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Subject: You can't control language.
China recently made it official policy that press and publications must avoid foreign and new words. The first draft went into more detail, but basically I'm of the opinion that you can't prevent a language from evolving unless you stop using it. A language no one speaks or writes will remain static, but if it's in use, it'll change. And as China has found out, it'll change a lot and quickly.
I can understand ChinGov's reasoning, but it's all about pride and fear, as most things are. They're trying to maintain some sort of language purity, as if such a thing exists. It's never going to work, and history bears this out. Quebec, Russia, Japan and no doubt countless others have all considered or enacted similar measures.
And all have failed. If China wants to make us all aware of their amazing history they might do well do pay attention to ours once in a while. =P
Ah yeah, I remember why I wanted to post this. I wanted to draw your attention (and perhaps ChinGov's attention) to the way Japan handled foreign encroachment upon their language. Sure, there were half-hearted attempts to reign in the use of foreign 'loanwords', but modern Japanese is now rife with them, words that Japan assumed for their own use from many different languages.
In Japan they drink ビール (bi-ru, beer) and コーヒー (ko-hi-, coffee), both words taken from the Dutch, and a blow up sex toy is called a ダッチワイフ (dutch wife). Every few days it seems a new pop star makes her デビュー (debut) which is, of course, French. Part time work is called アルバイト (arubaito, from the German arbeit). They eat ピッザ (pizza, Italian) and パン (pan, from the Portuguese word for bread). Every few weeks young Japanese twist and abuse the language so that it is very different from one generation to the next, and we're not even going to start on regional dialects.
ChinGov is insane to think this new measure will preserve their culture in any meaningful way.
It's kind of tangential, but I once read someone say during a discussion about the wholesale (and state sanctioned!) destruction of Chinese architecture and culture: Chinese culture is being kept safe: in Japan.
Japan of course absorbed many, many facets of Chinese culture including much of its written language, though of course they have drifted significantly in the hundreds of years since.
So don't worry, China. When you wake up and realize what you've lost and want to recreate it, you can probably go to Japan for inspiration.
I can understand ChinGov's reasoning, but it's all about pride and fear, as most things are. They're trying to maintain some sort of language purity, as if such a thing exists. It's never going to work, and history bears this out. Quebec, Russia, Japan and no doubt countless others have all considered or enacted similar measures.
And all have failed. If China wants to make us all aware of their amazing history they might do well do pay attention to ours once in a while. =P
Ah yeah, I remember why I wanted to post this. I wanted to draw your attention (and perhaps ChinGov's attention) to the way Japan handled foreign encroachment upon their language. Sure, there were half-hearted attempts to reign in the use of foreign 'loanwords', but modern Japanese is now rife with them, words that Japan assumed for their own use from many different languages.
In Japan they drink ビール (bi-ru, beer) and コーヒー (ko-hi-, coffee), both words taken from the Dutch, and a blow up sex toy is called a ダッチワイフ (dutch wife). Every few days it seems a new pop star makes her デビュー (debut) which is, of course, French. Part time work is called アルバイト (arubaito, from the German arbeit). They eat ピッザ (pizza, Italian) and パン (pan, from the Portuguese word for bread). Every few weeks young Japanese twist and abuse the language so that it is very different from one generation to the next, and we're not even going to start on regional dialects.
ChinGov is insane to think this new measure will preserve their culture in any meaningful way.
It's kind of tangential, but I once read someone say during a discussion about the wholesale (and state sanctioned!) destruction of Chinese architecture and culture: Chinese culture is being kept safe: in Japan.
Japan of course absorbed many, many facets of Chinese culture including much of its written language, though of course they have drifted significantly in the hundreds of years since.
So don't worry, China. When you wake up and realize what you've lost and want to recreate it, you can probably go to Japan for inspiration.
BLEARGH
This post was edited on 2010-12-24, 17:19 by