Chinese Loan Words

[tooironic]

Looked around and couldn't find a comprehensive topic about this. I'm always fascinated by the way Chinese imports words from other languages, e.g.:

• 卡拉OK kǎlǎōukēi - from Japanese カラオケ karaoke
  
• 狮子 shīzi - probably from Persian شیر šīr
  
• 粉丝 fěnsī - from English "fans" (lit. "bean vermicelli")
  
• 逻辑 luóji - from English "logic"
  
• 迷你裙 mínǐ qún - from English "miniskirt", lit. "enchant you skirt"
  
• ... and of course the famous 可口可乐 kěkǒukělè - transliteration of Coca-Cola, lit. "palatable and enjoyable"
  

Of course there are hundreds more. Anyone got any favourites? I'm particularly interested in learning about more non-English loan words.

[zhwj]

The appendix to Lydia H. Liu's Translingual Practice (translated as 跨语际实践) has a list of various types of loan-words, including those taken directly from western languages, those taken through Japanese, and those that were originally Chinese words, reinterpreted in Japan and imported back to China.

It doesn't go beyond the early 20th century, however.

[fanglu]

I like words that are a combination of borrowed pronunciation and meaning, like 新西兰.

For non-english words, I like 苏维埃 from Russian, which I think was mainly used in Chinese to refer to the 苏区s under the control of the CCP in the civil war.

[Don_Horhe]

This is part of another post of mine:

- Loans from the ancient western lands(Persian, etc.):

葡萄 (pútao) = grapes

琵琶 (pípa) = pi-pa (Chinese lute), a four-stringed musical instrument

菠萝 (bōluó) = pineapple

石榴 (shíliu) = pomegranate

- Loans from Indian Buddhist terms (they were not accepted until 6-7 century)

菩萨 (púsà) = Bodhisattva

罗汉 (luóhàn) = Arhat

和尚 (héshang) = Buddhist monk

佛 (Fó) = Buddha (short form of 佛陀 (Fótuó))

塔 (tǎ) = pagoda

- Loans from Mongolian

胡同 (hútòng) = hutong – a narrow street or alley, mostly found in Beijing

蘑菇 (mógu) = mushroom

- Loans from English

沙发 (shāfā) = sofa

咖啡 (kāfēi) = coffee

尼龙 (nílóng) = nylon

拷贝 (kǎobèi) = copy (noun)

啤儿 (pí’ér) = beer; it was later changed into啤酒 (píjiǔ)

卡路里 (kǎlùlǐ) = calorie

苏打 (sūdǎ) = soda

巧克力 (qiǎokèlì) = chocolate

按乃近 (ānnǎijìn) = Analgin (metamizole sodium)

吉他 (jítā) = guitar

麦克风 (màikèfēng) = microphone

荷尔蒙 (hé’ěrméng) = hormone

克拉 (kèlā) = carat

夹克 (jiākè) = jacket

三明治 (sānmíngzhì) = sandwich

汉堡包 (hànbǎobāo) = hamburger

可口可乐 (kěkǒukělè) = Coca-Cola; initially, the name was 苦口苦辣 (kǔkǒukǔlà) – that way people wouldn’t buy it

- Loans from Russian

苏维埃 (Sūwéi’āi) = Soviet

布尔什维克 (bù’ěrshíwéikè) = Bolshevik

伏特加 (fútèjiā) = vodka

- Loans from French

沙龙 (shālóng) = salon

蒙太奇 (méngtàiqí) = montage

- Loans from Italian

法西斯 (fǎxīsī) = fascist

比萨 (bǐsà) = pizza

[tooironic]

Thanks for that Don. I wonder if anyone can tell us any more information about these etymologies? I.e. not just "Persian, etc" or "Indian Buddhist terms" but the actual words that they came from.

[liuzhou]

There is a long list here.

Mainly Hong Kong usage, but not all.

Also,

Baby 啤啤 (Cantonese) 嬰兒

Bar 酒吧

Bowling 保齡球 滾木球

Brandy 白蘭地酒

Buffet 蒲飛 (Cantonese) 自助餐

Bus 巴士 公共汔車

Bye Bye 拜拜 再見

Calorie 卡路里 熱量單位

Cartoon 卡通 漫畫, 動畫

Cheese 芝士 奶酪

Cherry 車厘子(Cantonese) 櫻桃

Cocoa 可可 谷咕 (Cantonese)

Coffee 咖啡

Chocolate 巧克力 朱古力

Curry 咖喱

Cyanide 山埃 (Cantonese) 化物

Disco 迪斯可 的士高 (Cantonese)

Fashion 花樣 花臣(Cantonese)

Film 菲林 (Cantonese) 膠卷

Gallon 加侖

Golf 高爾夫球

Guitar 吉他 結他 (Cantonese)

Hamburger 漢堡

Jelly 者喱 果子凍

Mile 米英里

Morphine 嗎啡

Motor 摩托 電動機

Ounce 盎斯 安士

Pudding 布丁 布甸

Salad 沙拉

Sandwich 三明治 三文治

Sardines 沙丁魚 沙甸魚 (Cantonese)

Salmon 三文魚 (Cantonese) 鮭魚

Sauna 桑拿 (Cantonese) 蒸氣浴

Sofa 沙發 梳化

Strawberry 士多啤梨 (Cantonese) 草莓

Sundae 新地 水果奶油冰淇淋

Taxi 的士 (Cantonese) 出租车,(Mandarin), 計程車 (Taiwan)

Tips 貼士 (Cantonese) 小費, 提示

Toast 多士 吐司, 烤麵包

Toffee 太妃糖 拖肥 (Cantonese)

Vitamin 維他命 維生素

Vodka 伏特加酒

Whisky 威士忌酒

Sorry for any repeats from above.

[animal world]

That's an interesting list, Don.

Perhaps i'm overly picky, but i make a distinction between proper names that are translated phonetically and actual loan words.

[atitarev]

俄罗斯 Éluósī (Russia) is actually from Mongolian Орос (Oros), meaning Russia.

Allah (from Arabic):

安拉 (Ānlā), 阿拉 (Ālā) and native Chinese: 真主 (Zhēnzhǔ)

There are more borrowings from Japanese than from European languages in Chinese but many are not immediately recognisable (except for 卡拉OK, perhaps).

Edited October 21, 2009 at 12:14 AM by atitarev

[flywhc]

粉丝 = fans is only used in Internet world. I don't think it is popular in speaking language.

秀xiu4 = show, from Shanghai dialect. Should be translated to 表演

脱口秀 tuo1kou3xiu4 = talkshow (I'd prefer to use 谈话节目 or 相声)

Above worlds are not formal and not popular in speaking Mandarin except on TV programme.

In Mandarin 打的(da2di1) means Take a Taxi, which is from Cantonese 搭的士(da te ci), which from English "take a Taxi".

苦力 = coolie

摩登 = modern

阀门 = valve 阀 only meant "level/class in society" before industrial age.

引擎 = engine

拉力赛 = Rallying

蕾丝 = lace

维他命(维生素) vitamin

旮旯 from Manchu

涅槃 from Sanskrit

政府，经济，民主 etc most modern political words are from Japanese by taking characters but not pronunciation.

[tooironic]

By the way I just discovered that the translation given for Analgin (按乃近) is non-standard; 安乃近 is much more common. (See here.)

[Scoobyqueen]

Has Chinese not got its own derived word for logic? I would have thought you wouldnt need to borrow this concept.

[Zomac]

Has Chinese not got its own derived word for logic? I would have thought you wouldnt need to borrow this concept.

The early translation for logic was called "名學" which borrowed from a kind of Mozhism concepts. Like many modern academic subjects, there was a school of thoughts in China but seldom systematically sorted as a single subject.

The chinese terms for Economics, Philosophy, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and many are all loanwords translated by Japanese with Chinese characters and exported to China.

In fact in centuries we are living with almost all concepts unknown to people living a few hundred years. Have you ever heard that vacation was actually 'invented' by Brits?

Loanwords are just everywhere in China.

[xianhua]

A couple more from English:

基因 - gene

黑客 - hacker

[Don_Horhe]

吉普赛 - gypsy

博客 - blog

[atitarev]

歇斯底里 (xiēsīdǐlǐ) hysteria

[Guest Pipas]

I ♥ 血拼 :rolleyes: Shopping.

[Tara Braska]

Hello， every one,  this is Tara, and I am a Chinese teacher.  I am doing a some interesting language researches and wanna hear other people's advice, especially from our Chinese learners.

 

This time I wanna collect some useful Chinese words which are directly copied( sound + meaning) form English, I have some examples here:

 

microphone  麦克风 （ mai4ke4feng1) 

sofa              沙发    （ sha1fa1）

mini              迷你     （ mi2ni3）

 

[Tara Braska]

Sorry, but please ignore the spelling mistakes.......  I have another example here:

chocolate   巧克力    qiǎokèlì

salad          沙拉       shālā

[MPhillips]

逻辑，印第安（人），雷达，声纳，坦克，吉普（车）马达，引擎，歇斯底里，爱滋（病），克隆，基因，桑拿，夹克，蕾丝，毛海（毛），木乃伊，咖啡，可可，沙拉，三明治，布丁，香槟（酒），威士忌（酒），白兰地（酒），派对，扑克（牌），芭蕾（舞），康乃馨， 拓扑，米（meter），镑（pound），瓦特，瓦斯（Eng. by way of Jse.），俱乐部（Eng. by way of Jse.）,咖喱（Tamil by way of Eng.）。

[dnevets]

巧克力
咖啡因