70 Chinese Loanwords In English

Chinese loanwords (Wàilái cí, 外来词) refer to words that are transliterated or simply literally translated from English and other languages. The loanwords have become an important part of the Chinese language. However, every foreign word, that comes to China, usually gets a new shape in Mandarin Chinese language. These words originate elsewhere, and are mapped to a new set of characters, often with resembling pronunciations. In this book, I am including over 500 words in the tabular form that are closely related to the foreign words. For each of the words in this book, I am adding: 1. Serial number (count) 2. English, 3. Pinyin, and 4. Simplified Chinese characters. Additional details have been provided for the less known English words (in English). Further, the book has been meticulously organized into different chapters. -Jia Ming

A loanword, or wailaici, is a word with similar meaning and phonetic form to a word from a foreign language that has been naturalized in the recipient language. From ancient times, cultural exchanges between China and other countries has brought and integrated a myriad of loanwords to the Chinese language. Approaching the topic from a diachronic perspective, this volume is the first book-length work to chart the developmental trajectory, features, functions, and categories of loanwords into Chinese. Beginning with a general introduction to the Chinese loanword system, the author delves deeper to explore trends and standardization in Chinese loanword studies and the research landscape of contemporary loanword studies more generally. Combining theoretical reflections with real-life examples of Chinese loanwords, the author discusses not only long-established examples from the dictionary but also a great number of significant loanwords adopted in the 21st century. The author shows how the complexity of the Chinese loanword system is intertwined with the intricacies of the Chinese character system. This title will be an essential reference for students, scholars, and general readers who are interested in Chinese loanwords, linguistics, and language and culture.

English-based Mandarin loanwords are commonly used in Chinese people’s daily lives. Mandarin Loanwords demonstrates how English phonemes map into Mandarin phonemes through Mandarin loanwords adaptation. The consonantal adaptations are the most important in the analyses, and vowel adaptation and tonal adaptation is also considered. Through the analysis, it is proven that the functions of phonology and phonetics play a significant role in Mandarin loanword adaptation, however the functions of other factors, such as semantic functions of Chinese characters and English orthography, are also discussed. Additionally, the phonetic symbolization of Chinese characters is mentioned.

A dictionary of the 500 most frequently used words in the Chinese language, this instructive reference provides meaning and grammatical explanations for the use of each word. Based on a scientific study that concludes that learning a language can be achieved by mastering its most used words, the text acts as both a traditional dictionary and a teaching guide to the world's most widely-spoken language. Each entry is presented in both Chinese characters and roman letters, with pinyin transcription. This book also includes an introduction to the Chinese language and a pronunciation guide.