Pseudo-Chinese

Pseudo-Chinese (Japanese: 偽中国語, Hepburn: nise chūgokugo; pinyin: wěi Zhōngguóyǔ) is a form of Japanese Internet slang which first appeared around 2009.^[1]

Pseudo-Chinese
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	偽中國語
Simplified Chinese	伪中国语
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin wěi Zhōngguóyǔ Bopomofo ㄨㄟˇㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊㄩˇ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Woei Jonggwoyeu Tongyong Pinyin wěi jhong guó yǔ IPA [wèɪ ʈʂʊ́ŋkwǒỳ] Wu Romanization hhue tson koq nyy Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ ngúi Chûng-koet-ngî Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization ngaih jūng gwok yúh Jyutping ngai6 zung1 gwok3 jyu5 Canton Romanization ngei6 zung1 guog3 yu5 IPA [ŋɐi̯˨ t͡sʊŋ˥ kʷɔːk̚˧ jyː˩˧] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Gūi Tiong-kok-gú Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Ngôi Dṳ̆ng-guók-ngṳ̄
Japanese name
Hiragana	にせちゅうごくご
Katakana	ニセチュウゴクゴ
Kyūjitai	僞中國語
Shinjitai	偽中国語
Transcriptions Romanization Nise Chūgokugo

Features

Pseudo-Chinese involves taking sentences which are grammatically Japanese and stripping away the hiragana and katakana, leaving only the kanji behind. This causes the resultant sentence to appear Chinese.

The phenomenon has received attention in China, where Chinese speakers can often guess the meaning of the sentences despite not knowing Japanese. Taiwan's Central News Agency has hailed pseudo-Chinese as a new platform for Sino-Japanese communication.^[2]

This style of writing can lead to idiosyncratic word choices. For example, 非常感謝 (much appreciated) may be rendered as 大変感謝; while 感謝 (gratitude) is common to both languages, 非常 is used as an intensifier in Chinese whereas 大変 serves the same purpose in Japanese.^[3] Commentators on Baidu have noticed the similarity between pseudo-Chinese and Classical Chinese, with such expressions as 貴方明日何処行？(lit. Where will you go tomorrow?).^[1] This is not a coincidence as the Japanese writing system arose as an adaptation of classical Chinese writing.

See also

• Kyowa-go
• Kanbun
• Wasei-kango
• Brushtalk