One of China's leading linguists has criticized the increasing use of English in its language.

Huang Youyi, Vice President of the International Federation of Translators (FIT) and Secretary-General of the Translators' Association of China, warned his country that "If we do not pay attention and we do not take measures to stop Chinese mingling with English, Chinese will no longer be a pure language in a couple of years."

He cited words such as "bye-bye," and "okay" as examples of the "invasion" of the Chinese language by English. Modern abbreviations such as CEO, GDP and DVD are also common.

Where loan-words are a feature of every language, Huang says it is the intrusion of English characters into Chinese script that most concerns him.

"I'm not against using borrowed words, but they must be translated, either by their sounds or their meaning, into our native language, which is Chinese characters," he said, "or else Chinese have to learn English to understand what they read."

To protect the Chinese language, Huang proposed three measures to be adopted by the Chinese Government. He suggested official documents should be printed entirely in Chinese script, new laws should regulate the use of foreign words in publications, and a committee should be formed to make official pronouncements on translations of foreign names and technical terms.

Beijing lawyer Stan Abrams said he sympathized with Huang's concerns, but described some of the suggestions as "Orwellian."

Abrams wrote on China/Divide that while at worst using English was "a cool thing to do that shows off your knowledge and education," it can be "very efficient and useful."

14 March 2010