Q: What are some of the characteristics of Chinese speech accented with English or English speech accented with Chinese? Why are there such characteristics?
With over 1.2 billion speakers, Chinese currently stands as the world’s most spoken language. Despite having a smaller volume of speakers, English is currently the most widespread world language. The world is constantly changing and interaction between these two languages is inevitable. Thus English has borrowed certain phrases and words from the Chinese language and vice-versa.
In Chinese, the word 拜拜 (báibái) is almost identical in pronunciation to English “bye-bye” and also have the same definition of “goodbye”. Here the words phonologically similar in both English and Chinese. This word is used in Chinese, created through a process called transliteration, attempts to copy the closest sound meaning to the word while still remaining in the limitations of the Chinese language. For example, in Chinese 摇滚(yao gun) when directly translated means “shake” and “stone” but the actual meaning of 摇滚is “Rock’n’Roll.” In this case, a concept in English is translated into Chinese through using native terms instead of using phonically similar terms to express the English definition. Another example, Chinese 电脑(dian nao) for English “computer” where the native word has no phonological similarities to the foreign word. A language will adapt an “accented” word at different levels depending on the how much it is used in the respective native speaker’s conversations. According to Uriel Weinreich, words, during the transliteration process, undergo some degree of semantic alteration, which may result in either a “broadening” or “narrowing” of the meaning of the concept (Weinreich 53-55). Conve...
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... define it as “ language pollution refers to the incorrect or non-standard usage of foreign language which may bring about misunderstanding and inconvenience in the native language” and claim that “us[ing] non-standard translation of words”, “us[ing] unmeaningful transliteration of words”, “Excessively purs[ing] seemingly western names or terms”, “Add[ing] English words in the daily conversation to show the person owns a fashionable style and decent background” and so called “Chinglish” attribute to this language pollution. (Yan Deng 36).
English being the “world language” and growing its influence in China through media and economics, the influence of English is, in fact, minimal relative to other languages since a majority of the English accented words compose of specific pronouns, and specific words in popular culture so Chinese has yet to lose its authenticity.
Every language has its own way of saying different things and depending on the culture,
...his may be the regional identity caused by different cultures. Then their own dialects become two marks for identification. Once there was a parade in Tianjin, and all people involved, no matter football fans or not, was yelling “国安傻逼” which means “Guoan players are assholes” which is really rude… And now this saying is popular all over the country and becomes a famous featured joke of Tianjin dialect…
Something fun about China, China’s language is Called Standard Mandarin and it's a very big language it is amazing how they write and read this interesting language. Around 70% of the population speaks and understands this language but the small amount who don't speak mandarin use mainly English, the same language as us!
In the autobiography written by Frederick Douglass, it gives the reader details on the everyday life of past American slaves from both his eyes and from others that kept detailed record that they either witnessed or lived. Douglass describes firsthand of what he witnessed as well as his insight to personal experiences from being a slave to becoming a free man. Only when it came down to it he was never truly a free man, he was a runaway that risked everything he had worked for and if ever caught could be forced to return to his master or be killed for his action.
Hessler elaborates that this term in Chinese “for some obscure reason degrading when used as an adjective” (46), something that he did not understand either but he brings it to the attention of the reader. This is one example that Hessler uses to stress that cultures vary from country to country, and when it is important to note learning a language like Chinese, much of the underlying meaning stems from cultural context, which has been influenced by
China has a long history of language reformation, where the Chinese language becomes one of the most successful and radical amendments for the whole nation to adopt several changes along the way. In this essay, a discussion of major components in the language reform, specifically the Mandarin language, in China will be explored with the social, culture, and political issues that have influence the changes. A history and pattern of language used in China- starting from the days of language in the imperial court, to the communist revolution during Mao’s regime, until the language and speech pattern in the twenty first century era- will be explored throughout the essay. This essay will also feature the analysis of the dwindling standard style language by the Han dynasty into the widespread official speech from north China, which became the basis for the Standard Chinese in the modern days. Speech pattern and the underlying social reformation of the Red Guards, due to the shift of political power in the bourgeoisie and proletarians society of China’s population will be explored as well. The success of the implementation of a single national language by the government of China throughout the country will be mentioned. Finally, how and why the language in China has differed greatly from one era to another will be analyzed in the essay, especially the power reason behind the changes in China’s language system.
Every time you travel the world. We all feel that uncomfortable that In a different language and different cultures. We both felt awkward. The different makes people feel strange. China has a long history country which is my home country. A lot different between China and United States. It came from many ways. Like the different type food we eat, the different cultural background, the language differences. China becomes more popular in the world now. Also, with a big land, china also have 1.138 billion populations. Tone and Volume As the different language, chinese and English. Tone and volume have a huge different. In China, people always speak loud. As the grammar in china, it is upside down compared to English. Then make the tone so wired.
According to Bernard Comrie (1990: 83),’ there are more than 1,000,000,000 people are speakers of some form of Chinese.’ By seeing this figure, Chinese should have appeared long enough for its evolution and let it spread to different areas in which Chinese or its form can become the dominant language.
This is probably due to the strong accents that the Chinese have. In the Chinese culture, they value many things and have many rights. “Benevolence, the core value of Confucianism, extends from the importance of familial ties and blood connections and is held in high esteem by the Chinese (Lihua, 2013).” In China good relationships go a long way. This country feels that it is important to maintain peace and good ties within your family, friendships and within business.
The United States and China are two very large countries that have cultures that are well known throughout the world. There are many differences between the United States and China, but there are many contributing factors that shape the cultures of these two countries. Language is universal, but there are different meanings and sounds, which vary from one culture to another. In China, citizens speak many languages, but about 94% speak the Chinese language. The difference in dialects was overcome by the written word and eventually a version of Mandrin became the “official speech” (The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, 1996, p.304).
It has been adopted by different sectors making it one of the most used languages in the globe. This has been attributed to its effective nature, easy learning and rich history. However, conservative groups exist who argues that there should be global language since it may cause the emergence of superior cultures. Nevertheless, it is evident that different cultures ranging from the early polish immigrants, the African American community, the advertising and media will greatly benefit from the globalization of the English language. This will prove in the end that English is indeed a global
The established model of BE in China, called “language maintenance” or “heritage language” bilingual education, represents the using of the mother tongue by language minority students as a main language of instruction, generally, in schools, sometimes in other educational institutions (Baker and Prys 1998, 508). This form of bilingual education pursues two main objectives: to sustain the mother tongue of students from different ethnic minorities (e.g., Korean, Mongolian, Zhuang, Tibetian, Miao, Sala) through “the use of a native minority language and standard Chinese [i.e., Putonghua or Mandarin Chinese]” and facilitate their integration process into mainstream culture (Feng 2005, 529, quoted in He 2011, 92).
A language with rather humble roots, one that has been twisted and bent, one that has taken and borrowed from other languages, and one that has been the subject of much debate as to the correctness of certain usages, today English is the language that the world uses to communicate. The world uses English for a variety of reasons from commerce and trade, to political decisions, to technology and science, and beyond. The entire world uses English to get business done. Thus it truly has become the lingua franca for the world.
English spreads widely in each countries, no matter the area of region or information transfer, English becomes an important position in global language. As the specification of a global language, it essentially refers to a language that learned and spoken internationally, so English can be the most out-standing. According to the number of English-speaking calculations, English is the official language used by most countries, English is the most widely used second language in the world, and the percentage of web pages with English content is estimated to be over 50% (Crystal, 2003). Meanwhile, the history and usefulness cause English to be a global language, and they mainly influence to spread English faster in China and to bring convenience
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.