Part 8 (2/2)

Following are summaries, in alphabetical order, of some of the various lishes, including more details about the three oldest ones and others mentioned elsewhere in the book.

Arablish/Arabish.

Arablish (or Arabish) is one of the most exciting branches of Amglish because until recently there was no easy way to turn Arabic into English and vice versa without a time-consuming translation process.

Now, there are Web-based devices that allow a writer of English, for example, to automatically type an Anglicized form of Arabic that can then be transcribed automatically into Arabic. This is not strictly a natural blending of Arabic and English but a halfway point between the two that uses English letters and Arabic numbers. The numbers are used to represent Arabic images that have no counterparts in English.

In Arablish, the word English becomes Engliziya, yes becomes Na3am, no becomes La, h.e.l.lo becomes Mar7aban, good-bye becomes ma3a alsalamah, I donat know becomes La a3rif, the number one becomes wa7id, two is ethnan, three is thalatha, four is arba3ah, and five is 5amsah. So ah.e.l.lo, whatas your name please? I donat understand,a could be transliterated into something like amadr7aban ma esmok arjook la afham.a Arablish is increasingly used on the Internet and in other types of international communications, such as advertis.e.m.e.nts by multinational firms. In addition, there is an Arabic chat alphabet for encoding Arabic into Arablish in order to send SMS messages over the Internet or by cell phone.

Chinglish.

English has become a national craze in China despite the difficult learning process and growing opposition from the government.

As stated earlier, children must take lessons in English through the ninth grade. But phonetics can be difficult, since most Chinese cannot p.r.o.nounce certain English letters. In the Cantonese dialect, for example, the letters l and n are considered interchangeable. So the cartoon character Snoopy can become aSloopy,a and Emilyas name may sound like aEminy.a The th sound is nonexistent in Chinese, often causing the word three to emerge as ashree.a The English letter v is often p.r.o.nounced like a w.

Many other problems stem from the built-in defects and irregularities of English. The result is a conglomeration of errors in sound and spelling. Mistakes are often attributed to thinking in Chinese while writing or speaking in English.

For a Laugh, Put Amglish on a Sign.

When it comes to lettering signs throughout much of the world, the fractured language of Amglish is often worth a hearty laugh. The humor is so great that it has sp.a.w.ned many fabrications, especially on the Internet. The following words are from photographs taken by American Alex Michaelson in China: the trolley has no brake. please keep it out of reach of children. please donat go downstairs with trolly.

please dial 68346000 if you find the water problem.

star rated toilet.

A sign on the wall of Silk Street Market, a shopping center in Beijing with 1,700 vendors, warns clerks against using certain aForbidden Wordsa on customers. They include You are crazy, s.h.i.+t, Just go away, and Stupid guys.

Food labels can also be giggly sometimes because of transliterating problems. Samples include a label on a jar of plums saying, aHey, so delicious, let us try it fast,a and a package of crackers labeled aBurned Meat Biscuits.a A supermarket sign meant to draw customers to a delicious display of food items read, aIt is gluttonous to come quickly.a Another item was labeled aFried Enema.a A public sign warning hikers of danger said, aPlease do not climbing.a Another common sign at the end of a tour or pathway says aWelcome Againa instead of aCome Again.a One bank offered two signs, one for acash withdrawing,a which made sense, and one that didnat, acash recycling.a And a clothing store offered some large-size clothes unbelievably labeled aFatsoa and aLard Bucket.a Sign Police Get Mixed Results.

With the Olympics looming in 2008, the government set up the Commission for the Management of Language Use to eliminate the most embarra.s.sing signs before the crowds appeared. With some six hundred volunteers, the commission claimed that it fixed more than 10,000 signs. Among those affected was a sign for the Dongda a.n.u.s Hospital. It was changed to Dongda Proctology Hospital. And Racist Park was renamed Minorities Park.3 Young Chinese are very computer oriented and like to show off the latest American words acquired from the Internet or television. According to Beijing native Yi Han, almost any new U.S. product, technology, or idea is immediately accepted by its English name or acronym, such as MP3, iPod, Wi-Fi, and DVD, or transliterated into pinyin, which uses Western letters for Chinese characters.

Some transliterations can sound quite ingenious. Han cites bo ke for blog; ji in for gene (literally, abasic codea); kao bei for copy; hei ke for hacker (literally, ablack guesta); fen si for baseball fans (literally, athin rice noodles that wrap around other fooda); and sai bai wei for Subway, the restaurant chain (literally, acompete with hundreds of tastesa). Matthew Michaelson, an American expert in Chinese literature, adds the Mandarin word for T-s.h.i.+rt: t-xue, p.r.o.nounced atee s.h.i.+r.a Danglish.

English is Denmarkas first foreign language and is spoken by nearly everybody in this tiny country. Dorte Lonsmann of Roskilde University says her research on the computer game culture there in 2007 indicated that young Danes frequently code-switch from Danish to English.4 Lawrence White, a native Brit who runs a language translation and learning center in Denmark, says English there is frequently influenced by the rules of Danish itself, often resulting in good but slightly odd English. For example, instead of asking what something looks like, a Dane is likely to say, aHow does it look like?a because the same question in Danish starts with the word for how.

Meanwhile, many English words are finding a place in Danish, such as deadline, computer, and chance. White adds that universities and business schools in Denmark conduct many international courses in English, and that accompanying textbooks are available only in English.5 Denglish.

Denglish, or Denglisch, as the Germans spell it, has been extremely popular in Germany for years. It is exemplified especially in technical terms, such as arebooting a computer because the software crashed,a a phrase that comes out as arebooten den computer weil die software gecrasht ist.a Young Germans especially like American terms, which they often transliterate. For example, they may refer to coole events or use gansta rap terms such as phat, which they spell afett.a Wikipedia describes a whole category of English words that are given meanings in German that differ from their meanings in English. Among such words, with their German meaning in parentheses, are dressman (male model), drive-in (drive-through) evergreen (a golden oldie), fitness studio (gym), oldtimer (cla.s.sic car), parking (parking garage or lot), smoking (tuxedo or dinner jacket), street worker (social worker), timer (calendar or appointment book), trampen (hitchhiking), and wellness-hotel (spa).

Free-flowing writing often adds spice to Denglish. In his blog on what he calls Germanglish, Johannes Ernst describes an invitation from VDI, an engineering organization, to a conference. It listed one speakeras topic as aFright traffic and pa.s.sanger services between different interests.a On the subject of visiting a Mercedes plant, the brochure recommended, aPlease register for the visitation in the registration form attached.a6 Pennsylvania Dutch.

An earlier type of language mongrel called Pennsylvania Dutch has been spoken for centuries by some 200,000 German-Americans in Pennsylvania and a few other states. The name of the dialect comes from the German word Deutsch. Here are some samples of this type of Amglish: Throw father down the stairs his hat.

Father ainat so good; his eatinas gone away and he donat look so good in the face either.

Ve get too soon oldt und too late schmart.

Go out and tie the dog loose and donat forget to outen the light.

Dunglish.

Dunglish has been piling up for many years in tiny Holland, this mostly flat land of dikes and ca.n.a.ls. Itas a kind of middle Englisha”or should we say amuddleaa”that speak and write the Dutch in a manner malaprop. They know the English words but have the trouble putting them on the traditional order.

A blogger on WTForum!! explains, aI question me off, or blogging in English would pull more readers on. You see, everybody cans English. Not as fluid as me naturally, but that speaks. For me, writing in English is a little egg, because English knows no secrets for me. In fact, my English is even good as my Netherlands. But make yourself no worries, because when you donat snap a word or a sentence, can you always ask for outlay in the comments. O, in that fall, try to use correct English grammar and gaming.a7 Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has been called a hub of Dunglish with its signs, such as the one at the beginning of this chapter and another from the dunglish.nl website, saying, aNeed Your Baby Some Rest? Visit Our Special Baby Room.a Finglish.

In Finland, the home of Nokia and other large international business firms, the influence of English has been huge despite major dissimilarities in the two languages.

Since English has become the princ.i.p.al language of international firms, it is natural that English terms would also drift into everyday conversations between Finns. In the past, they have borrowed more words from nearby nations, especially Sweden and Russia. But that has changed in recent decades.

According to Feodor Bratenkov, a business executive residing in the country, the natives may lapse into aOh No,a the name of a Finnish-made movie; aWhatas up?a; or when surprised, aOh my G.o.d.a Finns also transliterate English computer terms into their own language. An example is the word for a mouse click: klikkaa.

Many Finns migrated to the United States from the 1880s to the 1920s, mostly to the upper Midwest and to mill towns in New England. Their descendants like to put the letter i at the end of English words. Examples are: elkki (elk), jarri (a jar), lemoni (lemon), resortti (resort), toiletti (toilet), and klerkki (clerk). The suffix -ata is also popular, as shown by the words kompleinata (complain) and taipata (type). A heart attack comes out haartatakki, and to be satisfied is satosfai.

Frenglish/Franglais.

Despite substantial government fines for egregious use of foreign terms, French conversations and public media are replete with unchanged English or b.a.s.t.a.r.dized English words. Recent examples of the latter include le drug store, le fast food, le software, and my all-time favorite, les chicken nuggets. Others include je suis tired, je ne care pas, le marketing, le shampooing, un parking, and supercool.

Since 1975, use of such words has been against French law. Among other words banned in France are la call girl, le c.o.c.ktail, le dancing, le s...o...b..z, and le weekend s.e.xy, just the words most needed by American tourists looking for a good time with beaucoup dollars to spend and a limited knowledge of Franais.

In August 2006, the countryas Culture Ministry added e-mail to thousands of already banned English words and proposed a fine of up to $1,800 per violation. But the campaign has done little or nothing to stop e-mail from appearinga”with or without the hyphena”in either the sent file or inbox.

The main reason for the bans, of course, is to help preserve whatas left of la culture franaise, but nothing the French government can do will stop la marche de laAmglish. It has too much big mo, as they say in Paree. To show just how bilingual they are, many French retailers invent English-looking words to get the attention of shoppers. Two of most interesting are relooking for a makeover and destockage for clearance sale.

Most of the Amglish words in France get started in the media because of the nativesa efforts to keep current. However, serious French journalists covering the world and national politics tend to stick to the language formalities. A prominent exception for the news pages of Parisas Le Monde for years has been think tank. The Academyas tank is obviously leaking.

Except for the main newspaper sections, just about anything goes. A random perusal of Le Monde revealed this Amglish headline over a story about tennis player Aravane Rezai: aTENNIS: forfait a laopen GDF, Rezai avait abesoin daun break.aa A random perusal of LaExpress, the newsweekly, turned up this potpourri: La Fas.h.i.+on Week parisienne en 50 street looks. Le Point, still another newsweekly, contains sections called aMode et designa and aTech et net.a A story about a rising Spanish star was headlined: la success story daasak adic.8 Gibberlish.

Gibberlish is written or spoken Gibberish with an Amglish tinge. It usually means a meaningless collection of words created by incompetence or accident, similar to a ma.s.sive malapropism.

But there is always a chance of a hidden meaning lurking in the verbal underbrush. So it cannot always be cavalierly dismissed or derided. The most common habitats of Gibberlish are e-mailing and texting. The disease can usually be identified by a mysterious string of letters and numbers that seems to be understandable but is not.

Once again, George W. Bush has set the standard, this time for Gibberlish. He did so on December 13, 2005, in answer to a question from a woman in the audience about his plan to privatize Social Security. He said in part, Because thea”all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. Thereas a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting thosea”changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to bea”or closer delivered to that has been promised.

Greeklish.

There are two types of Greeklish. One is a technical linguistic transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet of Greek into English letters and vice versa. Various websites contain converters that will automatically do the job. But because of the un-Roman shape of some Greek characters, the Arabic numbers 3, 4, and 8 are subst.i.tuted for them.

This type of artificial language hasnat gone over well among the natives. In 2004, a few Greek websites threatened to ban any such variations of Greek as a danger to the future of demotic (Modern) Greek. Other critics contended that the Roman letters did not do justice to the Greek ones they replaced.

The other form of Greeklish is the subst.i.tution of common English words for Greek ones in newspapers and magazines. Irene Grossman, a Greek teacher in the Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., area, spotted many such words in a random perusal of the Athens daily, Kathimerini, for February 14, 2011. English words were used not only for sections of the paper, such as Real Estate, Articles, Newsletter, and Good Life, but for other parts of the paper as well. Among the verbal mixes was the English word test spelled in Greek letters.

Hinglish.

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