The term Chinglish refers to a both written and spoken English that is influenced by a Chinese language. It refers mainly to Cantonese-influenced English, which is spoken in Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong and Guangxi. Chinglish can be related with other interlanguage varieties of English, such as Britalian (from Italian), Czenglish (from Czech), Denglisch (German). The Oxford English Dictionary defines this language: “a variety of English (…) typically incorporating some Chinese vocabulary or constructions, or English terms specific to a Chinese context”. Chinglish is basically a bad attempt to translation, and it may therefore become a source of spontaneous humor.
Translation errors are very likely to occur because the two languages differ considerably. Changes in syntax, grammar, and euphemism are not correctly understood, and this can lead to a literal translation which is ungrammatical or nonsensical. For instance, a sign that has written “watch your children” in Chinese could simply be translated to “look at your children” in English.
Historyof Chinglish
When English first arrived in China, inhabitants had a little knowledge of its linguistic features. Therefore, Chinglish originated in China in 1637 as bridge language between British traders and Cantonese-speaking Chinese people. In 17th century, it was called Chinese Pidgin English. The term pidgin derived from Chinese mispronunciation of the English word “business”.
It is only in 19th century that Chinese schools managed to teach Standard English. Nowadays, a range from 300 to 500 million of people in China are English learners.
In view of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, Chinese government even established campaigns to restrict Chinglish usage.
Examples of Chinglish
Chinglish has survived in present-day on road signs, shop names, in product advertisements and on packages, on menus, and official tourist literature. Chinglish examples arise lergely from common misspellings and mistranslation of euphemisms or idiom. For instance, the Chinese term for “adequate” or “barely acceptable” literally translates as “horse horse tiger tiger.”
(Credit: Purin Phanichphant on Flickr)
The picture above shows typical Chinglish confusing translation. Deformed man toilet is the mistranslation of “toilets for disabled people”. As we can see, many semantic nuances are not correctly interpreted by natives. Similarly, the translation of the well-known saying that spread from the London Underground sounds unusual:
Apparent Chinglish rendering of “Mind the gap” on a Shanghai ferry dock sign. (Credit: Daniel case. Own work)
Menus may also be great source of unpleasant meanings. Anand Mahindra, who is the executive chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, recently shared a tweet which has gone viral. The tweet was a picture of Chinese food menu. He shared the picture with the caption: “I’m certainly going to think twice about visiting this restaurant with my wife. Don’t want her getting any creative ideas.”
(Credit: Anand Mahindra. Twitter)
Lastly, Chinglish occasionally transmit cultural standardized references. For instance, “wedding cars for hire” can be written as “rent cars for meeting somebody for marrying”. In any case, according to Chinglish experts, a logical explanation to such translations is scarcely ever found.
References
Oxford English Dictionary online edition. (2004). Chinglish. In Oxford English Dictionary
Chinglish (2021, April). in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish#cite_note-5
Ellis. J. (2021, February). What is Chinglish?. Wisegeek. https://www.wise-geek.com/what-is-chinglish.htm
Chinglish: A Fusion of the Chinese and English Language. (2021, May). Eton Institute.
