZhōngwén (中文; 'Chinese language') and "English".[11][12]
Some peculiar Chinese English cannot be labeled Chinglish because it is grammatically correct, andVictor Mair calls this emerging dialect "Xinhua English or New China News English", based on theXinhua News Agency. Take for instance, this headline: "China lodges solemn representation over Japan's permission forRebiya Kadeer's visit". This unusual English phrase literally translates the original Chinesetíchū yánzhèng jiāoshè (提出嚴正交涉; 'lodge solemn representation'), combiningtíchū "put forward; raise; pose bring up",yánzhèng "serious; stern; unyielding; solemn", andjiāoshè "mutual relations; negotiation; representation".[13] "Pure Chinese" is an odd English locution in a Web advertisement: "孔子学院/ CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE/ Teach you pure Chinese." ThisKǒngzǐ Xuéyuàn (孔子学院) is Chinese for theConfucius Institute, but Mair notes that "pure Chinese" curiously implies "impure Chinese".[14]
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 thelingua franca ofcoolness. 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."[15]
English first arrived in China in 1637, when British traders reachedHong Kong,Macau andGuangzhou (Canton).[16] In the 17th century,Chinese Pidgin English originated as alingua franca for trade betweenBritish people and mostlyCantonese-speakingChinese people. This proto-Chinglish term "pidgin" originated as a Chinese mispronunciation of the English word "business".[17] Following theFirst andSecond Opium War between 1839–1842, Pidgin English spread north to Shanghai and othertreaty ports.[18] Pidgin usage began to decline in the late 19th century when Chinese and missionary schools began teachingStandard English.[19] In 1982, the People's Republic of China made English the main foreign language in education.[20] The spelling of words in Chinese education follows British English standards, while the pronunciation in the tape recording adheres to American English.[21] Current estimates for the number of English learners in China range from 300 to 500 million.[22]
Chinglish may have influenced some English expressions that are "calques" or "loan translations" fromChinese Pidgin English, for instance, "lose face" derives fromdiūliǎn丟脸; 'lose face', 'be humiliated'. Some sources claim "long time no see" is a Chinglish calque fromhǎojiǔbújiàn好久不见; 'long time no see'.[23] More reliable references note this jocularAmerican English phrase "used as a greeting after prolonged separation" was first recorded in 1900 for aNative American's speech, and thus more likely derives fromAmerican Indian Pidgin English.[24][25]
Chinese officials carried out campaigns to reduce Chinglish in preparation for the2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and theExpo 2010 in Shanghai.
Soon after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics in 2001, the Beijing Tourism Bureau established a tipsterhotline for Chinglish errors on signs, such as emergency exits at theBeijing Capital International Airport reading "No entry on peacetime".[26] 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."[27][28] 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".[29] TheGlobal Language Monitor doubted that Beijing's attempt to eradicate Chinglish could succeed, noting that "attempting to map a precise ideogram to any particular word in the million-word English lexicon is a nearly impossible task", and pointing out that the Games' official website contained the phrase "we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games" (using "charm" as atransitive verb).[30]
In Shanghai, for Expo 2010, a similar effort was made to replace Chinglish signs. ANew York Times article byAndrew Jacobs[31] 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."[32]James Fallows attributed many Shanghai Chinglish errors to "rote reliance on dictionaries or translation software", citing a bilingual sign reading "餐厅 Translate server error" (cāntīng;餐厅 means "dining room; restaurant"). While conceding that "there's something undeniablyColonel 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 Exhibit" banners advertising aThree Gorges Dam exhibit, and wrote, "it truly is bizarre that so manyorganizations 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."[33] On a Chinese airplane, Fallows was given awet wipe labeled "Wet turban needless wash", translatingmiǎn xǐ shī jīn (免洗湿巾; 'wash-free moist towel').[34] Shanghai'sLuwan District published a controversial "Bilingual Instruction of Luwan District for Expo" phrasebook with English terms and Chinese characters approximating pronunciation: "Good morning! (古得猫宁)" [pronouncedgǔ dé māo níng] (which could be literally translated as "ancient cat tranquility") and "I'm sorry (爱么搔瑞)" [ài me saō ruì] (which is nonsensical).[35]
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."[36]
The Global Language Monitor predicts Chinglish will thrive, and estimates that roughly 20 percent of new English words derive from Chinglish, for instance,shanzhai (山寨; 'mountain stronghold', 'mountain village') meaning "counterfeit consumer goods; things done in parody"[37] — Huang Youyi, president of theChina Internet Information Center, predicts thatlinguistic purism could be damaged by popularChinese words of English origin (such asOK andLOL). "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."[38]
Specifying Chinglish to mean "Chinese wordsliterally translated into English", an experiment in linguistic clarity conducted by Han and Ginsberg (2001) found that mathematical terms are more readily understandable in Chinglish than English.[39] English words for mathematics typically haveGreek and Latin roots, while corresponding Chinese words are usuallytranslations of neologisms from Western languages; thusquadrilateral (from Latinquadri- "four" andlatus "sided") is generally less informative than Chinesesìbiānxíng四边形; 'four-side-shape'). For example, compare the semantic clarity of Englishaxiom, Chinesegōnglǐ公理, and Chinglish (literal translation) "universal-principle";median,zhōngshù中数, and "centre-number"; ortrapezoid,tīxíng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%.
In 2017, the Government of the People's Republic of China introduced the national standard for its English translations to replace Chinglish. This took effect on 1 December of that year.[40]
Chinglish is the combination of the Chinese culture and the English language. China English has linguistic characteristics that are different from the normative English in all linguistic levels, includingphonology,lexicon,syntax, anddiscourse.[41]
At the phonological level, Chinglish does not differentiate between various vowel qualities because they don't exist in Chinese. As a result, there is no contrast between the two sounds for Chinglish speakers. For example,cheap andchip would be the same pronunciation. Another phonological feature is that speakers are unaware of the "graduation"[41] of words which are said in different tones depending on the context. The wordfor is stressed and said differently in the phrases "what is it for?" and "this is for you." To a Chinglish speaker, the two are the same. Chinglish speakers use Chinese phonological units to speak English, and retain thesyllable timing of Chinese in place of thestress timing of English which together gives them a notable accent.
At the lexical level, China English manifests itself through many ways such astransliteration andloan translations. Transliteration has brought many interesting words and expressions from the Chinese language into English. Speakers are able to merge the two because of pinyin, a Latin alphabet used to write Chinese. In loan translations, Chinese words have been translated directly into English. This phenomenon can be found in a lot of compound words like red bean, bean curd, and teacup. The other way that loan translations are made is when speakers translate Chinese terms into English. These words come from the Chinese culture and are ideas, thoughts, or expressions that do not exist in English. For example,spring rolls would otherwise not have meaning in English if not for Chinglish speakers making it a loan translation to describe the food. In addition, speakers use subordinate conjunctions differently and also exhibitcopula absence in their speech. Examples include "Because I am ill, so I can't go to school" and "The dress beautiful."[42]
As Chinese grammar does not distinguish between definite and indefinite articles, Chinese speakers struggle with when to use or not use the English definite articlethe.
At the syntactic level, Chinese thinking has influenced Chinglish speakers to utilize a different sequence and structure to make sentences. For English speakers, a common sequence issubject →predicate →object →adverbial ("John entered the room quietly").[41] On the other hand, the Chinese sequence is subject → adverbial → predicate → object ("Lijing quiet enter room"). Chinese speakers tend to leave the most important information (thetopic) at the end of the sentence, while English speakers present it at the start.
Linguists and language teachers employerror analysis to fathom Chinglish. Liu et al. list four characteristic features of Chinglish mistranslations,[43]
Chinglish reflects the influence of Chinese syntax and grammar.[45] For instance, Chinese verbs are not necessarilyconjugated and there is no equivalentarticle for English "the", both of which can create awkward translations.
Chinglish has various causes, most commonly erroneousChinese dictionaries, translation software, and incorrectEnglish as a foreign language textbooks. Other causes include misspelling, mediocre English-language teaching, sloppy translation, and reliance on outdated translation technology. Liu, Feather and Qian warn that
today's English-language publishers and teachers in China are passing on obsolete translations and incorrectrules 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.[46]
Common causes include:
Some similar words are generally confused by most Chinglish speakers, for example "emergent" instead of "emergency" or "urgent", because of incorrect entries in dictionaries.
In Chinglish, "I know"我知道 is generally used instead of the term "I see", when used to tell others that you understand what they said.
"See", "watch", "read", and "look" all refer to看 (kàn) in Chinese. For example,看電影 (看电影) means "to see a film" or "to watch a movie",看書 (看书) means "to read a book",看著我 (看着我) means "to look at me". Because of that, Chinglish speakers use "look" instead of "see", "watch", or "read". The same phenomena can be found in the use of "speak", "say", and "talk"說 (说;shuō). The expression "Can you say Chinese?" (你会说中文吗？;你會說中文嗎) would mean "Do you speak Chinese?"[citation needed]
Another misuse of vocabulary is "to turn on/off" and "open/close". Chinese speakers use關 (关;guān) to refer to turning off things like electrical appliances or to close a door or window. Accordingly, a Chinglish speaker might say "close the light" rather than "turn off the light". In the same way,開 (开;kāi) refers to turning those things on, or to open a door or window. As a result, they would say "open the TV" instead of "turn on the TV".
Collections of Chinglish are found on numerous websites (see below) and books.[52][53][54] Owing to the ubiquity of Chinglish mistakes throughout theSinophone world, the following examples will exclude commonmisspellings (e.g., "energetically Englsih-friendly environment")[55] andtypographical errors (a bilingual bus sign reading "往 不知道 To unknow";wǎng往 means "to; toward" andbùzhīdào不知道 "don't know")[56] that can occur anywhere in theEnglish-speaking world.
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