"Chinglish" thriving at Games, linguists say

By Paul Majendie

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinglish is alive and well at the Beijing Olympics and its survival is no "cryshame," say linguists who have monitored its quirky progress.

With the eyes of the world on Beijing, Chinese authorities have tried to eradicate from menus and road signs many offbeat and nonsensical translations they fear could offend foreigners.

Gone are exploding shrimp and signposts to the Garden with Curled Poo.

But the Texas-based Global Language Monitor (GLM), which analyses word usage trends, said Beijing was fighting a losing battle and should celebrate "this delightful mixture of Chinese and English."

"Chinglish will persist and even thrive far after the Games have ended," the Austin institute forecast.

English is now widely accepted as the main global language and up to 250 million Chinese currently study English, whose vocabulary is now approaching one million words.

As two vibrant tongues collide, the verbal gymnastics of Chinglish should be celebrated, GLM argued.

It hailed "the astonishing complexity and richness of the Mandarin language" and forecast a rosy future for Chinglish because "Chinese people evidently enjoy wearing Chinglish on their clothing."