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楼主  发表于: 2008-04-19   

Chinglish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chinglish (slang) is a portmanteau of the words Chinese and English and refers to either (a) English interspersed with Chinese language errors common to those Chinese persons who are learning English or (b) Chinese interspersed with English, such as used by westernized Chinese (e.g. American-born Chinese) who are not fluent in Chinese and codeswitch English words into speech when they can't think of the correct Chinese word.

Chinglish is not the name of a language, creole language, pidgin, or dialect.



An example of written chinglish on a signpost. The Chinese characters roughly mean: "All cashiers in the marketplace offer price-checking services". The chinglish translation on the bottom of the sign deviates from the sign's intended meaning.



An example of written chinglish

Example
Notable examples include "no q" as a response to "thank you" (often sinicized in Mandarin Chinese as 三Q - san q) and ok le (了). (The second example is both chinglish and Singlish.)

Chinglish spoken by Chinese learners of English

Pronunciation
Inaccurate pronunciation or misspellings through typos or poor pronunciation may result in Chinglish.



For instance, the word "temple" and "temper" may be confused, as both would be pronounced similarly to "Tem-po" or "Tem-pah". Note that the two English words, when poorly pronounced, may resemble each other to the extent that the two are indistinguishable; this further creates confusion. Sometimes, the poor pronunciation of a single English word can create a Chinglish pronunciation that is almost nothing like the original English word. For example, the company named "Zellers" (part of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada) is often incorrectly pronounced as "Se La".

This is exacerbated in the case of English names, since there are often several names with similar pronunciations. The Chinese dialect makes it difficult to pronounce Alan, Ellen and Eileen differently, as is the case with Shirley, Shelly and Cherry.

In most dialects of Chinese, voiced obstruent consonants (/b/, /d/, /g/, /dʒ/) do not exist properly. These dialects distinguish unvoiced aspirate and unvoiced unaspirate obstruents. Most Chinese perceive voiced obstruents as unvoiced unaspirates (e.g. /b/ becomes /p/), while unvoiced obstruents in foreign languages are all perceived as aspirate (e.g. /p/ becomes /pʰ/. This is reflected in several Romanization systems, notably Hanyu Pinyin (but not Wade-Giles). Thus, "buy" is pronounced /paɪ/, while "pie" remains /pʰaɪ/. When unaspirated obstruents occur in English (albeit non-phonemically) as in "spin" (/spɪn/), Chinese speakers would still pronounce them as if they were aspirate (/sɹ.ˈpʰin/). This applies equally to affricates, where "change", normally pronounced /tʃʰɛɪndʒ/, becomes /ˈtʃʰɛn.tʃi/ (or /ˈtɕʰɛn.tɕi/ if palatized).

In Cantonese pronunciation, some consonants are nowadays changed into other, for example N is often pronounced as L. Voiced sounds ('v' and the /zh/ sound - eg. 'pleasure') cause difficulty, and some sounds are missing entirely, leaving words like "very" to be pronounced "wewy" and 'reservoir' to come out as 'viceroy'. In speech, there is also a tendency to add the sound "see" or "chi" at the end of certain singular letters, such as the letters "S" and "H" ('es-see' and 'ay-chi' respectively).

Similarly, there are no syllable codas (consonants at the end of syllables) in Mandarin with the exception of the "n" sound. When encountering such codas, a Mandarin speaker will either modify the consonant to form a separate syllable, or drop it altogether. Thus, for example, CCTV presenters pronounce the letters "L", "M", and "N" as [aɪ lə] ("ai-le"), [aɪ mu] ("ai-mu") and [ən] ("n") respectively.

Also, it is very difficult for most chinese people to pronounce "th" properly. Thus, it is not uncommon for "three" to be pronounced as "sree" or "tree". Similarly, it is common that people pronounce "fourth" as "fours", thus confusing it with the close sound of "first". What is most confusing is the pronunciation of "thirty three and a third" as "dirty tree and a turd". This can all be explained by the lack of the "th" sound in Chinese language, and almost all of the different dialects of China.

Some people also have difficulty pronouncing words with multiple "L"s or "R"s in them. For example, the name "Clara" may be incorrectly pronounced as "Crala", "Clala", or "Crara".

As all varieties of Chinese are tonal languages, Chinese speakers sometimes apply tonal attributes to English, which is normally a stress-based language. Stressed syllables are generally given higher and falling tones over unstressed syllables. This imparts a "singsong" quality to the accent, a feature shared by speakers of other tonal (or pitch-stressed) languages.

[edit] Vocabulary


Chinglish government notice in Shanghai.

Erroneous vocabulary usage can also result in Chinglish. Examples include "to put in Jingzhang Expressway" instead of "entering Jingzhang Expressway"), and the use of "emergent" to mean "emergency" or "urgent". In the photo of the park regulations at right, the use of words such as "objectionable" and "inexpedient" is a further example.

As another example, when something is explained, the English learner may respond with "Oh, I know," while the appropriate response would be "Oh, I see." This is because "知道 zhīdao" is usually translated as know regardless of context. "When did you first recognize him?" is also sometimes used for "When did you first meet him?" because "认识[認識] rènshi" is usually translated as recognize as in "I recognize him from last week's party."

Some errors occur with the use of see, watch, read and look at which are all one word, “看 kàn", in Chinese and may be confused with each other or just reduced to look. The situation of speak, say and talk is similar. So, someone studying English for several years might still say phrases like "Can you say Chinese?", "I am watching a book", and "Tomorrow I will look a movie."

Another common area of confusion is "turn on/off" versus "open/close". In Chinese, "turn on" (in the sense of operating a switch or a machine) and "open" are rendered by the same character, and so are "turn off" and "close". As a result, many people would say "open the light" when they mean "turn the light on", "open the TV" when they mean "turn on the TV", and "close the computer" when they mean "turn the computer off". Conversely, but less commonly, "close the door" may be rendered as "turn off the door" (See below: #Examples of Chinglish expressions).

There is also a tendency not to recognize the distinction between polite and vulgar usage. Swearwords sometimes crop up in learners' speech and writing when they do not mean to be coarse, and bad words can sometimes even appear in public notices, as in the park regulations at right.

Literal pronunciation of words can be common, such as the abbreviation BBQ of barbecue will be spoken "bee-bee-kill".

Grammar


The overuse of —ing, and the confusion of one word for another (a warning sign in Guilin)

Chinglish may result from grammatically erroneous usage of English, often resulting from the writer "thinking in Chinese while writing in English" (e.g. verbatim word-for-word translation), such as "wipe out six injurious insect" (to wipe out six types of harmful insects/vermin, including cockroaches and mosquitoes) and "enjoy stand" (a scenic viewpoint). Another example, in the photo at right, has rendered the translation more or less incomprehensible.

Chinglish can result from common patterns of grammatical errors. Examples include:

-using "me is" instead of "I am" (such as "Me is Jack")
-using awkward gerunds (such as "No Noising")
-excessive use of "the" when not needed (such as "The China is bigger than the France")
-excessive use of verbs with the "-ing" ending (such as "Please do not climbing"; in the photo below)
-excessive use of "to", the use of "to" with modals, preserving "to" in infinitive form even when unnecessary (e.g. "I must to go")
-confusion of -ed and -ing adjectives (e.g. "I am very boring" vs. "I am very bored"; "I was surprising" vs. "I was surprised")
-the overuse of "very" between "be" and an adjective (reflecting the use of "很" in Chinese)
-the use of "very" to modify verbs (e.g. "I very like it")
-the use of the passive when the active is more appropriate
-wrong usage of verb tenses
-the use of the singular when the plural would be more fitting (various examples can be seen in the park regulations above)

Typically, many of these errors are made because, in Chinese, verbs are not conjugated (either for tense or pronoun), and there is no equivalent word for "the." Often a Chinese grammatical pattern will be incorporated into English grammar, such as "I tomorrow go to Shanghai" or "I this morning eat breakfast".

Also, there is much confusion regarding countable and uncountable nouns, use of plurals, and the use of "how much", "how many", "a lot of", "much" and "many". This leads to phrases such as "I want a soup" and "There are a lot of shoe."

Another common confusion is with prepositions, such as "on", "in", "at", which in many contexts have the same Chinese translation (zai, meaning "existing at this position"). To an extent, this reflects the idiomatic, rather than logical, way these words are used in English. An example is the often used expression "on Taiwan", as in "Republic of China on Taiwan", whereas native speakers of English are more likely to say "in Taiwan". Similarly, many Chinese students of English are confused by the difference between "at home" and "in the house".

Comma splices can occur frequently. This is due to the fact that in Chinese writing, the comma (逗號 ",") is all that is sufficient to terminate a clause without needing to follow with a conjunction. The equivalent of full stop (句號 "。") is usually reserved for the end of an idea, which theoretically may last as long as a paragraph.[citation needed]

History

In the early and middle 20th century, Chinglish was known as "pidgin", or "Yangjing Bang English" in Chinese (洋涇濱, or 洋泾浜), which derives from the name of a former creek in Shanghai near the Bund where local workers communicated with English-speaking foreigners in pidgin.

Chinglish names

Some Chinese pick non-traditional English names, which they do not view as strange because they are not aware of English naming conventions.

Such names are derived from vocabulary they learned in their early English lessons, including names such as Apple, Space, Can, Sea, Mooncake, Magic, Koala, Spider, Thunder, Cloudy, Airy, Rainbow, Table, Bird, Eleven, Hifi, H2O, Ice, Puppy, Well and other names of animals, plants, weather phenomena, household appliances, days of the week or months. Some people have even unknowingly chosen swear words as names.

They might choose western products they like as their name, such as Cola or Nautica, or other more advanced words that may be picked for their sound or meaning such as Victory, Nation or even Cemetary.

Also, names very easy to pronounce in Chinese, but not common in English, may be chosen, such as the very common name Coco.

Some others choose to use traditional English names but often pronounce them incorrectly or alter their spelling. For example, the name Keith is often spelled as Keif, and pronounced as "Kif". They may also add various suffixes to common names, such as turning Sam into Samson. Sometimes this can cause unintended results, such as when adding the '-ing' suffix to the name Jack.

Some choose Russian, Japanese, or Hispanic names, such as Yuri, Jun, or Antonio. Since most styles European names are widely used in English-speaking communities, these will seem less "odd" than other non-traditional names. However, while a name such as "Ivan" would not seem out-of-place in most English-speaking countries, a name such as "Yevgeny" or "Nikolai" would. However, Japanese names like Jun, which English-speakers pronounce as June, may cause problems in that they are unisex, whereas their English soundalikes are traditionally bound to one sex.

These names may just be viewed as nicknames, and some Chinese may choose more common ones if they have to use their name in business or other more formal occasions.

Most (but not all) Chinese people living in Asia are given only Chinese names at birth, and choose their own English name at some point after they begin learning English (if they ever do). Although rare, some parents may name their child a Chinese phonetic translation of an English name, such as Suzie (Sook-Si in Cantonese), Raymond (Wai-Ming in Cantonese), Annie (On-Lei in Cantonese), Annie (An-ni or Anne in Mandarin), Joanne (Jia-An in Mandarin), Ivy (Ai-Li in Mandarin), Eileen (Ai-Lin in Mandarin), Pauline (Poh-Lin in Cantonese), Charlie (Jia-Li in Mandarin), Elaine (Yi-Ling in Mandarin), Maggie (Mei-Qi in Mandarin), Carmen (Kah Man in Cantonese), Ada (Ai-Da in Mandarin), or Joey (Jo Yee in Cantonese). This can be observed from the majority of Cantopop singers from Hong Kong adopting an English name that is somewhat a transliteration of their Chinese name as pronounced in Cantonese. For example: 陳奕迅 Chan Yik-Shun (Simplified: 陈奕迅; Jyutping: can yik seon; IPA:/'tsɐn 'jɪk 'sɵn/) is Eason Chan, 謝安琪 Tse On-Kei (Simplified: 谢安琪; Jyutping: ze on kei; IPA: /'tsɛː 'ɔːn 'kʰei/) is Kay Tse, and 容祖兒 Yung Cho-Yee (Simplified: 容祖儿; Jyutping: jung zou ji; IPA: /'jʊŋ 'tɕou 'jiː/) is Joey Yung.


Language humour

Although most Chinglish phrases originated from poor translations, many are created deliberately as language humour. Examples include:

Open the door see mountain (verbatim translation from a Chinese idiom, meaning "to speak straightforwardly" — 开门见山/開門見山). Other such example may be "five flowers eight doors" (in Chinese, wǔ huā bā mén - 五花八门/五花八門), which means "kaleidoscopic" or "multifarious", and "people mountain people sea" (in Chinese, 人山人海 rén shan rén hai), meaning "a sea of people" or "a huge crowd".

Un-ding-able (it has at least two different meanings in Cantonese. It could mean "no one can stand it" - 頂唔順, here 頂 ding means "to stand", "to support" or "to tolerate". It could also mean "best of the best" - 無得頂, here 頂 means "to best".)

You go see see lah (Go and have a look. — 你去睇睇啦) (please refer to Hong Kong English or Singlish. Chinese: 你去看看啦). Some aspects of Chinese involves repetition of words to indicate a verb, which in a similar context could include Try try see (go try it — 試試看), sometimes less commonly, run one run (to take a walk - 跑一跑), or wait wait me ba (Wait for me - 等等我吧).

Good good study, day day up (verbatim translation from a Chinese Communist-era saying by Mao Zedong, meaning "study hard, keep improving" (好好学习﹑天天向上 hǎohao xuéxí, tiāntiān xiàngshàng).

Horse horse tiger tiger (verbatim Mandarin Chinese translation for so-so or mediocre - 馬馬虎虎)
Open water or white open water (another instance of verbatim translation, which 開 technically means "open", but in this context it means to boil, which means "[plain] boiled water", as in [白]開水). Though occasionally jokingly used amongst other Asians, it is also a common error and creates confusion outside of Chinese culture, most notably in restaurants or other forms of hospitality that may serve drinks (e.g. cafés, house guests, etc.) where the person being asked may be unaware of the asker's demands.

Regional varieties

Chinglish in Mainland China

Chinglish is becoming a problem for major cities such as Beijing. In Beijing, in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, the city authorities are clamping down on the usage of Chinglish and replacing it with proper English.[1] Among other examples, signs that previously read: "To take notice of safe: The slippery are very crafty" may read, in proper English, "Caution - slippery path". Other notable examples include: "Oil gate" (accelerator), "confirming distance" (keep space, distance verification), and so on.

Chinglish can also prove to be a problem for Chinese companies attempting to market products overseas in English-speaking countries. Product labeling is commonly nonsensical or unintentionally humorous, either way not communicating the intended message.


A more sensible translation is "Everyone is responsible for protecting the greenery!"

"Welcome to"

One of the more noticeable cases of Chinglish, especially on mainland China, is the phrase welcome to. This is used as a direct translation in Chinese, "歡迎". It actually means "we invite you to" or "you are welcome to", and is used more as an incentive to the activity introduced or as a form of "thank you". Its use is almost always cordial, inviting, or otherwise positive. A more confusing matter arises with the usage of the phrase welcome again. The phrase is typically displayed in such a manner that it is seen at the end of activities such as bus rides or visits to bookstores, and would be translated as a message of thanks, and that the visitor is welcome back at any time. An equivalent phrase in English-speaking countries might be "Please come again."

Examples:

Welcome to ride Line 52 Bus = Thank you for riding Bus Line 52.
Welcome to ride Line 13 again = Thank you for riding Line 13, and we would be pleased to welcome you back aboard at any time.
Welcome to take my taxi = Thank you for taking my taxi.
Welcome to listen to my news = Thanks for tuning in!
Welcome to use ATM service = (found very often on ATMs) means thanks for using this ATM.
You can use this variant too...

Welcome to ride Line 52 Bus = You are welcome to ride Bus Line 52.
Welcome to take my taxi = You are welcome to take my taxi.

Chinglish in Taiwan

Chinglish is also quite prevalent in Taiwan. In Taiwan it is more often known as "台灣英文", literally "Taiwanese English" or mockingly "Formosan English". Characteristics of Taiwanese English always include answering questions in a very regulated style:

"Do you like pizza?" "Yes, I do." "Do you like basketball?" "No, I don't."

There is also a well known parody song of the English alphabet going by the lines of "A B C D, dog bites pig (A, B, C,D 狗咬豬)" (with "dog bites pig" in Taiwanese) in Taiwan.


Chinglish phrases used by native English speakers

Long time no see is often attributed as an example of Chinglish being used by native English speakers. The phrase is said to have originated from 好耐冇見(喇)(Cantonese)/好久不見(了)(Mandarin). These Chinglish phrases were used by dock workers to greet sailors from overseas.

It began in the early 1900s when British and American warships and trading ships often stayed at Chinese docks, and through pidgin communications with dock workers, started to communicate in what is now known as Chinglish. The sailors used the phrase long time no see as a joke when they got home and somehow the phrase became widely used even in English-speaking countries. A more grammatically correct phrase of English should be I haven't seen you for a long time.

The phrase has also been said to originate from trade with American Indians. Similar seemingly grammatically "incorrect" phrases (such as "no pain, no gain") are common and native to English; thus "long time no see" may have been just a coincidence.

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