Breaking news in the war against English

[Escaped Lunatic]

Guess I need to add "elastic loaves" to the grocery list.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT

The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.

The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in
Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensitive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic.

Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy.

[ObertonGluek]

It just makes it more difficult for the people there who wish to learn English. Oh well, I'm certainly not going there to teach them.

[Ajarn]

Yeah, but the Iranians are just copy-catting the French - see below.

And, it's good to see that after 229 years the United States of America has finally adopted English as the country's official language - see below-below.

French stick to plan to ban English
by Colin Randall, Paris
July 24, 2006

The French word police are out to preserve their culture by eradicating English words such as podcasting with "telechargement pour baladeur".

France's battle to repel the invasion of English words and phrases has seen the French try to produce a new batch of official alternatives destined to be ignored.

At the Ministry of Finance in Paris, 40 experts discussed terms the French should be encouraged to use.

They were not concerned with such lost causes of Franglais as le weekend, le fast-food or le marketing. Aided by economic journalists, the Commission for Economic and Financial Terminology and Neology discussed options for a range of phrases, such as whether golden parachute should translate to parachute d'ore or parachute en or.

Eyebrows were apparently raised by the commission's suggestions for tougher constructions for a funded credit alternative — already a challenge in English— derive de credit finance.

In the event, no agreement could be reached. The commission will have to reflect further before coming up with a list that then needs the endorsement of France's cultural watchdog, the Academie Francaise.

One report said that even when a phrase obtained fast-track approval — telechargement pour baladeur for podcasting — it was usually too late to stop the French sticking with the English version.

French terms the commission previously approved but were widely ignored include la bonne heure (happy hour), bloc-notes (blog) and dialogue en ligne (chat line).

Academie Francaise's Jean-Mathieu Pascalin says English is the language of business, but "the challenge is not to set ourselves against that but to preserve for French the capacity to find names for new notions. If the language loses that capacity, it will become cut off from reality".

Senate Approves English as 'National' Language
By Susan Jones Senior Editor, CNS News
May 19, 2006

An amendment to the Senate immigration bill would make English the "national language of the United States." The Senate voted 63-34 to adopt the amendment, which was offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

The measure declares that there is no affirmative right to receive services in languages other than English, except where required by federal law. In other words, the amendment is mostly symbolic -- it will not change the way the government prints documents or conducts business.

Also on Thursday -- confusing the issue -- the Senate also voted 58-39 in favor of a second, weaker amendment, offered by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.). The Salazar amendment declared English to be "the common and unifying language of the United States."

Inhofe's strong amendment is getting the most attention, however.

Critics, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, called the Inhofe amendment racist, regardless of its intent. Sen. John McCain worried about making English the "official" language. "It gives the idea that any other language is excluded," he said.

But advocacy groups such as U.S. English and English First hailed passage of the Inhofe amendment.

"Today's vote heeded the voices of the vast majority of Americans who believe that English is a crucial part of being an American," said Mauro Mujica, chairman of the board of U.S. English.

He said Thursday's "historic" vote making English the national language corrects a longstanding oversight.

U.S. English points to a 2005 Zogby International poll showing that 79 percent of Americans support making English the official language of the United States, including more than two-thirds of Democrats and four-fifths of first- and second-generation Americans.

Even President Bush has embraced the importance of immigrants learning to speak English. In his address to the nation Monday night, President Bush said, "The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society and embrace our common identity as Americans."

Bush called the English language "the key to unlocking the opportunity of America."

"The debate on the Senate floor today contained many different viewpoints, but the senators were unanimous in their belief that English is the unifying factor and the key to opportunity in the United States," said Mujica.

He said a diverse country must focus on thing that bring it together: "Without a common language, we are not a nation of immigrants, but instead groups of immigrants living in a nation."

U.S. English, founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, describes itself as the nation's oldest and largest non- partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States.

'Weathervane senators'

Another advocacy group, English First, called the Inhofe amendment "the only serious approach to the language issue."

English First criticized the 25 U.S. senators who voted for Inhofe's amendment - then immediately undercut their votes by also approving Salazar's amendment.

"These weathervanes may thing they have fooled their constituents back home by voting both for and against the Inhofe amendment. We'll see," said Jim Boulet Jr., Executive Director of English First.

Republicans accused of undermining the Inhofe amendment include Brownback (Kan.), Chafee (R.I.), Coleman (Minn.), DeWine (Ohio), Graham (S.C.), Hagel (Neb.), McCain (Ariz.), Murkowski (Alaska), Snowe (Maine), Specter (Penn.), Voinovich (Ohio), and Warner (Va.).

Legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 997) also would make English the official language; that bill now has about 150 co-sponsors.

More than half of the states have passed laws making English the official language. The American Civil Liberties Union has successfully challenged some of those laws on the grounds that they unconstitutionally deny non-English speakers "fair and equal access to their government ."

Official language laws make non-English speakers second-class citizens, the ACLU has argued.

[Newbs]

ajarn said:

Bush called the English language "the key to unlocking the opportunity of America."

"Official language laws make non-English speakers second-class citizens, the ACLU has argued.

What the hell is Bush trying to say?

Tend to agree with the ACLU there. USA is, I guess, like Hoganland, with lots of different cultural/religious/ethnic and indeed linguistic groups. Sure, it makes sense to have business conducted in one language not 29, but to start imposing a language on everyone immediately will start to marginalise those who don't speak the lingo. (They may well be feeling marginalised already.)

IMHO the Iranians and the French have got it wrong here. One of the strengths of English is that it has always been prepared to borrow words from other languages, such as French, German, Arabic, Spanish, etc. I saw an article in Wikipedia that listed about 30 words in the English language that have an aboriginal origin.

Not saying that English is the only language to borrow from others, but. Japanese has done this one heck of a lot.

[con's fly is open]

I like the notion of an eventual global patois. Each language has some cooler-than-all-others words. For example, "Bye-bye" beats "Zaijian", while "Hou tian" kicks on "Day after tomorrow".

Given that roughly equal numbers of people across the globe speak Spanish and English as their first languages, I would argue that the States are making a mistake. And don't kid yourself: this bill ain't protecting anyone from Cantonese. A study came out predicting the majority of Americans would one day speak Spanish.

[Dajiang]

The article is just an example of media spin. It's quite the done thing nowadays to try and paint a nasty picture of Iran and Iranians in our media. Even though it might be true, to give so much emphasis to it converts this tiny little newsitem into a preemptive strike directed to our dear language. Articles like these are meant to alienate the 'Iranians' from us. Which is of course also spin in itself, since it is about the Iranian government and not its people. Which newsoutlet you got this article from Escaped Lunatic?

'Elastic loaves' is quite original though. Might be a keeper.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Found it under "odd news" on yahoo.

I probably would have shrugged and ignored it (like I do the occasional article about the French launguage police), but just couldn't resist the "elastic loaves" reference. I actually did write that on this week's grocery list.

Wonder if I should register elasticloafhut.com?



"I mean, I wouldn't pay more than a couple of quid to see me, and I'm me."
- Terry Prachett

[Lotus Eater]

connell said:

I like the notion of an eventual global patois. Each language has some cooler-than-all-others words. For example, "Bye-bye" beats "Zaijian", while "Hou tian" kicks on "Day after tomorrow".

I think mafan and dongxi are also keepers, and I'm partial to mamahuhu and yibanban as well.

One criteria for words for the new language could be the shortest word in any language that expresses the meaning. "So" is in - "suoyi" out. "chiao" in - "goodbye" out.

Another one is having the language composed of words that sound or are spelled the same (in pinyin for character based languages) in different languages - so name (na me 那么) would be used for "in that case" because it is the same as name. Think of how few words we would need to learn then.

[Missi]

This is interesting. I think I want to try to make a lesson out of this. I've got the websites above, but am looking for Chinese words that have become common place in English. Can anybody think of any? Or funny words from a language that just sound funny?

[George61]

Typhoon is quite common in English, as is tycoon. Probably not too common anymore is "tea caddy", presumably derived from the Chinese measure "catty".

[Newbs]

This is from Wikipedia, and it's just a damn long list of links.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_English_words_of_international_origin

Missi, can you access Wikipedia where you are? Sorry, but I can't remember if you are in USA, China or Upper Kombukta West.

Here's the link for Chinese words, both Mandarin and Cantonese.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Chinese_origin

Let me know if you'd like me to cut and paste the whole thing.

[Missi]

Cut and paste the whole shebang. Please.

[Newbs]

Okay.
Words of Chinese origin have entered the English language and many European languages. Most of these were loanwords from Chinese itself, a term covering those members of the Chinese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. However, Chinese words have also entered indirectly via other languages, particularly Japanese, that used Chinese characters and were heavily influenced by Chinese.

[edit]
Different sources of loanwords
English words with Chinese origin usually have different characteristics depending how the words were spread to the West. Despite the increasingly widespread use of Mandarin among Chinese people, English words that are based on Mandarin are relatively scarce.

Some words spread to the West ...

via the silk road, e.g. silk. These have heavy influence from countries along the silk road.
via the missionaries who lived in China. These have heavy Latin influence due the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries.
via the sinologists who lived in China. These have heavy French influence due to the long history of French involvement in Sinology.
via the maritime trade route, e.g. tea, Amoy, cumshaw etc. These have heavy influence from the Amoy dialect in southern seaports.
via the early immigrants to the US in the gold rush era, e.g. chop suey. These have heavy influence from the Toisan dialect.
via the multi-national colonization of Shanghai. These have influence from many European countries, also Japan.
via the British colonization of Hong Kong, e.g. cheongsam. These have heavy influence from Cantonese.
via modern international communication especially after the 1970s when the People's Republic of China opened its iron curtain to let her people emigrate to various countries, e.g. wushu, feng shui etc. These have heavy influence from Mandarin.
via Japanese and (possibly) Korean and Vietnamese. These languages have borrowed large amounts of Chinese vocabulary in the past, written in the form of Chinese characters. The pronunciation of such loanwords is not based directly on Chinese, but on the local pronunciation of Chinese loanwords in these languages, known as Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean, and Sino-Vietnamese. In addition, the individual characters were extensively used as building blocks for local neologisms with no counterpart in the original Chinese, resulting in words whose relationship to the Chinese language is similar to the relationship between new Latinate words (particularly those that form a large part of the International Scientific Vocabulary) and Latin. Such words are excluded from the list.

Though all these following terms originated from China, the spelling of the English words depends on which language the transliterations came from.




Contents
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Top of page ¡ª See also ¡ª External links

[edit]
B
Bok choy
(Cantonese) °×²Ë £¨baakchoi), a Chinese cabbage: literally 'white vegetable'
[edit]
C
Char
colloqiual English word for 'tea', originally from Chinese ²è (Mandarin ch¨¢).
Cheongsam
from Cantonese éLÉÀ (cheungsaam), lit. long clothes.
China
via Latin from the name of the Ch'in Dynasty ÇØ
Chop chop
from Cantonese gup ¼±, lit. hurry, urgent
Chopstick
chop is from the Cantonese ŠA (gaap), literally 'to squeeze'. Notice the two man radicals (ÈË) sandwich another man radical in the middle.
Chop suey
from Cantonese ësËé (tzapseui), lit. mixed pieces
Chow
from Chinese Pidgin English chowchow which means food, perhaps based on Cantonese ³´, lit. stir fry (cooking)
Chow chow
any of a breed of heavy-coated blocky dogs of Chinese origin
Chow mein
from Cantonese ³´üI (chaumin), lit. stir fried noodle
Confucianism
from Confucius, Latinized form of ¿×·ò×Ó (k¨¯ng f¨±z¨«) 'Master Kong'
Coolie
questionably Chinese ¿àÁ¦, lit. suffering labor. Some dictionaries say the word came from Hindi kull.
Cumshaw
from Amoy ¸ÐÖx, feeling gratitude
[edit]
D
Dim sum and Dim sim
from Cantonese ücÐÄ (dimsam), lit. touch of heart
[edit]
F
Fan-tan
from Cantonese ·¬”‚ (f¨¡nt¨¡n), lit. (take) turns scattering
Feng shui
from feng, wind and shui, water ïLË®
Foo dog
from Mandarin ·ð f¨® Buddha (from their use as guardians of Buddhist temples)
[edit]
G
Ginkgo
mistransliteration of ãyÐÓ in Japanese
Ginseng
from Mandarin ÈË…¢ (renshen), name of the plant. Some say the word came via Japanese (same kanji), although È˲Πnow means 'carrot' in Japanese; ginseng is ³¯õrÈ˲Π('Korean carrot').
Go
From the Japanese name igo ‡ì³ž of the Chinese board game. Chinese ΧÆå, Mandarin: Weiqi.
Gung-ho
from Mandarin ¹¤ºÏ, short for ¹¤˜IºÏ×÷Éç
Gyoza
Japanese ¥®¥ç©`¥¶, gairaigo from Chinese ïœ×Ó (Mandarin: Jiaozi), stuffed dumpling. Gyoza refers to the style found in Japan.
[edit]
H
Hoisin (sauce)
from Cantonese º£õr (ho¨ªsin), lit. seafood
[edit]
K
Kanji
Japanese name for Chinese characters: h×Ö, lit. Chinese characters. Chinese: Hanzi.
Kaolin
from ¸ßŽX, lit. high mountain peak
Keemun
kind of tea, ÆîéT Mandarin q¨ªm¨¦n
Ketchup
possibly from Amoy ÇÑÖ­, lit. tomato sauce/juice
Koan
Japanese ¹«°¸ k¨­an, from Chinese ¹«°¸ (Mandarin g¨­ng'¨¤n), lit. public record
Kowtow
from Chinese ßµî^, lit. knock head
Kumquat or cumquat
from Cantonese name of the fruit ¸ÌéÙ (Gamgwat)
Kung fu
a martial art; from Cantonese ¹¦·ò (Gongfu), lit. efforts
[edit]
L
Lo mein
from Cantonese “ÆüI (l¨°u-mihn), lit. scooped noodle
Longan
from Cantonese ýˆÑÛ, name of the fruit
Loquat
from Cantonese ÌJéÙ, old name of the fruit
Lychee
from Cantonese ÀóÖ¦ (laitzi), name of the fruit
[edit]
M
Mao-tai or moutai
from Mandarin ę́¾Æ (m¨¢ot¨¢i ji¨³), liquor from Maotai (Guizhou province)
Mahjong
from Cantonese Âéȸ (Matzeuk), lit. sparrow/the mahjong game
Manga
from Japanese Âþ»­ (Mandarin m¨¤nhu¨¤), Japanese comics.
Mu shu (pork)
from Mandarin Ä¾íš (m¨´x¨±), lit. wood shredded
[edit]
N
Nunchaku
Okinawan Japanese, from Min (Taiwan/Fujian) ëp¹¹÷, lit. double jointed sticks
[edit]
O
Oolong
oolong žõýˆ, lit. black dragon
Pekoe
from Amoy °×ºÁ, lit. white downy hair
[edit]
P
pinyin
from Mandarin Æ´Òô, lit. put together sounds
[edit]
Q
Qi
from Mandarin šâ (q¨¬), spirit
[edit]
R
Ramen
Japanese ¥é©`¥á¥ó, gairaigo, from Chinese À­üI (Lamian) lit. pulled noodle. Ramen refers to a particular style flavored to Japanese taste and is somewhat different from Chinese lamian.
[edit]
S
Sampan
from Cantonese ô®ô², the name of such vessel.
Shar Pei
from Cantonese ɳƤ, lit. sand skin.
Shih Tzu
from Mandarin ª{×Ó¹·, lit. Chinese lion dog
Shogun
Japanese ½«ÜŠ, from Chinese Œ¢ÜŠ, lit. general (of) military. The full title in Japanese was Seii Taish¨­gun (Õ÷ÒÄ´ó½«ÜŠ), "generalissimo who overcomes the barbarians"
Sifu
from Cantonese ʦ¸µ, (Mandarin sh¨©fu), master.
Silk
possibly from 'si' ½z, lit. silk
Souchong
from Cantonese С·N²è (si¨²ch¨²ng ch'¨¡), lit. small kind tea
soy
From Japanese shoyu ánÓÍ, Chinese áuÓÍ, (Mandarin ji¨¤ngy¨®u).
[edit]
T
Tai Chi
from Mandarin Ì«˜O
Tai-Pan
from Cantonese ´ó°à (daaibaan), lit. big rank (similar to big shot)
Tangram
from Chinese Tang (ÌÆ) + English gram
Tao¡¡and Taoism
(also Dao/Daoism) from Mandarin µÀ d¨¤o
Tea
from Amoy ²è
Tofu
Japanese ¶¹¸¯, lit. bean rot. from Chinese ¶¹¸¯ (Mandarin d¨°ufu).
Tong
from Cantonese ÌÃ
Tycoon
via Japanese ´ó¹Ù, lit. high official; or ´ó¾ý, lit. great nobleman
Typhoon
ïUïL not to be confused with the monster typhon. See also other possible Arabic origin.
[edit]
W
Wok
from Cantonese èZ
Won ton
from Cantonese ë…ÍÌ , lit. 'cloud swallow' as a description of its shape, similar to Mandarin ðQï‚
Wushu
from Mandarin ÎäÐg, lit. martial arts
[edit]
Y
Yamen
from Mandarin ÑÃéT, lit. government gate
yen (craving)
from Cantonese °a, lit. addiction (to opium)
Yen (Japanese currency)
Japanese ƒÒ en, from Chinese ˆA (Mandarin yu¨¢n), lit. round, name of currency unit
Yin Yang
êŽê– from Mandarin 'Yin' meaning feminine, dark and 'Yang' meaning masculine and bright
[edit]
Z
Zen
Japanese ìø, from Chinese ¶U (Mandarin Ch¨¢n), originally from Sanskrit Dhy¨¡na / Pali jh¨¡na.
For a list of words with Chinese language origins, see the Chinese derivations category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary[edit]
See also

[Missi]

Interesting!!!!!! Thanks Newbs!

[Dr. Gonzo]

To its credit, I guess, China has resisted the temptation [unlike Japan] to Sinify other languages, and simply take the vocab on board. Without checking with my Japanese students, I'm pretty sure "computer" in their language would sound much the same. I know Pizza Hut, McDonalds and Baseball do. In Mandarin, of course, its "dian nao", or "electric brain". Makes sense. The Olympic sport of diving, at which China excells, translates as "jump in the water", which is a bit like calling "making love", "stick your thing in there".
The Japanese and Chinese share some noteable vocabulary though. When Alexander Edison Graham Bell, or whoever, devised the telephone, he called it "Electric Speech Machine". It remains so in both Eastern nations, but as "Dian Hua Ji", though now abbreviated to Dian Hua. Mobile phone in Chinese is Shou Ji, or hand machine. A very functional tongue, capable of taking most new challenges on board to keep its unique nature.

[Mr Nobody]

It will happen anyway. People are lazy, and languages tend to blend, especially English which is nothing BUT loan words.

English will suck all the others dry, but end up different from what it is now.

I am very glad that USAnia has seen the light and will be using English from now on, instead of USAnian. They will just have to learn to spell.