当代德语中的中文外来词及其发展趋势

Words of Chinese Origin in German and Their Development Tendency

不同语言文化互动交融而形成的外来词现象是跨文化交流的重要组成部分,对德语中的中文外来词现象进行研究,就是追溯中德文化交流的过程并探求其发展趋势。在当代德语外来词中占有一席之地的中文外来词至今在国内外学界仍未得到完整的梳理和分析,运用计量语言学方法对德语中的中文外来词现象这一文化互动结果进行分析后发现,早期进入德语的中文外来词发音多源自粤方言,主要通过英语进入德语和其他欧洲语言;当代德语中的中文外来词则呈现数量持续上升、拼写方式向拼音化转变的趋势。

Intercultural encounters between China and German-speaking countries are vivid and this exchange continues to increase in intensity.While the phenomenon of language in interaction is very important for the examination of cultures and intercultural communication,it has never,until now,been a topic of research in any monograph in the field of cultural exchange between China and German-speaking countries.German words of Chinese origin are words borrowed from the Chinese language that entered German in whole or in part,and have the characteristics of German words.This paper deals with the process of the borrowing of Chinese words in German as an intercultural exchange process and analyzes those words in the modern German language using the methods of quantitative linguistics.Words of Chinese origin are understood as words which either originated directly or indirectly from Chinese as native language or have migrated to the Chinese language from a different language.The investigation shows that more than 160 words of Chinese origin are currently in active use in the modern German language.A lot of Chinese loan words were probably brought by the migrants from China to the West.Many of the first words borrowed from Chinese have migrated from Cantonese dialect via English to German and other European languages.The process of the borrowing of Chinese words should therefore not only be understood as the result of interaction between languages,but also as a process of intercultural and intersocial communication that was strongly associated with the history of overseas Chinese.We cannot yet determine whether the reception process of German words of Chinese origin abides by the Piotrowski law of quantitative linguistics.But there are still some interesting facts to be mentioned：the number of words of Chinese origin in German has increased constantly since the end of the 19th Century.Furthermore the spelling of words is increasingly influenced by the pinyinsystem which was developed in the 1950sin China's Mainland.It should be emphasized that interlinguistic and intercultural connections and influences between China and German-speaking countries will certainly continue.We can expect that this tendency will lead to more Chinese borrowings in German in the foreseeable future and therefore will result in a better reception of the Chinese culture in German-speaking countries,as it has already happened in English-speaking countries.