14
I'm not sure where you could get an accurate count for how many there are. Considering that loanwords have been coming into Chinese for thousands of years, it definitely won't be a trivial task.
There is certainly quite a few, however, not all of which is current/widespread/universal. I'll list some here, and edit more in if I think of any later:
Angel: ...
13
Wiki page of 牛排 gives a clue of its etymology, written by, 姚德懷, the current chairman of 香港中國語文學會 (The Chinese Language Society of Hong Kong Ltd.), a non-profit organization in Hong Kong. Here's a summary:
According to 漢語大詞典, the word 牛排 has been cited in some novels in Qing Dynasty in the beginning of 20th century. Such as:
「三荷包接過看時，只見上面開的是：清牛湯、炙鰣魚、冰蠶阿、...
12
It is Amis／Pangcah (阿美族語), the language of one of the Taiwanese aborigines (台灣原住民).
阿ㄘㄟˊ ( ā céi ) means "ridiculous; crazy; unreasonable; nonsense; goofy; outrageous; nuts".
阿ㄘㄟˊ: You are nuts!
Similar phrases include 瘋了, 笨蛋, 不可理喻, 無理取鬧, 無稽之談, 胡說八道......
12
There are lots of them, here's what I can recall:
T恤衫，T-shirt
X光片，X ray image
卡拉OK，karaoke
K线图，Candlestick chart
A型血，Blood Type A
P图(v.)，Photoshop an image
维生素C，Vitamin C
O型腿，Blount's diseas
TCP协议，Transmission Control Protocol
RSS源，RSS feed
UI设计，User Interface design
All of the words are widely used, most of them combine the English letter and ...
8
if i have 10 apples , i give you 5 and keep the another 5 myself , it called "平均";
Here "picture 1" is called “均匀”, while picture 2 is called “不均匀”.
[picture 1]
[picture 2]
8
4 new elements = 4 new Chinese characters? I also know that 4 new elements = 4 new English words.
Actually these new elements have no relationship with China:
113: Nihonium (Nh) is from Nihon, another name of Japan.
115: Moscovium (Mc) comes from the city name Moscow.
117: Tennessine(Ts) comes from Tennessee.
118: Oganesson (Og) comes ...
7
This article (p. 60-61) provided the reason 氡 (radon) is based on the latter syllable. In summary, this was the result of an argument between Chinese chemists appointed to element naming in the early 20th century. Those that argued radon should not be given a pronunciation similar to 鐳 (radium) so as to avoid confusion won. The lost faction argued reflects ...
6
现在: Now
A: 你现在在干什么？: What are you doing now?
正在: Currently
B: 我正在做作业。: I am doing homework.
正在is this sentence can be translated to doing something at this particular moment, in English you just add ing at the end for currently doing something, but in Chinese you don't have this, so you use 正在 to express doing something now. 我正在做...becomes "I am doing..."...
6
Mostly food? The below examples are from Words.hk:
马介休
loanword from "bacalhau" in Portuguese; Portuguese-style salted fish
馬介休撻
maa5 gaai3 jau1 taat1
bacalhau tart
亞東
「亞東」喺澳門叫法, 由葡文atum譯過來
亞東魚
一種魚嘅名；「吞拿」喺香港叫法, 由英文tuna譯過來; 「亞東」喺澳門叫法, 由葡文atum譯過來
Two places names:
福尔摩沙
近義 台灣
音譯自拉丁文及葡萄牙文嘅「Formosa」（「美麗」嘅意思）, 畀歐洲人用嚟稱呼台灣, 所以台灣又有「美麗島」之稱。
Formosa; ...
5
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 ...
5
黑 is the verb you are looking for.
被黑了 is the common phrase form of "been hacked".
If you feel 黑 is too ambiguous you can add an object behind it to turn it into a VO (verb object) phrase: 黑电脑, etc.
Alternatively Oxford suggests:
5 COMPUTING, COLLOQUIAL
窃取
to hack secret data from computers
从计算机里窃取机密资料
Personally I would just go with 黑 in this ...
5
Adding to the previous list:
Bowling: 保龄球 bao ling qiu 滾木球
Buffet: 蒲飞 pu fei 自助餐
Calorie: 卡路里 ka lu li 热量单位
Cartoon: 卡通 ka tong 漫画
Motor: 摩托 mo tuo 电动机
Sundae: 新低 xin di 水果奶油,冰淇淋
T-Shirt: T-血 T-xue 短袖汗衫, 短袖圆领衫
Toast: 多士,吐司 duo shi, tu si 烤面包
Vitamin: 维他命 wei ta ming 维生素
5
A thread worth reviving.
The word cigar came into English (and most other European languages) from Spanish. I don't really think it's possible to say which one Chinese got it from, based just on phonetics. Carol Benedict's book on tobacco in China, Golden-Silk Smoke, notes that "Filipino tobacco leaf and hand-rolled tobacco products began to flow to ...
5
Wow it's a fascinating question. I have never thought about that before and this question intrigues me. Because it's a two characters word, meaning that it definitely has an origin, not like the word 猪 for example, which just reassembles the image of a pig.
After searching a while and came across many different sources and non-senses, you might actually be ...
5
No, it's a transliteration.
The Chinese term「邏輯」first appeared in a Chinese translation of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive. The Chinese translation title is 《穆勒名學》 by 嚴復, and the Chinese word「邏輯」is directly explained there:
案邏輯此翻名學。其名義始於希臘。為邏各斯一根之轉。邏各斯一名兼二義。在心之意。出口之詞。皆以此名。引而申之。則為論為學。故今日泰西諸學。其西名多以羅支結響。羅支即邏輯也。
To add, the ...
5
There is no contradiction. The formal Sino-Vietnamese readings of 辰 are thần [tʰən˨˩] and thìn [tʰin˨˩], which correspond nicely to the Middle Chinese [d͡ʑin] (Pulleyblank-Miyake), Old Chinese [djɨn] (Baxter). Compare 臣 with the same MC reading, also having Sino-Vietnamese thần. The Fifth Earthly Branch is called thìn (or thần) in Vietnamese.
However, the ...
4
Yes, there are preferred characters used in transliteration. But in Chinese the case is a little bit complicated than in Japanese.
In Japanese, Katakana is part of the phonetic system of the language (although in written, those characters can be used with Kenji).
In Chinese the phonetic system and the writing system are completely separated except in rare ...
4
Wikipedia has this to say:
「AA」是「Arithmetic Average」的縮寫。意思是「算術平均」。
「AA」是「All Average」的縮寫。意思是「全部平均分擔」。
「AA」是英文「Acting Appointment」的縮寫。
There is no citation or whatsoever, so these could all be wrong...
百度 also has something to say. Despite the total lack of structure, there is an interesting excerpt from the article:
Chamber's English Dictionary的解释，AA，...
4
For different translations:
cement: 水门汀、水泥
Internet: 因特网、互联网
vitamin: 维生素、维他命
Sacramento: 沙加缅度、三个馒头 :P
Bourgeoisie: 布尔乔亚、资产阶级
From different languages, actually, there are many, if you count Japanese and Cantonese.
Florence: 翡冷翠、佛罗伦萨 (Italian, English)
metaphysics：形而上学（日）、玄学（中）
evolution: 进化(日）、天演（中）
philosophy: 哲学（日）、理学（中）
bus: 巴士（粤）、公共汽车（汉）
...
4
I guess you should avoid 伊妹儿 (that almost looks like a girls' name or person name). 电子邮件 is the preferred and widely used term.
If you need a verb to express 'to send an e-mail', use 发 with 电子邮件:
E.g. 请给我发个电子邮件。 Please send me an e-mail.
4
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 ...
4
I'm not totally sure if this is what you are looking for but apart from A-Z, there are examples like:
π节
Where the pi symbol is used.
Alpha is also often used:
α其 (alpha phase)
α状态 (alpha state)
α物质 (alpha substance)
α实验 (alpha test)
Beta also:
β折叠 (beta pleated sheet)
Gamma:
γ环 (gamma loop)
γ纤维 (gamma fibers)
γ粒 (gamma granules)
Phi:
φ现象 (phi ...
4
We can obtain the entries in CC-EDICT using the command awk '$1 ~ /^[0-9a-zA-Z]/ { print }' cedict_ts.u8. The following is the results (CC-EDICT timstamp 2020-01-03T04:26:45Z).
It follows the format [traditional Chinese] [simplified Chinese] [pinyin] [definition].
21三體綜合症 21三体综合症 [er4 shi2 yi1 san1 ti3 zong1 he2 zheng4] /trisomy/Down's syndrome/
3C 3C [...
3
Mostly wei can be used when you answer the phone , while it's too oralize to use over text. But someti
mes you can see it like this：
他正在打电话：“喂？”
他不耐烦的说道：“喂，哪位？”
I prefer it is better to use 你好 or 您好 as a alternative word. (Actually I use 您好 cause It's polite to when you talking or writing.)
If you want to write a letter or email , adding a adj. word ...
3
I don't agree that "Mainland Mandarin" is a stress-timed language. Where did you get the "general agreement"? In addition, I think that Mandarin is Mandarin. The difference between "Mainland Mandarin" and "Taiwan Mandarin" is smaller than British English and US English.
Back to your question. Even the words/names are translated from other stress-timed ...
3
拜拜 is not casualness and/or childishness,it is a more friendly way to express goodbye ,and majority use between people who have good relation,or see somebody for the first time and build a friendship each other.
So does it in Taiwan I think:)
3
In Hong Kong, most imported terms are officially transliterated, there's no need to use any English alphabet in these terms.
For example:
store = 士多
toast = 多士
taxi = 的士
bus = 巴士
Also in Hong Kong, some English words are so commonly used, we just use them directly within Chinese sentences, there's no need to add any Chinese character to these terms
...
3
The most famous example, I believe, is 美利堅。America used to be transliterated to 亞美利堅。Pretty soon, it is shortened to 美利堅。亞 was dropped. It is further shortened to just 美, 美洲、美國。
2
Zombie thread!
In Wu dialect (in Zhejiang), this is pronounced as an almost exact transliteration of 'cigar' (like pinyin xiega, but with a short vowel on the first syllable). Several other transcriptions are also from Wu, coming through the Shanghai foreign port, such as jacket.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible