Imagine a form of communication that was both compact and cross-cultural - mastery of it would mean gaining the ability to communicate with both Japanese and Chinese speakers simultaneously. It has no strict rules, yet with minimal study, those who know Japanese and/or Chinese can easily start using it to communicate.
Somehow, such a thing never really became more than an internet trend.
What is Nisechūgokugo?
Japanese is written using 3 written scripts - Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ), and Kanji (漢字). After being imported from China, Kanji became the only written in Japan before the other two systems (collectively called "kana") were created[1]. While kana is (almost) exclusive to the Japanese language, kanji (Chinese Characters - are still being used in the Chinese language as its sole written script.
Now, what if we removed all the kana from Japanese text, leaving just the Kanji behind? Enter Pseudo-Chinese, or Nisechūgokugo.
Nisechūgokugo owes its existence to the Kanji Cultural Sphere, or the East Asian Cultural Sphere. Since its inception on the Japanese internet, it has caught the attention of internet users from not just Japan but also from Chinese speaking regions such as Mainland China or Taiwan thanks to its ability to facilitate cross cultural communication despite the language barrier.
I think one of the most appealing things about Nisechūgokugo is that there is no fear of getting it wrong or right - because all that matters is that you are being understood. (You also get to talk to both Japanese and Chinese speakers, which is a nice bonus)
Some Examples
I am by no means an expert, so forgive me if there are any errors below!
| English | Mandarin Chinese | Japanese | Nisechūgokugo | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hello! | 你好！ | こんにちは！ | 你好！ | Taken directly from Chinese. |
| Where are you going today? | 你今天要去哪里？ | あなたは今日どこに行くのですか？ | 貴方今日何処行？ | The Nisechūgokugo example here actually resembles Classical Chinese. |
| I eat apples. | 我吃苹果。 | 私は林檎を食べます。 | 我林檎食。 | 私 is replaced with the first person 我 from Chinese. |
| It's rare to come across Nisechūgokugo speakers. | 伪中国语使用者很罕见。 | 偽中国語使用者は珍しいです。 | 偽日本語使用者珍。 | 珍 also means rare in Chinese in some contexts, hence the Nisechūgokugo example here would somewhat make sense. |
| My hovercraft is full of eels. | 我的气垫船装满了鳗鱼。 | 私のホバークラフトは、鰻でいっぱいです。 | 我的空気枕型揚陸艇鰻一杯在。 | Hovercraft is usually written in katakana, so it's been translated as 空気枕型揚陸艇 here. The possesive の has been replaced with the Mandarin possessive 的. |
For more information & examples
I've also written a guide on github (including a starter guide for peeps who can't speak both Japanese and Chinese) which you can view here:
More info: https://github.com/Kaoffie/pseudo-chinese/wiki/Introduction
Phrase list: https://github.com/Kaoffie/pseudo-chinese/wiki/Phrases
Nisechūgokugo online converter from the 偽中国語研究会: http://nisechina.com/translate.html
(It takes Japanese as input, but it will return a blank message sometimes if the input contains no Kanji)
Discord Server: 偽中国語研究部
I didn't find a Discord server dedicated to this so I made one myself - we have a bunch of Japanese and Chinese and English speakers and I'm hoping we can make Nisechūgokugo more well known amongst Japanese and Chinese learners
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from Tere tulemast | Languagelearning https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/f4qhpp/nisechūgokugo_偽中国語_blurring_the_lines_between/
via Learn Online English Speaking
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