Yīngyǔ

Yīngyǔ (Yīng·yǔ English · Language; Speech 英语 英語) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

As past MEotWs have shown, “yǔ (language; speech | saying; proverb | words; expression | speak; say 语 語)” in Mandarin can mean “language” or “speech”. Thus, the language or speech of “Yīngguó (Yīng·guó English · Nation → [England; Britain; UK] 英国 英國)”—England—is “Yīngyǔ (Yīng·yǔ English · Language; Speech 英语 英語)”—English.

en is the ISO 639-1 code and the IETF language tag for English.

Some people may say “Yīngwén (Yīng·wén English · Writing 英文)” to mean English speech, but as mentioned in the MEotW post about “Zhōngwén (Zhōng·wén {Central → [Chinese]} · Writing 中文)”, “wén (writing; script [→ [language | culture]] 文)” actually refers to writing, not to speech. So, if someone says “shuō (speak 说 說/説) Yīngwén (Yīng·wén English · Writing 英文)”, what they’re really saying is “speak English writing”. While decipherable with some effort, this usage is not really right. To say “I speak English,” one should really use this week’s MEotW and say, “Wǒ (I 我) shuō (speak 说 說/説) Yīngyǔ (Yīng·yǔ English · Language; Speech 英语 英語).”

“Yīng (flower; petal → [hero; outstanding person] 英)” was drafted to mean “English” because it sounds vaguely like “English,” while having a flattering original literal meaning of “flower; petal” and an also-flattering derived meaning of “hero; outstanding person”.

So, Mandarin sort of refers to English people as “flower people” too. 😄

As for being heroes, some worldly English people have in the past certainly acted less than heroically towards Chinese people, such as during the terrible Opium Wars. However, English publishers among Jehovah’s people today who work hard and make sacrifices to learn Chinese languages and to help spread the life-saving good news of the Kingdom to Chinese people are certainly heroes and outstanding people in God’s eyes!