Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Words of Chinese origin have entered European languages, including English. Most of these were direct loanwords from various varieties of Chinese.However, Chinese words have also entered indirectly via other languages, particularly Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese, that have all used Chinese characters at some point and contain a large number of Chinese loanwords.
Loanwords have entered written and spoken Chinese from many sources, including ancient peoples whose descendants now speak Chinese. In addition to phonetic differences, varieties of Chinese such as Cantonese and Shanghainese often have distinct words and phrases left from their original languages which they continue to use in daily life and sometimes even in Mandarin.
Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix sino-, 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies or groups are acculturated or assimilated into Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cultural practices, and ethnic identity of the Han Chinese—the largest ethnic group of China.
Neijuan (Chinese: 内卷; pinyin: nèijuǎn; lit. 'to curl inwards' IPA: [nei̯˥˩tɕɥɛn˩˧]) is the Chinese calque of the English word involution. Neijuan is written with two characters which mean "inside" and "rolling". [1]
The use of the word 老外 began in the 1980s, likely as an abbreviation of the term 外國人 (foreigner) into 外 plus the prefix 老.. As characters and words, 老 lǎo means "old; senior; aged"; 外 wài means "out; outside; external; outer", and by extension various meanings including "appearance; faraway; distant; non-local; foreign; informal; other; unorthodox".
A closer English synonym to kiasu is the idiom “keeping up with the Joneses”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines this term as a person showing that they are "as good as other people by getting what they have and doing what they do”. [19] However, this term differs from kiasu in terms of compulsivity.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Zhonglish, a term for Chinese influenced by English, is a portmanteau of Zhōngwén (中文; 'Chinese language') and "English". [11] [12] Some peculiar Chinese English cannot be labeled Chinglish because it is grammatically correct, and Victor Mair calls this emerging dialect "Xinhua English or New China News English", based on the Xinhua News ...