有网友谈到英文描述不同民族时分别采用“ -an ”和“ -ese ”为后缀，有褒贬之别（见内）。本人虽然也算科班出身，却孤陋寡闻，从没见过英文字典或书刊提起 -ese 有什么鄙视的涵意。
在 The Linguist List (http://linguist.emich.edu) 中有个特别的服务是 Ask a Linguist (http://linguist.emich.edu/~ask-ling/) 。那里有一群专业的语言学家解答与语言相关的疑惑。这个 -ese 的问题就有人问过，回答说并非如此： 其中人类学家 Joseph F Foster 说： 不， -ese 并不表示“源自亚洲的”之义。它是从拉丁文字根 -ensis 来的，原义是“源自” -- 如 Japan-ensis ——源自日本的。 即使是欧洲的一些语言也有用到这个字根，例如 Portuguese ( 葡萄牙语 ) 。 -ese 是后来从拉丁文借入英语中的，而 -ish 则是日耳曼语族固有的，并从原始日耳曼语一路传到英语。 这也就是为什么 -ish 是用在早年盎格鲁撒克逊人曾接触到的语言及民族，如 Danish, English, Frank-iss>French 等。 并有助于理解为何 -ese 的形式往往是指称离英国更远地区的语言。 —————————————————— 由此可见，本质上 -ese 这个拉丁字根在英语中常用来称呼亚洲人 / 语，这只是一种语言历史发展的偶然。若说它原来就有鄙视之义，实在太过牵强附会。难道英国人比较鄙视 Portuguese ，而平等对待 Spanish 吗？若是如此，何曾见葡萄牙人向英国人抗议，并要求英语「正名」呢？ 同理，朝鲜（高丽）一词在英语中是 Korean ，同样不能说明英美人认为高丽人比中国人、日本人和越南人优秀。 由于历史的原因，中国人的确落后了。但是我们不应该就此自卑而过于敏感。如果为了一个已经约定俗成的单词浮想联翩丧失了自信，还谈什么自强不息呢？ 做一个有心胸开阔的人，才能做有自信的中国人！ -------------------------------------------------- ------------ * To: Charles James , Ask A Linguist
* Subject: Re: Classification of language.
* From: Joseph F Foster
* Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 12:11:00 -0500
* Delivered-To: ask-ling@linguistlist.org
* In-Reply-To: <20001127163832.21080.qmail@linguistlist.org> I have often wondered why languages of Asian countries are described as being 'Ese' ie Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Cantonese. Does the use of the suffix 'Ese' signify that it is of an Asian origin. European and other languages are described in other ways without any obvious similarities. French, German, Italian or English have no similarity in terms of their classification. Why is this so? No, -ese does not signify of Asian origin. It is from Latin -ensis and originally mean 'of origin' -- Japan-ensis 'of Japan origin'. It's even used with some European languages -- Portuguese. It is later borrowed into English while the -ish suffix is native Germanic and comes down to English from the original *Protogermanic language. It was therefore used for languages and peoples whom the Angles and Saxons came in contact with. Danish, English, Frank-iss ， French, &c. That's partialy why the -ese forms are mostly farther afield. Joseph F Foster, Ph D Assoc. Professor of Anthropology Director, Undergraduate Studies U of Cincinnati, OH, USA 45221-0380 -------------------------------------------------- - The suffix -ese is neither racist nor insulting. But it *has*become productive in English to indicate with mild humour something that is incomprehensible, based on its presence in "Chinese," "Japanese." There are many examples, but the only one that comes to mind now is "Stengelese." I think of "bureaucratese" first. "X-ese" as a noun here = "language of X".
The suffix "-ese" is apparently the English reflex of Latin genitive ending "-ensis", which is still used as a sort of default genitive in modern Latin. So for example the organism Nocardia beijingensis is the Nocardia "of Beijing", while Legionella pittsburghensis refers to the Legionella "of Pittsburgh", while Pseudomonas wisconsinensis is named after Wisconsin, etc. Similarly a University of Wisconsin seal might read "Universitatis Wisconsinensis Sigillum" = "Seal of the University of Wisconsin". So the long-term etymology does not support the "derogatory" thesis. Why is "-ese" more frequent in application to East Asia? There are "Portuguese", "Viennese", "Faroese", etc., in Europe, but there are many more "-eses" in Asia ("Shanghainese", "Pekinese", "Siamese", "Sundanese", "Singhalese", etc., etc.): is it because East Asians (along with persons from Vienna or the Faroes perhaps?) are/were despised? I would say no, it is because places far from the Roman Empire had no names in Latin and therefore no natural genitive endings, so they tend to take the 'default' ending "-ensis", thus "-ese" (with some obvious exceptions where a name looks like it could conform to another Latin paradigm, e.g., "Korea"/"Korean"). Scotland was known to Rome, so a bacterium named after Scotland for example is Actinobacillus scotiae (NOT "scotlandensis" or whatever) using the established genitive ending for Scotia = Scotland.
Neither Japan nor Wisconsin (nor Congo) was known to Rome, so their names lack declensions from classical Latin. [No doubt my perception is absurdly oversimplified, and perhaps I'm completely in error on some of my examples. The place-names in many cases actually came through French and other Romance languages, I believe. -- Doug Wilson 附：部分以 -an ， -ese 结尾的单字： Genevese
Genovese
Kanarese
Maltese
Portuguese
Tyrolese
Afghan 阿富汗
African
Albanian 阿尔巴尼亚
Amazonian
Arabian
Bermudan
Chilean
Colombian
Cuban
Egyptian
Ethiopian
Ghanaian 加纳
Haitian 海蒂
Indian
Indonesian
Iranian
Jamaican
Kenyan
Korean
Libyan
Malaysian
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