If we were on Firefly
On the television show Firefly, and the movie Serenity, the lingua franca of the future is English, with a a bunch of Chinese words thrown around. Sometimes these are curse words, sometimes they are just part of the conversation.
I understand what they were trying to achieve, but sometimes it seemed to me very forced. Many of the words and phrases that became Chinese instead of English didn't seem as a natural evolution of speech, except maybe for the curse words. That part made sense, especially since the writers could get away with some pretty colorful and vulgar expressions that perhaps couldn't go on basic cable in English.
In these last six-plus years, our family has developed our own blend of English peppered with Chinese words. I was reminded of this today at the park when an American friend's Chinese teacher caught me telling Myles to pick his laji (garbage) off the ground. She thought it was funny that I only used one Chinese word in the middle of an English sentence. But that's the word we use, I said, regardless of whether we are talking English or Chinese. Laji.
That got me thinking about how many Chinese words that have merged into our family's own lingua franca.
More after the jump
There are a few Mandarin words we have adopted or adapted into use. Some of them we actually use in a way consistent with their precise meaning and grammar. Occasionally too, we have a specific meaning of a word in mind when we use the Chinese.
huaile: meaning broken, we often use this to describe broken beyond our capability to repair. "Look Brigid. You can't use the flashlight because it is huaile."
chaile: meaning torn down or dug up, we often use this to describe something that has been completely demolished or a giant dig site, both usually of large scale and rather chaotic. The way we say this, one torn down building cannot be chaile; an entire street or small village can be.
wangle ma?: meaning, have you forgotten? I use this more to mean a careless forgetting. "Don't you know how to spell this? I thought you studied. Wangle ma?"
keyi: meaning, can or may. I use this to mean if something is possible. "Is it possible to live in Beijing and never have to learn Chinese? Well, keyi, but life is easier if you try." I also use this to indicate permission. If one of the kids asks if they may do something, I can answer in the affirmative "keyi." However, I never answer directly the negative version of this word to a request, but....
bu keyi: meaning, cannot. While I don't deny permission with these words, I do use it to announce that something is forbidden. "What are you doing climbing that tree? Bu keyi!"
dou keyi: meaning, both (or all) can. I actually use this to mean that I don't have a strong preference which choice is made. "At which restaurant do I want to have supper? Whichever. Dou keyi."
zangle: meaning, dirty. When we use this word, though, we don't mean just dirty, but extremely filthy. "Don't pick that up off the ground. Zangle!" And if I use zangle instead of dirty, the kids respond with more urgency.
mafan: meaning trouble or problem. I've actually heard a lot of other English-speaking foreigners in China use this word as a polite substitution for cluster-something.
And then there is at least one Chinese phrase that we use, but translated into English. It's mashang, an idiom meaning immediately. Literally, though, it translates as "on the horse." Clearly reflecting points of reference from older times, mashang has become part of our lexicon, but we actually say "on the horse." So if I call Randy to ask him if he can drive to the park to meet us, he will often answer me, "I'm on the horse. I'll be right there."
There are others, but this sample shows how some Chinese words have migrated into our every day speech.
I understand what they were trying to achieve, but sometimes it seemed to me very forced. Many of the words and phrases that became Chinese instead of English didn't seem as a natural evolution of speech, except maybe for the curse words. That part made sense, especially since the writers could get away with some pretty colorful and vulgar expressions that perhaps couldn't go on basic cable in English.
In these last six-plus years, our family has developed our own blend of English peppered with Chinese words. I was reminded of this today at the park when an American friend's Chinese teacher caught me telling Myles to pick his laji (garbage) off the ground. She thought it was funny that I only used one Chinese word in the middle of an English sentence. But that's the word we use, I said, regardless of whether we are talking English or Chinese. Laji.
That got me thinking about how many Chinese words that have merged into our family's own lingua franca.
More after the jump
There are a few Mandarin words we have adopted or adapted into use. Some of them we actually use in a way consistent with their precise meaning and grammar. Occasionally too, we have a specific meaning of a word in mind when we use the Chinese.
huaile: meaning broken, we often use this to describe broken beyond our capability to repair. "Look Brigid. You can't use the flashlight because it is huaile."
chaile: meaning torn down or dug up, we often use this to describe something that has been completely demolished or a giant dig site, both usually of large scale and rather chaotic. The way we say this, one torn down building cannot be chaile; an entire street or small village can be.
wangle ma?: meaning, have you forgotten? I use this more to mean a careless forgetting. "Don't you know how to spell this? I thought you studied. Wangle ma?"
keyi: meaning, can or may. I use this to mean if something is possible. "Is it possible to live in Beijing and never have to learn Chinese? Well, keyi, but life is easier if you try." I also use this to indicate permission. If one of the kids asks if they may do something, I can answer in the affirmative "keyi." However, I never answer directly the negative version of this word to a request, but....
bu keyi: meaning, cannot. While I don't deny permission with these words, I do use it to announce that something is forbidden. "What are you doing climbing that tree? Bu keyi!"
dou keyi: meaning, both (or all) can. I actually use this to mean that I don't have a strong preference which choice is made. "At which restaurant do I want to have supper? Whichever. Dou keyi."
zangle: meaning, dirty. When we use this word, though, we don't mean just dirty, but extremely filthy. "Don't pick that up off the ground. Zangle!" And if I use zangle instead of dirty, the kids respond with more urgency.
mafan: meaning trouble or problem. I've actually heard a lot of other English-speaking foreigners in China use this word as a polite substitution for cluster-something.
And then there is at least one Chinese phrase that we use, but translated into English. It's mashang, an idiom meaning immediately. Literally, though, it translates as "on the horse." Clearly reflecting points of reference from older times, mashang has become part of our lexicon, but we actually say "on the horse." So if I call Randy to ask him if he can drive to the park to meet us, he will often answer me, "I'm on the horse. I'll be right there."
There are others, but this sample shows how some Chinese words have migrated into our every day speech.
Comments
So she would say to us as children "Kikas die dirty hende" For "Look at those dirty hands!." My father told me that Kikein was to look, and that kikas was dialect for the imperative form. A glass of milk was always "Ein glass milch" with glass sounding more like "class". Of course since Dutch and English are so close, there wasn't too much of a different vocabulary; it was mostly cognates.
Dom always tells me stories about his paternal grandmother from Sicily who spoke almost no English and his aunts and uncles who when they got together at Nana's house would speak in a blend of Sicilian and English and his poor mother who spoke not a word of Italian would just sit there lost having no idea what people were talking about most of the time.
I grew up having bits of French from my dad's college classes thrown at me. When we had messy hair, for example, he always said it was a "nid d'oiseau," a bird's nest.
Everything sounds fancier in French, says Fancy Nancy.
The Mandarin used on the show was well researched, and seemed to reflect more Taiwanese uses and pronunciations. For instance, they's say Sheme? for "what" when in standard Mainland Mandarin we say Shenme?"