Modern loanwords in Chinese

Question

I've noticed that in modern Chinese there's a lot of loanwords that are translated in multiple ways:

激光 vs 雷射

互联网 vs 因特网

Generally one version will sound similar to the English pronunciation and one uses native words to mean the same thing as the original word. In my experience, the native word is usually preferred/more prestigious. This is very unusual in comparison to Japanese, which heavily prefers using the English/foreign loanword instead of the native equivalent.

Is there any reason for this? Or maybe this is just my imagination?

Answer 1

互联网 and 因特网 may be different things - "internet" vs "Internet".

Coming up with loanwords isn't a standardised practice; in the beginning you'll have separate groups coming up with different words, but over time the need to communicate will encourage people to start using the same one. Take LASER for example; since it was invented in the US, there were many Chinese loanwords - some out of use ones include 光的受激辐射放大器, 光量子放大器, 莱塞. In this case, Qian Xuesen came up with the 激光 word, and since he was so well respected in PRC, everyone there used that. Due to the political situation at the time, Taiwan continued to use 雷射.

These days it's more likely that loanwords will converge quickly, since science and commerce are so open and interconnected. But earlier in history, this process could take a long time. One notable example is the Qing-dynasty loanwords for the US president. The concept was very foreign, of a supreme leader that is elected by peers for a limited term; historian Jonathan Spence counted up to 100 different versions, with words like 伯理玺天地.

Answer 2

I will try to put my two cents in, from a more psychological perspective.

Chinese is largely a semantics-based writing system. Phonetically transcribed loan words are relatively easy to coin, but difficult to comprehend, unless the reader also understands the language from which the words come. When a new concept is introduced into the language, it's easiest to just do a phonetic translation. Two words, from a century ago, come to mind readily: 德謨克拉西 (phonetic) vs. 民主 for democracy and 塞恩斯 (phonetic) vs. 科學 for science. When the two concepts are understood and accepted into the culture, then 民主 and 科學 are definitely much easier to comprehend by the average Chinese reader.

The best kind of translation is, of course, a term that captures the sound as well as the meaning. An example is 黑客 for hacker. Not only is the sound very similar to the original English word, the Chinese characters also evoke an image of some outsider lurking in the dark. Other notable examples of phonetic translation making their way into the language also involve clever choice of characters that evoke certain emotions or atmospheres. I am thinking of words like 浪漫 and 幽默. I am sure there are a lot of others, too.

I am no expert on the Japanese language, but I understand that loan words are written in katakana, a different set of symbols. In other words, the presence of the katakana already signifies to the reader that it is a loan word. So from a psychological point of view, it's easier for the reader, and perhaps this is one of the reasons for the relative ease of retaining phonetically transcribed loan words in Japanese.

Answer 3

There are three ways to translate a loanword: by its meaning, by its pronunciation or by both.

Taking your example 互联网 vs 因特网, 互联网 is by its meaning (inter/inter-connected=互/互联, net=网); 因特网 is by both of its pronunciation and meaning (in=因, ter=特, net (by meaning)=网

My feeling is that when in the early stage of introduction of a loanword, it's more likely to be translated by its pronunciation(or by both of the meaning and pronunciation), because not a lot of people in China knows about it. And it will be translated by its meaning when the loanword gets popular. Still using the 互联网 and 因特网 as an example, I remember when I heard of the internet (around mid-1990s; I was born 1980s...) , it's all translated into 因特网. And now 互联网 is everywhere.

I do feel translating by meaning is more formal. As you will probably see loanword translated by its meaning e.g.互联网 more in the newspaper than other places.

One more reason of the translation difference that I could think of is depended on where you are, Taiwan, Hong Kong or mainland China. I've never been in HongKong, but I somehow have an impression that People/Press tends to use loanword than native translation (because most people in HongKong speaks English/better English than mainland Chinese?).

Answer 4

One reason is that Chinese is more diversified than Japanese in terms of topolects and dialects. 碧池, 沙发, 雷达 and so on may not be pronounced the intended way in other tongues than Mandarin, and so the terms become meaningless.

Another reason would be linguistic pride. Iceland is another country that takes great care to form their own words rather than using foreign-sounding loanwords.

Answer 5

At first, people don't fully understand the meaning of a concept, or the theory behind it. But they need a word to represent it. So that's why loanwords usually come out by pronunciation. Once people fully understand the meaning, they may come up with a version of their own expression. But whether that version can prevail depends on the social status of the nation, and the nature of the race.

Historically, Japan had sought knowledge and fortune from the China Tang 唐 dynasty. So it is not strange that many things were borrowed from China, even the Japanese language Kanji is borrowed from Chinese in both writing form and pronunciation. Then by the end of 19th century, Japanese turn to west civilization. And they even wanted to mentally leave Asia.

Because of the admiration for the west civilization, loanwords were considered kind of superior to the native ones in Japanese. That's why most loanwords are kept by pronunciation in Japanese. But Chinese tends to absorb foreign culture and adapt it into their own culture. That's why loanwords are treated differently between two cultures.

(BTW, I have to say, though the whole Japanese culture is kind of a loan-culture, sometimes they DO make their own versions of some well known facts. Such as the Potsdam Proclamation, the war crimes they committed during WWII, etc.)

Answer 6

My 2 cents: Loanwords translation could simply depend on whether you are in PRC or in Taiwan. In Taiwan, phonetic translation seems a fashion. I'm not sure if it is another coincidence that Taiwanese culture is closer to Japanese culture. In old PRC, translation by meaning is easier to remember. Nowadays, with more people knowing or interested in English, translations that capture both meaning and sound will likely win. Other than 黑客， 奔驰 （mercedes-benz) and 优山美地 (Yosemite) are a couple of other examples.