Categories
History Languages

Yīngyǔ

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

As past MEotWs have shown, “ (language; speech | saying; proverb | words; expression | speak; say)” 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 English Language Symbol ISO 639-1 IETF Language Tag Icon
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, “ (I 我) shuō (speak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!

Categories
History Languages

Huáyǔ

Huáyǔ (Huá·yǔ {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Singapore)] 华语 華語) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

This is the expression commonly used in Singapore to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin.

The “Huá (magnificent; splendid; flowery; florescent [→ [Chinese]])” in “Huáyǔ (Huá·yǔ {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Singapore)] 华语 華語)” is, incidentally, the “huá (magnificent; splendid; flowery; florescent [→ [Chinese]])” in “Yēhéhuá (Jehovah 耶和华 耶和華)”, in which it is mainly used for its sound. “Huá (magnificent; splendid; flowery; florescent [→ [Chinese]])” seems to have a root meaning of “flower” or “flowery”, and is used in several expressions to mean “China” or “Chinese”. In addition to “Huáyǔ (Huá·yǔ {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Singapore)] 华语 華語)”, some other examples are:

  • Zhōnghuá (Zhōng·huá Central · Flower → [China] 中华 中華)
  • Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghé Guó ((Zhōng·huá Central · Flower → [China] 中华 中華) (Rén·mín People’s 人民) (Gònghé Guó (Gòng·hé Shared · Harmony → [Republic] 共和) (Guó Nation) → [Republic]) [People’s Republic of China])
  • Zhōnghuá Mínguó ((Zhōng·huá Central · Flower → [China] 中华 中華) (Mín·guó People’s · Nation 民国 民國) [Republic of China (Taiwan)])
  • Huárén (Huá·rén {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · {People | Person[s] | Man/Men} 华人 華人)
  • Huáqiáo (Huá·qiáo {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · {Living Abroad (People/Person[s])} → [overseas Chinese people/person[s]] 华侨 華僑)

Wikipedia summarizes that “huá (magnificent; splendid; flowery; florescent [→ [Chinese]])” used in connection with China is short for “Huáxià (Huá·xià Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent · {Summer → [Xià (Dynasty)]} → [historical concept representing the Chinese nation and civilization] 华夏 華夏)”, an expression that dates back millennia:

Huaxia is a historical concept representing the Chinese nation and civilization
Huaxia refers to a confederation of tribes—living along the Yellow River—who were the ancestors of what later became the Han ethnic group in China[source][source]. During the Warring States (475–221 BCE), the self-awareness of the Huaxia identity developed and took hold in ancient China.[source]
The term Huaren (華人) for a Chinese person is an abbreviation of Huaxia with ren (人, person).[source] Huaren in general is used for people of Chinese ethnicity, in contrast to Zhongguoren (中國人) which usually (but not always) refers to citizens of China.[source] Although some may use Zhongguoren to refer to the Chinese ethnicity, such usage is not accepted by some in Taiwan.[source] In overseas Chinese communities in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, Huaren or Huaqiao (overseas Chinese) is used as they are not citizens of China.[source][source]

Interestingly, since “huá (magnificent; splendid; flowery; florescent [→ [Chinese]])” can mean “flower”, and since the roots of referring to Chinese people as “Huárén (Huá·rén {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · {People | Person[s] | Man/Men} 华人 華人)” go back millennia, that means that Chinese people were “flower people” long before the hippies of the West were!

Unfortunately, politics sometimes raises its ugly head in language matters, and so it is worth noting that in some situations, there may be political implications of using “Huáyǔ (Huá·yǔ {Magnificent; Splendid; Flowery; Florescent → [Chinese]} · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Singapore)] 华语 華語)” or one of the other ways to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin in Mandarin. For more information, see these posts on the excellent Language Log blog:

Posts on this Mandarin Expression of the Week blog about other Mandarin expressions used to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin can be viewed using the link for the Mandarin tag.