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Philology: scientific researches
Reference:

Types of Chinese loanwords and their ways of translation into Russian

Shen' Ina

ORCID: 0009-0009-1123-9774

PhD in Philology

Postgraduate student; Graduate School of Translation (Faculty); Lomonosov Moscow State University

119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie gory, GSP-1, 1st academic building (1st GUM), 1, p. 51, room 1150

shenyina@mail.ru

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0749.2024.6.70935

EDN:

GKFBSE

Received:

03-06-2024


Published:

02-07-2024


Abstract: Foreign loanwords are one of the sources of replenishment of the vocabulary of any language. Words of foreign languages make up a significant proportion of Chinese neologisms. The purpose of this study is to classify borrowings in modern Chinese and briefly discuss the methods of their translation into Russian. The object of this article is loanwords in Chinese neologisms based on dictionary materials, and the subject of this work is the types of Chinese loanwords. The material selected for this article is based on the dictionary of "Chinese-Russian dictionary of new words and expressions". This article briefly analyzes the classification of Chinese loanwords, split into three categories: phonetic, semantic and phonetic-semantic loanwords. Then summarizes their main methods of translation using examples. The following methods were used in the work: random selection, descriptive, contextual and transformational analysis. The component analysis method was used to analyze individual words in the text. In conclusion, the types of loanwords from the dictionary since the XXI century are analyzed and the results obtained are summarized. It is shown that when translating Chinese borrowings into Russian, transcription, transliteration, lexico-semantic substitutions, and explication of these four translation methods can be mainly used. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact that, based on the analysis of specific examples, it systematizes three types of Chinese loanwords and discusses letter loanwords unique to the Chinese language, which enriches the current results of the study of Chinese loanwords. On the other hand, with the development of time and the constant appearance of new words, the need to translate new Chinese vocabulary into other languages has become acute. This article attempts to provide some reference value to the Russian translation of Chinese loanwords.


Keywords:

neologism, loanwords, borrowings, Chinese loanwords, translation of borrowings, types of loanwords, phonetic loanwords, semantic loanwords, phonetic and semantic loanwords, translation methods

This article is automatically translated.

Introduction

In the 21st century, loanwords are an important source of replenishment of Chinese neologisms. The pace of globalization has accelerated the process of loanwords, and thanks to loanwords, the Chinese language has become more colorful. In recent years, China has also regularly published many new dictionaries of neologisms and loanwords.

The term "borrowed word" is defined in the "Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary" as follows: "Borrowing is an element of a foreign language (word, morpheme, syntactic construction, etc.) transferred from one language to another as a result of language contacts, as well as the process of transition of elements from one language to another" [1, pp. 158-159].

What we call borrowing refers to the elements of a foreign language, mainly vocabulary.

Chinese scientist Chen Yuan wrote in the book "Language and Man": "When two languages come into contact with each other, borrowings become the most common phenomenon. Borrowed words are actually not just a sociolinguistic phenomenon, but an inevitable consequence of mutual contact between similar and different social cultures" [2, p. 98].

When foreign words enter other language systems, they obviously differ from the lexical units of other language systems, but eventually they can be assimilated. In other words, when borrowings fall into a certain language system, they adapt as much as possible to the rules of that language system. For example, the word "telephone" was first borrowed from Japanese, which is an English paraphrase of the Japanese language. With the increasing popularity of telephones and the increasing frequency of their use by the population, the word "telephone" has gradually adapted to the Chinese language system from a borrowed word and now it can be used as a root, as well as produce new words such as "telephone network; cord", "telephone booth", "telephone card", "A telephone bill", "a telephone meeting", "a telephone recording", etc.

The main part

In Russian and foreign linguistics, there are many ways to classify loanwords.

Based on the method of borrowing, E. Haugen classifies borrowed vocabulary into the following three categories:

– borrowing itself, while both the material form and the semantics of the source language are borrowed, however, phonomorphological and semantic changes are possible under the influence of the recipient language;

– semantic tracing paper, i.e. borrowing semantics without a material form or with partial morphemic substitution;

– hybrid formations, i.e. words partially consisting of foreign language elements [3, pp. 344-383].

Thus, there are three types of borrowings: phonetic, semantic and phonetic-semantic.

Phonetic borrowings are the borrowing of lexical units while preserving their sound forms and at the same time converting them into the written form of the Chinese language. Until the beginning of the XXI century, phonetic loanwords mainly made up the majority of geographical and regional names, personal names and product names, such as "伦敦" [lún dūn] - London - London; "莫斯科" [mò sī kē] - Moscow - Moscow; "古驰" [gǔ chí] - GUCCI – Gucci. After the 21st century, phonetic borrowings tend to become more scientific, technical, and cultural vocabulary.

Semantic borrowings are lexical units that borrow only the semantics of a foreign word in order to give a new meaning to an existing word, which can be understood as new meanings of old words and relate to internal borrowings. For example, the word "menu" is Chinese. "菜单"[cài dān] comes from the French "menu", which originally meant a menu to indicate dishes. With the popularization of the use of computers, the semantics of the "menu" has expanded, and can also represent a computer menu bar and the value "computer menu" has been added.

After phonetic and semantic borrowings enter the Chinese language, they must be transformed accordingly in accordance with Chinese word formation and pronunciation habits. At the same time, some morphemes are original in Chinese, and the other part is borrowed by phonetic borrowing. For example, "信用用"[xìn yòng kǎ] – English credit card – Russian credit card. The first half of the given word "credit" is the semantic part, which is paraphrased in Chinese as "信用" [xìn yòng] (Russian credit), and the second half of "card" is transliterated as "卡" [kǎ] (Russian card).

In everyday life, for example, in newspapers, online articles and magazines, the original written form of a foreign word is sometimes quoted directly to ensure the accuracy of the vocabulary. Take for example familiar brands or software: Microsoft, Windows, App Store, etc. This kind of word can be called "original borrowing". Abbreviations consisting of abbreviations of the names of international companies, organizations and social groups also belong to this category. For example, MBA – master of Business administration – Master of Business Administration.

In addition, there is a special type of borrowing in Chinese neologisms, which is called letter borrowing (kit.字母词[zì mǔ cí]). It is a word written in Latin partially or completely to form a whole, including a combination of alphabetic words and morphemes written in Chinese characters and interspersed with numbers in these forms, as well as abbreviations consisting of the first letters of Chinese words copied into pinyin(Chinese). Most of the borrowings were of English origin due to the 1978 reform. At the same time, there were much fewer borrowings from the Chinese language, mainly technical terms such as "O型血" - –Russian blood type O". Such words also include abbreviations of the names of the above-mentioned international companies, organizations and social groups. A small part of letter borrowings refers to internal borrowings, and most of the rest refers to external borrowings.

The authors of the Dictionary of Neologisms of the Modern Chinese Language, published in Shanghai in 2009, identified three types of letter borrowings [4, p. 3]. Khamatova A.A. also figured out the types of letter borrowings, we choose several types, including the examples listed below:

– borrowed letter abbreviations ("WTO" – English World Trade Organization – rus. WTO; "PC" – English Personal Computer – Russian personal computer; "SMS" – English Short Message Service – Russian. SMS);

– foreign words in full spelling (Call – call; Style – style);

– abbreviations containing a digital component ("C2C" – English consumer to consumer – Russian consumer for consumer);

– alphabetic words in combination with Chinese morphemes ("it时时" – the Russian era of information technology (the era of IT); "3G手机" – "3G phone", third generation; "BP机" – Russian pager);

– abbreviations based on the material of the Pinyin phonetic alphabet (拼音) (this method is usually not used when borrowing) [5, pp. 58-59].

Over time, more and more letter words appeared. It was necessary to collect and explain a large number of newly emerged letter borrowings, which were actively included in new dictionaries published in China, such as the "Dictionary of Letter Words of the Chinese Language" edited by Liu Yunquan [6], published in Shanghai and included 2,200 letter abbreviations, "Practical Dictionary of Letter Words" edited by Hou Meng [7], published in Beijing in 2014, included 5,000 letter words of all varieties.

When Chinese borrowings are integrated into the Russian language, appropriate translation strategies must be applied. According to the source and composition of Chinese borrowings, to summarize your translation strategy into Russian, you can roughly use transcription, transliteration, lexico-semantic substitutions, explication (or descriptive translation) and other translation strategies.

Transcription is one of the translation methods that is often used when translating foreign words into Russian. The method of transcription is mainly reflected in borrowings by phonetic borrowings, excluding original borrowings here. Neologisms denoting representing things unique to China are often chosen for transcription when they enter the Russian language, an example of which is the translation of the mascots of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing – 冰墩墩[bīng dūn dūn] – Bin Dun Dun and 雪融融[xuě róng róng] - Xue Rong Rong.

The successful bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing has attracted worldwide attention to Beijing, and a number of new words have also emerged. The two mascots attracted a lot of attention. When Bing Dun Dun is first mentioned in the news in Russian, the attributive word "panda" will be added before transcription, and Xue Rong Rong will add "(red) flashlight" before transcription.

Original: Panda Bing Dun Dun — an ice child, but with a warm heart — and the red flashlight Xue Rong Rong — perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Chinese culture — are ready to welcome guests [8].

Translation: 冰墩墩热心的冰娃娃和也许是中国文化最知名的象征雪融融--准备迎接客人

But elsewhere in the same press release, the words "panda" and "(red) oonarik" are omitted, translated by direct transcription.

The original: Those who produce Bin Dun Dun were also on vacation and could not eliminate the deficit [9].

Translation: A产 冰墩墩 a人 A人 A在 A,AA。A

Transliteration means that on the basis of fidelity to the original text, the translation retains the form and style of the original text as much as possible. Loanwords in Chinese can be translated directly according to their literal meaning to achieve mutual results. Chinese neologisms, translated transliteration include 数字人民币 – digital yuan, 白色清单 – white list 全息媒体 holographic media 新时代– new era, 共享汽车– car sharing etc.

Due to the differences between Chinese and Russian languages and cultures, some Chinese neologisms easily cause lexical deviations during transliteration, which leads to a distortion of understanding, and sometimes we use a lexico-semantic substitution method to avoid misunderstandings.

In recent years, many figurative neologisms have appeared, such as "内卷" , which denotes irrational competition between the internal aspects of various industries and can be translated as "irrational internal competition".

«吃瓜群众»[chī guā qún zhòng] – a new 2016 term in China – means ordinary people. It was originally an Internet word, but since then it has become a frequently used neologism in media texts. "watermelon–eating crowd" is a literal translation, but this translation can easily cause misunderstandings after reading, will point "吃瓜群众" to people who eat watermelons. It does not fully understand the meaning of the source text. If translated as "the public" and expands the semantics, you can try to rephrase it accordingly and translate it as "the uninformed masses". "Uninformed" means uninformed, insufficiently informed. The "uninformed masses" refer to people who do not know the truth.

"杠精"[gāng jīng], one of the neologisms of 2018 in China, denotes a person who likes to find fault, strives to fight back and strives to raise the bar. Russian Russian for "picky" means "inclined to find fault", It is the same semantically as the Chinese word "杠精" , so this word can be expressed in Russian as "picky people".

"锦鲤"[jǐn lǐ] is also a 2018 neologism, originally denoting a popular high–grade ornamental fish. Later, thanks to an online lottery during the Day of Formation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2018, it began to mean everything related to luck, and in the Russian-language news release of the Internet version, "People's Daily" was translated as "Koi Carp or a symbol of luck." "Koi carp" is a literal translation, and "good luck symbol" is a paraphrase that is more understandable when these two options are combined.

For neologisms that have the same referent and can be directly equivalent, from the point of view of specific translation strategies, fully equivalent terms can be translated using equivalent methods, and approximately equivalent ones using the explication method (descriptive translation).

Analyzed on specific examples: "战疫" [zhàn yì] - the war of man (people) against coronavirus. This word is derived from the Chinese word "战役" [zhàn yì] (battle), denoting the fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Initially, this word was used together with the word "疫" in quotation marks, but gradually the double quotes were removed with regular use. There are also similar expressions in the Russian language comparing epidemics with wars and enemies, for example, "crown-war". In the news media, it can be noticed that when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, the predicate uses verbs like how to attack, attack, close borders, break through borders indicating an invasion.

Therefore, the paraphrase "fighting coronavirus" can be used to describe "战疫", but "the war of man (people) against coronavirus" is also a way of translation.

Conclusions

In general, Chinese borrowings, as an important part of neologisms, record in their unique way the process of integrating the Chinese language with the languages of various countries and peoples around the world, and also intuitively reflect the development and changes in various fields. There are various classifications of Chinese borrowings. We basically divide them into three categories of borrowings – phonetic, semantic and phonetic-semantic borrowings, and also consider a special category of letter borrowings in the Chinese language. We can translate borrowings using strategies such as transcription, transliteration, lexico-semantic substitutions, explication (or descriptive translation), etc., in order to more accurately convey the meaning of Chinese borrowings and further enrich the study of Chinese borrowings.

References
1. Dobrodomov I. G. (1990). Borrowing. Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary. Ed. by V. N. Yartsev, 158-159. Moscow: Sov. Encyclopedia.
2. Chen Yuan. (2003). Language and Man. Beijing: Commercial Press.
3. Haugen E. (1972). The process of borrowing. New in linguistics, 6, 344–382. Moscow: Progress.
4. Kang Shiyong, & Liu Hairong. (2009). Dictionary of Neologisms of the Modern Chinese Language. Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe.
5. Khamatova, A.A. (2005). The Impact of Globalization on the Vocabulary of Modern Chinese. Proceedings of the 2nd Regional Scientific and Practical Conference “Russia-East-West. Problems of Intercultural Communication”. April 22, 2005, 58-59. Vladivostok.
6. Liu, Yongquan. (2001). Dictionary of Chinese Letter Words. Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe.
7. Hou, Ming. (2014). Practical Dictionary of Letter Words. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.
8The Channel One star team, which will help you understand all the intricacies of the competition, is already in Beijing. [Electronic resource]. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.1tv.ru/news/2022-01-31/420377-zvezdnaya_komanda_pervogo_kotoraya_pomozhet_razobratsya_vo_vseh_tonkostyah_sorevnovaniy_uzhe_v_pekine
9China unexpectedly faced an acute shortage of the Winter Olympics mascot. [Electronic resource]. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.1tv.ru/news/2022-02-15/421110-kitay_neozhidanno_stolknulsya_s_ostrym_defitsitom_simvola_zimnih_igr
10. Burov V.G., & Semenas A.L. (2007). Chinese-Russian dictionary of new words and expressions. Moscow: Vostochnaya kniga.

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The article "Types of Chinese borrowings and their ways of translation into Russian", proposed for publication in the journal "Philology: Scientific Research", is devoted to identifying the features of the appearance of neologisms in the Chinese language, as well as considering the use of Chinese words in other languages. The study is written on an urgent topic, since the problem of the emergence of neologisms in modern conditions in various languages is associated with the processes of uncontrolled borrowing, most often through the media, which help to consolidate word forms in languages that are not typical of the structure of a particular language. In terms of creating neologisms, the Chinese language has always been distinguished by its correct attitude to borrowings, strict selection and codification. New words of recent years, analyzed in the peer-reviewed article, characterize the specifics of the course of this process in the present tense. Therefore, the topic being developed in the study is relevant. The main research methods were description, observation, analysis, and the method of continuous sampling of tokens. The structure of the article is logical, the style of presentation meets the requirements of scientific description. The author, having subdivided new formations in the language into the traditional three categories of borrowings – phonetic, semantic and phonetic-semantic borrowings, also considers a special category of letter borrowings in the Chinese language, of which there are currently a large number (the "Practical Dictionary of Letter Words" of 2014, which contains 5,000 letter words, is given); notes translation strategies (transcription, transliteration, lexico-semantic substitutions, explication (or descriptive translation)) that most accurately correspond to the appearance of equivalents in the target language. In addition, the certification of individual neologisms is of interest, i.e. the indication of the time of the appearance of neologisms in the language ("????, ??, ??, etc.), which can be used later in the compilation of etymological dictionaries, scientific works on the history of the language. In our opinion, the article "Types of Chinese borrowings and their ways of translation into Russian" will be interesting to readers, contains new information on lexicology, contact development of languages, therefore it is recommended to print. However, the author needs to refine the text design, because it contains tautologies (the most common phenomenon is the borrowing of words; transliteration allows you to preserve the form and style of the original text as much as possible on the basis of fidelity to the original text), typos (scientific, geographical), stylistic errors ("Phonetic borrowings are borrowed from the pronunciation of foreign words"; "The first half of the given word "credit" is the semantic part"; "Most of these words of English origin appeared after the 1978 reform. At that time, there were very few Chinese among them, these were just technical terms"; "Transcription is one of the strategies often used in Russian when translating foreign things", etc.).

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

Variants of assimilation of world languages have been observed for quite a long time. As a private phenomenon, borrowing is becoming a kind of norm. Scientists argue how this affects the so-called identity of the language, try to develop variations of protection, urge society not to actively introduce words of foreign origin into circulation. Consequently, the focus on studying these phenomena is natural, justified, and relevant, which is actually confirmed by this work. The material is aimed at identifying the types of Chinese borrowings, as well as ways to translate them into Russian. The emphasis on the problematic vector was made at the very beginning of the work: "in the XXI century, borrowed words are an important source of replenishment of the neologisms of the Chinese language. The pace of globalization has accelerated the process of loanwords, and thanks to loanwords, the Chinese language has become more colorful. In recent years, China has also regularly published many new dictionaries of neologisms and borrowings." The work is informative and rich in content. The material can be productively used in the study of a number of humanities disciplines. The style corresponds to the scientific type, there are no variations of falsification. The illustrative background of the process chosen for the study is sufficient: for example, "when foreign words enter other language systems, they obviously differ from the lexical units of other language systems, but eventually they can be assimilated. In other words, when borrowings fall into a certain language system, they adapt as much as possible to the rules of that language system. For example, the word "telephone" was first borrowed from Japanese, which is an English paraphrase of the Japanese language. With the increasing popularity of telephones and the increasing frequency of their use by the population, the word "telephone" has gradually adapted to the Chinese language system from a borrowed word and now it can be used as a root, as well as produce new words such as "telephone network; cord", "telephone booth", "telephone card", "a telephone bill", "a telephone meeting", "a phonetic recording", etc.", or "phonetic borrowings are the borrowing of lexical units while preserving their sound forms and at the same time converting them into the written form of the Chinese language. Until the beginning of the XXI century, phonetic loanwords mainly made up the majority of geographical and regional names, personal names and product names, such as "??" [l?n d?n] - London - London; "???" [m? s? k?] - Moscow - Moscow; "??" [g? ch?] - GUCCI – Gucci. After the 21st century, phonetic borrowings tend to become more scientific, technical, cultural vocabulary, etc. I believe that the author of the article consistently reveals the topic, solves the tasks set in the course of work, thereby achieving the purpose of the essay. References and citations are given in open data mode: "The authors of the Dictionary of Neologisms of the Modern Chinese Language, published in Shanghai in 2009, identified three types of letter borrowings [4, p. 3]. Khamatova A.A. also figured out the types of letter borrowings, we choose several types, including the examples listed below: – borrowed letter abbreviations ("WTO" – English World Trade Organization – rus. WTO; "PC" – English Personal Computer – Russian personal computer; "SMS" – English Short Message Service – Russian. SMS); – foreign words in full spelling (Call – call; Style – style); – abbreviations containing a digital component ("C2C" – English consumer to consumer – Russian consumer for consumer); – alphabetic words in combination with Chinese morphemes ("it.?" – Russian era of information technology (the era of IT); "3G" – "3G phone", third generation; "BP" – Russian pager)...", etc. The forms of borrowing in the work are presented in a spectral layout, which gives it a proper scientific novelty: for example, "transcription is one of the translation methods that is often used when translating foreign words into Russian. The method of transcription is mainly reflected in borrowings by phonetic borrowings, excluding original borrowings here. Neologisms denoting representing things unique to China are often chosen for transcription when they enter the Russian language, an example of which is the translation of the mascots of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing – ???[b?ng d?n d?n] – Bin Dun Dun and ???[xu? r?ng r?ng] - Xue Rong Rong", etc. The bilingualism factor that the author uses is appropriate for an unprepared reader. For example, "The original: Panda Bing Dun Dun — an ice child, but with a warm heart — and the red flashlight Xue Rong Rong — perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Chinese culture — are ready to welcome guests. The Gåðåâîä: ???,??????,?????????????????--??????? But elsewhere in the same press release, the words "panda" and "(red) f onarik" are omitted, translated by direct transcription. The original: Those who produce Bin Dun Dun were also on vacation and could not eliminate the deficit [9]. Translation: ",", ",", etc. Taking this opportunity, I note that it is desirable to subtract the text, eliminate the shortcomings: "for example, "but elsewhere in the same press release, the words "panda" and "(red) o [F] onarik" are omitted, translated by direct transcription", or "for neologism which have the same referent and can be directly equivalent, from the point of view of specific translation strategies, fully equivalent terms can be translated using equivalent methods, and approximately equivalent ones using the explication method (descriptive translation)," etc. The principles of the analysis of language processes are relevant, the assessment option is quite competent. The conclusions on the text are objective, there are no contradictions in this block, but the language correction is needed again. In fact, the purpose of the essay has been achieved, the material is practically applicable, and the general requirements are taken into account. I recommend the article "Types of Chinese borrowings and their ways of translation into Russian" for publication in the journal "Philology: Scientific research".