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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 22, 2004

Words from western languages into Chinese

Words borrowed from western languages, especially English, such as ATM, B ultrasonic wave, CCTV, DVD and E-mail, to name just a few, has sneaked into the daily-used Chinese language.


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Words borrowed from western languages, especially English, such as ATM, B ultrasonic wave, CCTV, DVD and E-mail, to name just a few, has sneaked into the daily-used Chinese language. Some Chinese dictionaries include some words from western languages in their new editions. There are four pages of "Words with the First Letter from Foreign Languages" in the supplementary edition of Modern Chinese Dictionary in 2002 and Standard Modern Chinese Dictionary respectively.

Words of western languages are usually combined with Chinese characters. These words and their Chinese versions are used at the same time. If Chinese translations are too long, for example, for DVD, E-mail and GDP, then people prefer to use the words of English origin instead of the Chinese.

There is a new phenomenon which western alphabets and Chinese characters combine to make new vocabulary. For example, there are no Chinese phrases for B ultrasonic wave, going Dutch, T-shape platform, and T-shirt. They have very long definitions in Chinese.

Linguists said along with China's expansion of foreign exchanges and improved awareness of opening-up to the public words from western languages making their way into the Chinese will continue to increase instead of decrease,. There are 142 items in the appendix of Words with the First Letter from Foreign Languages in the supplementary edition of Modern Chinese Dictionary, up from 39 items in its revised edition of 1996. The Standard Modern Chinese Dictionary published in February 2004 takes in 132 items of such words.

By People's Daily Online


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