Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Loan Words and Language Needs

I came across an interesting thread at the excellent Marginal Revolution blog that wonders how "loan words", or foreign words inserted into conversation for particular effect, are used in various languages.

In English, the majority of our borrowed words and phrases come from French. Some are more useful than others. For instance, the term "faux pas" is far more succinct than its English meaning "social blunder", and as a result its application in English conversation has proven quite durable. Others, though, like "je ne sais pas" to describe an undefinable yet existent quality, tend to reek of snobbery.

Quite a few foreigners like to joke that the Chinese borrowed "humor" (幽默) and "logic" (逻辑) from English because neither concept exists in China. This, of course, is untrue (unless you're dealing with government bureaucracy), but it is rather curious. Young Chinese will use "cool" but leave off the "l", which can be confusing because you're never sure if they're saying "very cool" or "very bitter (苦)".

Then, of course, are those phrases in Chinese that foreigners here use. Some time ago, I wrote that everyone says the Chinese term for loose bowels "la duzi" rather than diarrhea, mostly because the condition occurs far more frequently here than in our home countries. Another term I use often is "厉害", which can mean fierce, terrible, awful, awesome, excellent, or skilled.

My level of Chinese isn't advanced enough to comment on the language's inherent deficiencies, but it seems to me that there are few concepts that cannot be adequately expressed in Mandarin.

English, on the other hand, has a major grammatical deficiency: the lack of second-person plural. Technically, one is supposed to just say "you" and the meaning will be clear through context, but hardly anyone uses it this way. In California, where I grew up, the awkward "you guys" is most common, while of course in the American south "y'all" is the term of choice. Friends of mine in the UK seem to tend toward "youse", which I like but doubt I'll be using anytime soon.

One would think we'd figure out how to address more than one person before worrying about importing foreign words, but I suppose language evolution occasionally lacks logic.