The first question raised in this paper is how many words on earth of Chinese provenance are in English and how they have entered it. As the author has so far accumulated, there are around 200 words of Chinese origin ...The first question raised in this paper is how many words on earth of Chinese provenance are in English and how they have entered it. As the author has so far accumulated, there are around 200 words of Chinese origin and they can be classified into 17 categories. Then, the author goes on to give three tables to indicate the different periods of time when different Chinese loanwords made way into English. Finally, the author analyses the fact that it was due to Old China’s backwardness that English borrowings from Chinese are rather restricted and sometimes with a sense of prejudice against us. He predicts, however, that "as China is becoming more powerful and prosperous", "the 21st century will see a flood of Chinese loanwords into English".展开更多
文摘The first question raised in this paper is how many words on earth of Chinese provenance are in English and how they have entered it. As the author has so far accumulated, there are around 200 words of Chinese origin and they can be classified into 17 categories. Then, the author goes on to give three tables to indicate the different periods of time when different Chinese loanwords made way into English. Finally, the author analyses the fact that it was due to Old China’s backwardness that English borrowings from Chinese are rather restricted and sometimes with a sense of prejudice against us. He predicts, however, that "as China is becoming more powerful and prosperous", "the 21st century will see a flood of Chinese loanwords into English".
