錢玉湘

Does technology pose a threat to the purity of Chinese language?

Many Chinese use instant messenger tools such as MSN or QQ, listen to music on MP3 players and log on the Internet using ADSL—most without knowing the literal Chinese translation of the abbreviations.

But they dont have to, as many English letters have become part of the local lexicon.

A dozen abbreviations including GDP, NBA, IT, MP3, QQ, DVD and CEO are among the 5,000 most-frequently used words in the Chinese-language media last year, according to a report on the 2006 Language Situation in China, which was released yesterday in Beijing.

The report said some parents are so keen on English letters that a couple tried to name their baby “@”, claiming the character used in e-mail addresses reflects their love for the child.

While the “@” is obviously familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word “at” to pronounce it—which with a drawn out “T” sounds something like ai ta, or “l(fā)ove him”, to Putonghua speakers.

The study collected more than 1 billion language samples from newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and websites. The annual report is jointly compiled by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission.

“Nowadays, more and more English abbreviations are being used in Chinese, making them an important part of the contemporary language,” said Hou Min, a professor at Communication University of China.

“The abbreviations have gained popularity because of the ease of usage,” Hou said.

For example, DNA is much simpler to use than its Chinese version tuoyang hetang hesuan.

“As more Chinese people learn foreign languages, especially English, in recent years, using abbreviations has become a trend among educated people,” she said.

Some language scholars fear such usage will contaminate the purity of Chinese and cause confusion in communication.

科技發(fā)展威脅到了漢語的“純度”了嗎？

很多中國人使用MSN或QQ等即時通信工具、用MP3聽音樂、用ADSL上網(wǎng)，但大多數(shù)人都不知道這些英文縮寫的中文翻譯。

但他們也不必知道，因為很多字母詞已成為漢語詞匯中的一部分。

據(jù)昨天在北京公布的《中國語言生活狀況報告（2006）》顯示，去年，GDP、NBA、IT、MP3、QQ、DVD、和CEO等字母詞進入中文媒體前5000個高頻詞之列。

報告中提到，一些家長也很喜歡英文字母詞，一對夫婦想給他們的孩子起名為@，他們說，這個用在電子郵件地址中的符號能體現(xiàn)他們對孩子的愛。

用電子郵箱的人都很熟悉@這個符號，它的發(fā)音為英文單詞at，拉長“T”的發(fā)音后聽起來就像是ai ta，用普通話說就是“愛他”。

該年度報告是由教育部和國家語言文字工作委員會聯(lián)合編撰的。該項調(diào)查從報紙、雜志、電視、廣播和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上收集了10億多份語言樣本。

中國傳媒大學的侯敏教授說：“如今，越來越多的英文縮寫出現(xiàn)在中文中，它們已成為現(xiàn)代語言中的重要組成部分?！?/p>

侯教授說：“由于這些英文縮寫易于使用，所以很受歡迎?！?/p>

比如，用DNA比用中文“脫氧核糖核酸”要簡單得多。

她說：“近年來，越來越多的中國人學習外語，尤其是英語，使用英文縮寫已成為受過良好教育的人的一種潮流?！?/p>

一些語言學者擔心，這些字母詞的使用會污染漢語的純度，會導致溝通上的混亂。