Language and Cultural Variation between Chinese and American English

Language and Cultural Variation between Chinese and American English
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Language and Cultural Variation between Chinese and American English
Introduction
Because of globalization, transnationalism, and rapid means of global communication, the traditional concept of one language and culture has become obsolete. In the present world, most of the world's urban population is bound to use more than one language, which has resulted in the development of a unique linguistic and cultural complexity (Piller, 2017.). As a result of increasing inter-language communication, languages as distant and disparate as Chinese and American English have begun to influence each other. A comparative analysis of the cultural and linguistic mingling of Chinese and American English reveals the remarkable impact of language variation on cultural variations. Thus, this paper aims to discuss various aspects of these cultural variations, including dialect and accent variation and communicative differences and their impact on American and Chinese cultures.
Adoption or Assimilation of Loanwords
Despite the cultural and traditional differences between Chinese and Americans, their languages have become a means of making two cultures and languages mix together. The best example of this cultural variation induced by language variation is the adoption of English loanwords in Chinese. The fundamental difference between Chinese and English is that English is alphabetic, while Chinese is based on characters or symbols (Excel English, 2021). Nevertheless, the Chinese language has adopted and assimilated several English loanwords, and this assimilation is accompanied by the adoption of several English cultural elements. One of the significant aspects of the presence of English loanwords in Chinese is that the Chinese language mainly comprises two and three-syllable words. Consequently, it only assimilates English language words having two to four letters (Ding, 2017). Consider the example of the English world “international”; this word is adopted as a transliterated word in Chinese in the following form “英特纳雄奈尔 . However, it soon transformed into “国际” (Ding, 2017).
This intake of English language words also produced remarkable cultural variation in Chinese culture; the introduction of American fast food chains, cell phones, and other luxury products has not enriched the Chinese lexicon but also introduced American cultural elements into Chinese societies. For instance, American jeans, t-shirts, skirts, and other fashion items have become quite a vogue in Chinese youth; the Chinese language has received a rich influx from the American lexicon. Thus, this social, cultural, and linguistic complexity manifests how language and cultural variation interlink and influence each other.
Accent and Dialect Variation
Chinese and American English differ remarkably in terms of pronunciation; as a result, they show significant variation in accent and dialect. One of the major aspects of the accent and dialect variation between Chinese and American English is the presence of consonant clusters at the end of English words. Howeve...