Phonetic Adaptation Of English Loan Words In Modern Chinese

Loan words, a component of Chinese, are the product of communications, contacts and integrations of different cultures between Chinese nationality and other nationalities. Since the initiation of the Reform and Opening-up policy, with the increasing international communications and exchanges, a great number of new concepts, things and cultures are introduced into China together with frequent language contacts. Chinese has been involved in the dynamic process of contact with foreign languages. Among all these foreign languages, English, as a major tool of international communication, has had a prominent impact on the Chinese language. A growing number of English loan words have been borrowed into Modern Chinese vocabulary.On the base of previous studies of loan words in Chinese, this thesis firstly introduces the definitions of loan words, and tries to divide loan words into five types according to the respective borrowing methods:phonetic loans, semantic loans, graphic loans, hybrids and alphabetic words. In the view of English and Chinese phonetic contrasts, the thesis analyzes the phonetic adaptation of English loan words. This phonetic adaptation can be realized by the following methods: phoneme substitution, phoneme deletion and phoneme addition. Finally, this thesis concludes with the influences of phonetic adaptation of English loan words on the development of Chinese vocabulary.This thesis will help us to hold a correct attitude towards English loan words in Modern Chinese, which is quite necessary to the healthy development of our mother tongue. Meanwhile, it will also be beneficial to English and Chinese language learning.