The languages of China - English and Chinese

Legends have it that Chinese characters were invented about 4,500 years ago by the historian Cang Jie(仓颉), Huangdi’s official in charge of history. Chinese being one of the oldest languages of the world, we can find in English words that came from Chinese. To name a few, in English there are words borrowed from Chinese, like ginseng(人参)，silk(丝)，oolong(乌龙), fengshui(风水),kow-tow (磕头), mah-jong(麻将)，typhoon(台风),Tao(道), yin and yang(阴阳)，T’ai Chi (太极)，and gung-fu(功夫). Probably the Chinese “茶” (tea) is spread most widely in the world. In most languages in the world, the word for tea is based on “茶” and is pronounced similarly to the sound of chà.

In Chinese there are also characters borrowed from English. The popular expression of “因特网” is translated from the English “internet”. Here are more examples:

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