Movimento Nacional em Defesa da Língua Portuguesa

A defesa dos idiomas no mundo - China

Notícia da Agência France Presse procedente de Beijing, na China, enviada ao MNDLP pela tradutora Jussara Simões, registra o crescimento da preocupação chinesa com o uso de estrangeirismos naquele país. Apenas 20 anos de abertura à cultura estrangeira (dos filmes de Hollywood aos desenhos animados japoneses e às canções populares de Hong-Kong) provocaram mudanças sensíveis nos milenares idiomas chineses, sendo cada vez mais percebida a mistura de idiomas nas conversas dos jovens chineses. Por exemplo, em lugar de dizerem que "Eu falhei nos exames", muitos jovens chineses já dizem: "I Titanicked".

Assim, o governo chinês adotou no dia 1º/1/2001 a primeira lei do idioma, para reverter essa tendência de bastardização do chinês falado e escrito, exigindo que a imprensa e as emissoras de rádio e televisão usem o chinês padrão (uma versão simplificada dos caracteres usada pela China continental, não a versão complicada encontrada em Hong-Kong e Taiwan). Também a pronúncia deve seguir a forma padrão, e não a usada em Hong-Kong e Taiwan (que é considerada elegante em alguns círculos sociais). Todos os termos estrangeiros devem ser traduzidos para o chinês padrão, inclusive na publicidade, que vinha usando formas inglesas nos textos para atrair a atenção, principalmente a partir da última década do século XX.

A nota pregistra as repercussões da medida entre os chineses, destacando-se as declarações de Yang Guang, porta-voz do Ministério da Educação da China. Ele explicou que a lei não pretende fazer discriminações contra os dialetos da próspera região do Guangdong ou contra qualquer idioma estrangeiro: "Nos temos 56 grupos étnicos que usam 100 linguagens faladas e temos 30 linguagens escritas" - citou, dizendo que a intenção não é fazer com que exista um só dialeto na China, mas que todos sejam capazes de falar o mesmo dialeto. "É muito importante para a unidade nacional", finalizou.

Também o mais importante dicionário de chinês já está sendo publicado sem as adaptações fonéticas chinesas de palavras inglesas, como "wei ta ming" no lugar de "vitamin" (vitamina). A palavra foi substituída nesse dicionário por "wei sheng xu", que significa "manter a vida".

Esta é a notícia original:

China Tries to Curb Outside Influence on Chinese Language

BEIJING, Jan 16, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Listening to the conversations of some teenagers in China, older generations might be dumbfounded or perturbed to hear the phrases "I Titanicked" or "Wasai!".

Twenty years of opening up to the outside world -- from Hollywood movies
to Japanese cartoons and Hong Kong Cantonese pop songs -- is making a dent on the several thousand-year-old Chinese language.

The hybrid conversations of China's urban youth may be mere gibberish to some, but to others the cultural inroads into the Chinese language is a cause for real concern.

The government has now adopted the country's first language law to roll back a trend it fears will bastardize spoken and written Chinese.

The law, which became effective on January 1, requires broadcast and print media to use standard Chinese -- that means the simplified written characters used by mainland China and not the complicated version used by Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Newscasters and entertainment show hosts also are banned from peppering their broadcasts with the Hong Kong or Taiwanese accents, which are seen in some circles as chic.

Publishing houses also must translate all English and other foreign language words into standard Chinese.

Billboards, advertisements and product labels are barred from incorrectly-using Chinese words. In recent years, advertisement firms have taken to altering Chinese characters or phrases to turn heads and grab consumers' attention.

"Chaos has been happening since the 1990's," said Yang Guang, a spokesman for the education ministry's language application administration.

"As China underwent economic opening, people are chaotically using foreign words. When they speak a sentence, they add a Japanese or English word. There's been a return of complicated Chinese characters, especially in the coastal areas. They think it's more sophisticated."

Yang insisted the law would not discriminate against the dialect of the more prosperous Guangdong region, or any foreign language.

"We have 56 ethnic groups who speak 100 spoken languages and have 30 written languages. Things are already complicated enough ... We're not saying there should only be one dialect in China, but everyone should be able to speak the same dialect. That's very important for national unity."

Mandarin -- the national dialect -- remains one of the most intact in the world, unlike Japanese, for example, which has borrowed many English words.

But the increasing impact of foreign cultures has seen English slang such as "cool" and "in" become a staple and words like "WTO" and "Internet" supplant their Chinese counterparts.

Instead of saying "I failed my test," teenagers now say "I Titanicked."

And "Wasai!" -- an expression of surprise adopted from Hong Kong television shows which has no meaning in Mandarin -- is frequently spoken, even by adults.

The law goes as far as encouraging service workers in all public places, including civil servants and waitresses at privately-owned restaurants, to speak proper Mandarin. Employers should send them to classes to be "re-educated" if they do not, it says.

Many people question whether China is fighting a losing battle.

"The suggestion is good, but in the end, language can't be controlled by law," said Wang Wei, 22, a construction site contractor. "Language is for communication. As long as people understand each other, what's the problem?"

However, a number of people back the government's move.

"English is a reality. It's important for communicating with the outside world, but we can't give up our culture," said a bookstore manager from northern Jilin province.

"When (President) Jiang Zemin visited Clinton and spoke English, I didn't like it. He should speak Chinese because he's Chinese."

Even the young and hip agreed Chinese should be promoted.

Zhang Nan, a 20-year-old checking out well-dressed women with his friends at a McDonald's in Beijing, said he found it hard keeping up with the latest sayings.

"They used to say 'This man is over' when they want to say he is dead. Now they've shortened it to 'He V'ed,'" Zhang said. "When I listen to 17 or 18-year-olds talk, I can't understand what they're saying. I feel old." But forcing people to use the proper accent is going too far, some say.

China has at least 100 spoken dialects -- and the main one, Mandarin, is spoken with a spectrum of accents that differ from one village, city or province to another.

The law, interestingly, does not mention government leaders, whose accents are notoriously off-mark. It focuses on people born after 1954.

Late chairman Mao Zedong narrowed quite a few eyebrows with his Hunan province accent -- even as he made his famous speech declaring the founding of the People's Republic of China on Tiananmen Square nearly 52 years ago.

Deng Xiaoping fared no better with his Sichuan accent and the current slate of leaders, including the Shanghainese Jiang, are so off that their voices are rarely heard on television or radio.

Newscasters, instead, summarize their points or quote them verbatim.

Meanwhile, the latest version of the country's most authoritative dictionary, due to hit bookstands next month, has eliminated lazy-but-easy versions of English words, such as "wei ta ming" for "vitamin."

The characters have no meaning in Chinese. It is now replaced by "wei sheng xu" which means "to maintain life."