63
consulted a number of dictionaries of foreign words and phrases and discovered a disappointingly low number of Chinese entries.
In the world-wide use of the English language the number of loan words from Chinese is not large. For example, sampan, tea, cheongsam, mahjong are fairly well-known. And in recent years it has become fashionable to include Romanized forms of Chinese words to give local colour in newspapers and journals, local as well as international, and in works of fiction, especially where subject and/or locale are 'Chinese'. But as far as I am able to discover, the subject of lexical borrowing from Chinese into English has not been systematically studied.
A. J. Bliss, in his Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases gives a lengthy and analytical account of the process of borrowing from Greek and Latin and French. He makes the point that the nature of language contact results in different types of words being borrowed. In his Appendix he suggests the type of research which can be undertaken in connection with the history of contact between English and other languages by giving examples of words borrowed in different periods. The list for Chinese is brief. It goes:
17th Century sampan
18th Century typhoon
19th Century kowtow, loquat
20th Century cheongsam, kuomintangs
Though brief, it is instructive, and tracing, however briefly, the history of West and East coming into contact is certainly a necessary part of a complete study of lexical borrowing from Chinese. But only one aspect of it. What is needed is a systematic study of other aspects, particularly linguistic ones, of the subject as well. The contact between English and Chinese has been brought about as much by the coming of English-speaking people to China as by the migration of Chinese people to English-speaking lands. My collaborator and I have attempted to extend our study as far as possible to English outside Hong Kong and to the borrowings resulting from the earliest periods of language contact, and have made use of literature written in English about China and the Chinese or reflecting interest in such a subject from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
63
consulted a number of dictionaries of foreign words and phrases and discovered a disappointingly low number of Chinese entries.a
In the world-wide use of the English language the number of loan words from Chinese is not large. For example, sampan, tea, cheongsam, mahjong arc fairly well-known. And in recent years it has become fashionable to include Romanized forms of Chinese words to give local colour in newspapers and journals, local as well as international, and in works of fiction, especially where subject and/or locale are 'Chinese'. But as far as I am able to discover, the subject of lexical borrowing from Chinese into English has not been systematically studied.
A. J. Bliss, in his Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases gives a lengthy and analytical account of the process of borrowing from Greek and Latin and French. He makes the point that the nature of language contact results in different types of words being borrowed. In his Appendix he suggests the type of research which can be undertaken in connection with the history of contact between English and other languages by giving examples of words borrowed in different periods. The list for Chinese is brief. goes:
17th Century sampan
18th Century typhoon
19th Century kowtow, loquat
20th Century cheongsam, kuomintangs
It
Though brief, it is instructive, and tracing, however briefly, the history of West and East coming into contact is certainly a necessary part of a complete study of lexical borrowing from Chinese. But only one aspect of it. What is needed is a systematic study of other aspects, particularly linguistic ones, of the subject as well. The contact between English and Chinese has been brought about as much by the coming of English- speaking people to China as by the migration of Chinese people to English-speaking lands. My collaborator and I have attempted to extend our study as far as possible to English outside Hong Kong and to the borrowings resulting from the earliest periods of language contact, and have made use of literature written in English about China and the Chinese or reflecting interest in such a subject from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries." I
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.