What is Engrish? Is Engrish found only in Japan? Also, what's the main difference between Engrish and Chinglish? Thanks.
Jun 11, 2010 5:17 AM
Answers · 4
Engrish refers to unusual English originating in Japan, and often by extension other East Asian countries. The term itself arises from the ethnic stereotype that Japanese people often confuse the English phonemes "r" and "l", since the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place of both. The word is not used in Japan, as the actual Japanese word for the English language is eigo (wikt:英語). While the term may refer to spoken English, it is more often used to describe written English. Engrish can be found in many places, including signs, menus, and advertisements. Terms such as Japlish or Janglish for Japan, Konglish for Korea, Singlish for Singapore, and Chinglish for China are sometimes used as well.
June 11, 2010
I think "Engrish" is an attempt at English (specifically the wonderful Japanese examples), usually with comical results. For "Chinglish" (also: Konglish, Singlish, Japlish, Franglish, etc) I think that is where an English word or phrase is adopted into another language, and the meaning is usually changed also. Sorry not to give a Chinglish example, but a common Konglish (Korean+English) catchphrase is "hwaiting!" which means "good luck" to Koreans, but comes from the English "fighting!" as announced at the beginning of boxing matches. For an example of Engrish (from Korea once again), I saw a nightclub advertised as an "R&B Rounge"... they meant "lounge".
June 11, 2010
Engrish is a form of misspelled or often grammatically wrong form of english which is often to be found on information boards, commercials, menus or signs in asia. there are also examples in which the sentence might be grammatically correct but the used vocabulary differs in a strange way from modern daily english. i think that engrish referres mostly to this kind of english used in japan while chinglish is its specifique form in China. I guess that some people might be able to tell if a misconstructed english sentence originally was translated from chinese or from japanese because the translator used his own native grammar on the english sentence. engrish and chinglish is caused through hasty translations without any rechecking for correctness.
June 11, 2010
Chinglish examples arise from the mistranslation of euphemisms or idiom from one language to another. For example, an old Chinese phrase that means “adequate” or “barely acceptable” literally translates as “horse horse tiger tiger.” Obviously, the use of idiom and colloquialism similar to this can lead to serious confusion and laughter. Simple misspellings of unfamiliar words can also lend a hint of the whimsical or wacky to a Chinglish translation. On menus, the word “carp” is frequently spelled with the middle two letters reversed, leading to extremely unappetizing-sounding dishes. Menus may also be one of the best areas to find inexplicable translations, such in the famous examples of “desktop meat” and “the usual speculation loofah”. Often, in these cases, Chinglish experts recommend laughing and not even trying to search for a logical explanation
June 11, 2010
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