英语里有汉语与汉语英语化

Timothy Kiefer康思德(美)

　　正如任何一个学了英语的中国人所能证实的，只有极个别的词在中文和英文里是一样的，这是中国与欧洲的历史导致的直接结果。在过去的几千年中，中国曾是自给自足的社会，与欧洲的联系极少。这种分隔的结果，成为了汉语与欧洲各种语言之间没有相互借用很多词语的部分原因。相比之下，当今东南亚主要语言中大多有着很多来自英语的外来语。反过来，英语也吸收了来自印度语、马来语的数百个词，如loot(抢劫)、tank(坦克)等词，如今已完全融入了英语，以至于几乎没有哪个英国人或美国人对它们来源于亚洲有略微的了解。

　　然而，上几个世纪见证了西方与中国接触程度的提高。其结果，数量虽不多但一直在增长的一批汉语词汇找到了进入英语的路径。在这些词中，包括豆腐(它是通过日本进到英语中的)、风水、功夫、白菜，大多是英语中比较新的词，大多数英语是母语的人仍然把这些词视为外来语。但有一小部分汉语词汇已经彻底英语化了，以至于说起它们来源于中国还让人有点吃惊。下面的3个就是这类词：

　　Ketchup(西红柿酱)

　　上次你去麦当劳吃薯条时蘸的西红柿酱一词，似乎是典型的美国词。然而，该词根本就不是美国词，人们认为它来自中国(福建)闽南话“茄汁”。它是指一种用醋和鱼做成的调味酱，当年由中国商人带到了东南亚，并且以kechap的拼法进入到马来语当中。欧洲的航海者把这种酱带回了欧洲，英语国家的人称它ketchup或是catsup，前者第一次被记载在英文中是1711年，后者是1730年，两种拼法至今都在使用，但ketchup在美国用得更为普遍。

　　十八世纪和十九世纪的ketchup与我们今天所知道的西红柿酱大不一样，那时候这个词可以指任何一种以醋为主料的一系列调味酱，包括蘑菇酱和核桃酱，最终，西红柿与醋做的酱发明出来，并且广为流行。(它还被正确地称之为西红柿ketchup，但多数人将西红柿一词从名称中略掉了)。随着美国快餐连锁店如麦当劳的扩展，以西红柿为主料的ketchup已为世界所熟悉。

　　Chow(狗，食物，吃)

　　在英语中chow至少有两个讲法，这两个都来源于中文。第一个chow(通常是重叠形式chowchow)是一种源于中国的狗。这种狗以长长的红毛或是黑毛以及蓝舌头为人所知。可以认为，chow一词来源于汉语普通话或广东话中的“狗”，但究竟是怎么来的并不清楚。

　　第二个chow的意思是：当名词用时是食物，当动词用时是吃，这两种用法都是俚语，特别是名词形式在美国口语中用得特别普遍。作为动词，chow常常是短语动词“to chow down”或是“to chow on”的一部分，其意隐含着吃得多或吃得快；而名词形式的chow直到20世纪中期以前，一直是西方人和中国商人所使用的混杂英语中的词汇。

　　做食物讲的chow的来源并不清楚，有些学者提出它来源于普通话中的“杂”或是饺子的“饺”，但也有一些其他推测，这些推测至少听上去是有一定道理的。chow的两个讲法都来源于汉语也支持了那种认为这个词的两种意思都来源于“狗”的说法。牛津英文字典(1989年版)解释chow的第二个意思“食物”时说“可以认为这是因为穷人将狗作为食物”。

　　Gung-ho(热切的)

　　Gung-ho是个形容词，意为“非常热切的”，这个词确确实实用于口语。虽说它偶尔用于正式的书面语，但却在商界或专业圈子内的口语中非常流行，用以指对某一建议或项目的态度。例如：A：你们部门的工程师们怎么看新的设计项目？B：噢，他们非常gung-ho——也就是说，他们热切地想为这个项目的成功贡献力量。该词是在第二次世界大战中进入到英语中的。那时美国士兵来到中国，帮助中国战友打击日本侵略者，在中国他们与名为“中国工业合作社”(该组织今天依旧存在)的机构有很多接触。Gung-ho(工合)是该组织名称的缩写，被一些美国海军陆战队的部门作为了座右铭，用来代表美国意欲与中国共同作战打败日本。战争结束后，这个词也乘着回家的美国军队运输船来到了美国，变成了“(为共同的目标)而有献身精神的”或是“热切的”同义词。

　　
　　As any Chinese who has studied English can attest, there are very few words that English and Chinese share. This is a direct result of Chinese and European history. For thousands of years, China was a self-contained civilization with very little contact with Europe. Partly as a result of this separation, Chinese and the languages of Europe have not borrowed many words from each another.In contrast, most of the main languages of South and East Asia are now full of loanwords from English.English, in turn, has absorbed hundreds of words from Indian languages and Malay - with some like "loot" and "tank" now so utterly at home in English that few Britons or Americans have any inkling of their Asian origin.

　　Nevertheless, the last few centuries have seen an increasing level of contact between the West and China. As a result, a small but growing number of Chinese words have found their waysintosthe English language. Most of these words, including "tofu", which arrived via Japan, "feng shui", "kung fu" and "bok choy" are relative newcomers to English, and most English speakers still regard these words as "foreign".But a handful of Chinese words have been so thoroughly anglicized that their Chinese provenance comes as a bit of a surprise. Here are three of them:

　　Ketchup

　　The ketchup you may have put on your French fries the last time you visited McDonald's seems quintessentially American. However, the word "ketchup" is not American at all. It is believed to come from the (Hokkien) Minnan word "ke-tsiap", denoting a vinegar-and-fish sauce that Chinese traders took to Southeast Asia. There the word entered Malay as "kechap". European sailors took the sauce to Europe,swheresEnglish-speakers called it either "ketchup", first recorded in English in 1711, or "catsup", first recorded in 1730. Both spellings are in use today, but "ketchup" is more common in the US.

　　The "ketchup" of the 1700s and 1800s was quite different from the ketchup we know today. The word referred to any one of a number of vinegar-based sauces, including mushroom ketchup and walnut ketchup. Eventually the tomato-and-vinegar version was created and became popular.(It is still correctly known as "tomato ketchup", but most people drop the "tomato" from the name.) With the spread of American fast-food chains such as McDonald's, tomato-based ketchup has become familiar worldwide.

　　Chow

　　There are at least two words "chow" in English, and both of them come from Chinese. The first "chow" (often in the double form "chowchow") is a breed of dog which originated in China. Chows are known for their long red or black fur and their blue tongues. Supposedly this word "chow" derives from the Mandarin or Cantonese word "gou", but precisely how is unclear.

　　A second "chow" means "food" (noun) or "to eat" (verb). In both uses "chow" is a slang term, and the noun in particular is very common in colloquial American. As a verb, "chow" is normally part of the phrasal verbs "to chow down" or "to chow on"; these carry a connotation of eating a lot or eating quickly. The noun "chow" was in the vocabulary of the pidgin English used by Westerners and Chinese merchants until the mid-20th century.

　　The origin of the chow that refers to food is obscure.Some scholars suggest that it came from the Mandarin "za" (mixed) or from the "jiao" ofjiaozi, but there are other conjectures that are at least as persuasive.The common Chinese origin of the two chows has also given rise to the theory that both meanings of the word derive from the word "gou".The Oxford English Dictionary (1989 edition) states that the second definition "is supposed to be due to the use of the chow ('the edible dog of China') as food by poor Chinese."

　　Gung-ho

　　"Gung-ho" is an adjective meaning "very enthusiastic".The word is decidedly colloquial. Though seldom used in formal writing, it is quite popular in business and professional circles to characterize attitudes toward proposals and projects.(A:"How do the engineers in your department feel about the new design project?"B:"Oh, they're very gung-ho" - i.e. eager to contribute to the success of the project.)The word entered English during World War II, when American soldiers came to China to help their Chinese comrades fight the Japanese invaders. There they had a good deal of contact with an organization called the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, gongye hezuoshe.(The organization still exists today.) "Gung-ho" (= gonghe), the abbreviation of the organization's name, was adopted as a motto by certain US Marine units to symbolize America's desire to work together with China to defeat Japan. After the war ended, the word traveled back to the United States aboard homeward-bound troopships and became a general synonym for "dedicated (to a shared goal)" or "enthusiastic".

北京青年报