跨文化對(duì)詞匯互借及其發(fā)音的影響

摘要：閩南話被廣泛地運(yùn)用于福建省南部，特別是以泉州和廈門為中心的地區(qū)。由于泉州在古代被譽(yù)為是與亞歷山大港齊名的“東方第一大港”，所以來泉州貿(mào)易的歐洲人便在英語中借用了很多來自閩南語的詞匯，例如茶、當(dāng)歸、舢板等等。但是，由于閩南語有自己獨(dú)特的發(fā)音方法，這就造成使用閩南語作為他們的第一語言的人們?cè)趯W(xué)習(xí)第二外語英語的時(shí)候在英語發(fā)音上有一些困難。

關(guān)鍵詞：閩南話 英語 借詞 發(fā)音 跨文化

Part I: Introduction

When people talk about the cross-culture study， they usually confine to the politics， economy， ideology， arts， literature and even technology. However， the importance of languages in the cross-culture study can not be ignored. Languages are the carriers of culture. Do you ever notice that English borrows many words from Greek， Latin， French German， Chinese and even Minnan Dialect which is one of Chinese dialects? As an English major who also use Minnan Dialect as first language， there are so much evidence to support that English borrows many words from Minnan Dialect during the cross-culture communications. Minnan people， however， have their difficulties in speaking English because they cannot completely break away from the habits of the pronunciation rules of their own. As a result， it has become a barrier to speaking like an English native speaker.

Currently， the study on English and Chinese dialects are not so much broader and the researches on the influence of the contact between Minnan Dialect and English on borrowing words and pronunciation are even less. As a person who born and brought up in Qanzhou， Fujian province， this issue is a big attraction for the writer， hoping that more evidence on the cross-culture influence between Minnan Dialect and English can be found.

Part II

2.1 The historical origins of the cross-culture communication between Minnan Dialect and English

\"When speaking of the cross-culture influence of Minnan Dialect and English， we must trace back to the brilliant history of Quanzhou\"(Chen， 2000). According to historical records， Quanzhou as the earliest open port in China can be traced back to the middle period of Tang Dynasty. From Song Dynasty， ships around the world coming and going on Quanzhou port were in an endless stream. Therefore， it is famous for the starting point of the Marine Silk Route， and Marco Polo， the Italian businessman， traveler and adventurer even said that Quanzhou was the \"Oriental first and largest port\" which enjoyed the equal fame with the port of Alexandria in Egypt. During the process， legions of Europeans were attracted to Quanzhou for business， so English and Minnan Dialect started their contact at the first time. In Ming Dynasty， early colonial countries， including Holand and Portugal， established trade affairs in Quanzhou， which was accompanied by the language communication. In Qing Dynasty especially after the First and Second Opium War， the imperialists sold numerous Chinese labours， most people among whom were Minnan people. So in this period of time， Minnan Dialect influenced Singlish (English used by people in Singapor) a lot. According to Wikipedia:

Minnan Dialects \"are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian and its neighboring regions， in Taiwan， and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. In common parlance， Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien， in particular the Amoy and Taiwanese. Amoy and Taiwanese are both combinations of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech\"(Wikipedia， Amoy Dialect).

There have been many changes in the history of the English language. Many factors contributed to the development of this new type of English. Anglo-Saxon is the forerunner of modern English and later on， different languages combine and result in what English experts call Middle English. The basic characteristic of the modern English is that it borrows many words from different languages.

2.2 English words borrowed from Minnan Dialect

\"The vocabulary of Minnan dialect permeates English with a wide ranging\"(陳恒漢， 2002). Therefore， this phenomenon is seen in many aspects of life.

2.2.1 From places or names

①Hokkien：In some situations， though not accurately， Minnan Dialect is also called Hokkien(福建話)， and Xiamen (廈門) is called Amoy because in Minnan Dialect， people peonunce Fujian like \"Hokkien\" and Xiamen like \"Amoy\". So Hokkien can be replaced by Minnan Dialect since it is the most representative dialect in Fujian province.

②Ang-Mo(紅毛)：In Singapore， there is a bridge named Ang-Mo Bridge. Ang-Mo is the Minnan Dialect pronunciation to describe persons with red hair. \"Since the Dutch colonizers had invaded the Southern China， so the local people called them like this because they have red hair. In order to avoid the disrespect at present， people seldom use this word today\" (baike.baidu， Singlish/Singaporean).

③Banzai：It is a form of greeting to the Japanese emperor， whose source is Minnan Dialect. This English word is actually a transliteration of Minnan Dialect when people call the emperor \"Banzai\"(萬載，萬歲).

2.2.2 From food

①Tea: As everyone knows that tea spreaded to Europe with the transliteration of Minnan Dialect in the late 16th century. Modern English calls it \"tea\" and French calls it thé， which are very similar to Minnan Dialect \"te\". After that， the quantity of tea which spreads abroad annually is beyond count and many names of all kinds of tea appear， such as Oolong (烏龍茶)， Congou (工夫茶)， Bohea (武夷茶)， Pehoe(白毫茶) etc， which are all according to the pronunciation of Minnan Dialect.

②Tangkuei(當(dāng)歸): People also call it angelica sinensis used in cooking or herbal medicine. The pronunciation is also according to Minnan Dialect.

2.2.3 From stuff

①Sampan: It is a small boat of a kind used in the Far East， typically with an oar or oars at the stern. The seafaring in Quanzhou is very advanced in the ancient time， so it is not surprising that English borrows this word \"舢板\"(pronounce Sam-pan in Minnan Dialect).

2.2.4 Named after activity

①Casino: It is an interesting word. It is said that a long time ago， \"the immigrates who comes from Fujian in the US always get-together to gamble after getting their minimum wage. Each time when the gamble is opening， they will shout: \"start! Start!\" (in Minnan Dialect， Cai-si-lo(開始了) means starting)\"(劉海霞， 2009). With such a strange combination of circumstance， casino becomes a English word.

②Cumshaw: It is a transliteration of \"感謝\"(Cum-shia) in Minnan Dialect， however， cumshaw means \"tip\"(小費(fèi)) in English. When people help you， you may give him/her some money in return in order to express your gratitude.

2.3 Words in Minnan Dialect borrowed from English

Nothing in the world remains unchanged so much as languages. Not only does English borrow words from Minnan Dialect， Minnan Dialect also keeps abreast of the times and borrows words from English， then it builds up its own pronunciation by assimilating the foreign counterparts.

①bin-a(別針): People call it \"pin\" in English. Although /b/ and /p/， one is voiced and the other is voiceless， they are both stops. The similarity in pronunciation reveals the rationality of the existence of transliteration from English to Minnan Dialect.

②ge-bi(咖啡): Peopel call it \"coffee\" in English. It is known that coffee is a foreign product and even we had no \"咖啡\"---these two Chinese characters before this product was introduced. When coffee was introduced into Minnan area， the local people invented \"ge-bi\" (actually it sounds quite like \"coffee\" in English) to refer to \"coffee\".

③dia-si(的士): It is called \"taxi\" in English. Moreover， we have its corresponding verb phrase-- pa-dia(打的). Similarly， we can see /d/ and /t/ are both stops but one is an alveolar voiced stop， the other is an alveolar voiceless stop.

④ko-gi(呼機(jī)): It is called \"call\" or \"BP\" in English which is a new thing in 1980s. The reason it is called \"ko-gi\" is that \"ko\" in Minnan Dialect just sounds like \"call\" in English. This also reflects the intelligence and flexibility of the Minnan people in manipulating their language.

Part III: The fossilization in English pronunciation

\"A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms， rules and expectations regarding the use of language\" (Yule， 2007， p.239). \"In fact， the transfer of the native language is inevitable and does influence the second language acquisition\"(周蘇萍， 2007). As Minnan Dialect is their first language， the local people who belong to this speech community tend to be influenced by Minnan Dialect pronunciation rules which limit the accuracy of their English pronunciation and have \"the process of fossilization\" (Yule， 2007， p.195) in learning English as their second language.

One of the typical feature is that local people can not pronounce /v/ very well because there is not such a pronunciation in Minnan Dialect. For example， they will say /'weri/ instead of /'veri/(\"very\"). The same situation appears in Chinese as well. \"The local people usually say '灰機(jī)' instead of '飛機(jī)' \"(周蘇萍， 2007).

Another typical feature is that since there is not /r/ sound in Minnan Dialect， local people cannot master the pronunciation skill of this sound. \"They just pronounce /l/， /n/ or /z/ instead of /r/\"(hudong.com， Minnan Dialect). One example is that they are easy to confuse room /ru:m/ with loom /lu:m/. Likewise， in Chinese， they often say \"nan-hou\" or \"lan-hou\"( in Pinyin) instead of \"ranhou\"(然后).

Part IV: Conclusion

Most borrowed words， both from English and Chinese， are nouns. The reason is that people usually create new words because they intend to name a new stuff when they see it at first. So they usually create new words with the help of borrowed words. Just like every body is born equal， no languages are inferior to others. English， as a lingua franca， is regarded as the most common and popular language in international communication. Besides， most programs on international radio and TV use English. Therefore English is getting more and more important in the world. While， Minnan Dialect， like any language， is a dynamic and influential language. Both Minnan Dialect and English are flexible enough to keep absorbing nutrition from each other and other sources to infuse new blood to their own languages. The word-borrowing justifies this phenomenon.

The cross-culture research on the borrowed words and the pronunciation limitation for people using Minnan Dialect as the first language and English as the second language is very significant. Different national and ethnic cultures have created colorful human civilizations， and the cultural exchanges have shaped human civilizations together. Linguistically and even culturally， people had better learn from each other and work for common prosperity.

參考文獻(xiàn)：

References

Yule， G (2007). The Study of Language.Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

陳恒漢. 從詞匯互借看英語與閩南話的語言接觸 Word Borrowing: The Language Contact between English and Minanese. 福建師范大學(xué)，2002

陳恒漢.英語與閩南話詞匯互借的跨文化研究.《福建外語》（季刊），2000 (3).

周蘇萍.閩南方言區(qū)學(xué)生英語語音學(xué)習(xí)困難分析及對(duì)策.龍巖學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)，2007 (10)

劉海霞 http://learning.sohu.com/20091104/n267952687.shtml百度百科 新加坡英語http://baike.baidu.com/view/1210147.htm

百度百科 閩南語http://baike.baidu.com/view/13645.htm

互動(dòng)百科 閩南話http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E9%97%BD%E5%8D%97%E8%AF%9D

Amoy dialect - Wikipedia， the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoy_dialect