Translation of neologisms into Chinese

Translation of neologisms into Chinese generally follows three principles: free translation (意译 yìyì, literally "translation according to meaning") and transcription (音译 yīnyì, literally "translation according to sound") or a combination of the two.

Chinese translations can be roughly divided into two categories: official translation names and folk (or non-governmental; popular) translation names. Since the Chinese language is spoken in several countries and territories around the world, most importantly the People's Republic of China (mainland China), Hong Kong, Macau and the Republic of China (more commonly referred to as Taiwan), and standardisations of Chinese translation names in these countries are regulated by different institutions, it is common for one to encounter different Chinese names for the same subject. More specifically, mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia have official institutions and standards to regulate translations into Chinese, whereas in Hong Kong, translation names from media (including television, radio stations and newspapers) and established popular translation names predominate, which usually go on to further influence Macau and overseas Chinese communities.

Types

Free translation

In Chinese, traditionally, free translations are used for translating of non-proper nouns (proper nouns include names of people, places, countries, etc.). Most non-proper noun terms are introduced into modern Chinese using this method, including many names re-integrated into Chinese from Japanese terms, which were originally translated from Chinese kanji, during the 19th and 20th century. This is opposed to transcription (see below).

Examples:

Phonetic translation

Examples:

Combination

Phonosemantic matching, finding phrases which combine both the meaning and sound of the neologism. Examples:

Further readings

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