在 The Linguist List (http://linguist.emich.edu) 中有個特別的服務是 Ask a Linguist (http://linguist.emich.edu/~ask-ling/) 。那裏有一群專業的語言學家解答與語言相關的疑惑。這個 -ese 的問題就有人問過，回答說並非如此：
* 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:
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.
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 結尾的單字：
Genevese Genovese Kanarese Maltese Portuguese Tyrolese Afghan 阿富汗 African Albanian 阿爾巴尼亞 Amazonian Arabian Bermudan Chilean Colombian Cuban Egyptian Ethiopian Ghanaian 加納 Haitian 海蒂 Indian Indonesian Iranian Jamaican Kenyan Korean Libyan Malaysian
I see no point to discuss this issue at all. Some intellectuals in China is calling to change "dragon" to "Long" because dragon is portrayed as an evil figure in the western culture. We're way too much sensitive and really need a sense of humor. The British called the Americans 'Yankees' hundreds years ago and the Americans were not upset at all. They made a song out of it and beat the Brits with pitchforks and chased them out while singing the song.
緬甸 Bruma Brumese Asia
中國 China Chinese Asia
日本 Japan Japanese Asia
尼泊爾 Nepal Nepalese Asia
東帝汶 Timor Timorese Asia
越南 Vietnam Vietnamese Asia
剛果 Congo Congolese Africa
加納 Java Javanese Africa
塞內加爾 Senegal Senegalese Africa
蘇丹 Sudan Sudanese Africa
多哥 Togo Togolese Africa
圭亞那 Guyana Guyanese South America
馬爾他 Malta Maltese Europe
葡萄牙 Porotugal Protuguese Europe
聖瑪利諾 San Marino San Marinese Europe
在 The Linguist List (http://linguist.emich.edu) 中有個特別的服務是 Ask a Linguist (http://linguist.emich.edu/~ask-ling/) 。那裏有一群專業的語言學家解答與語言相關的疑惑。這個 -ese 的問題就有人問過，回答說並非如此：
* 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:
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.
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 結尾的單字：
Genevese Genovese Kanarese Maltese Portuguese Tyrolese Afghan 阿富汗 African Albanian 阿爾巴尼亞 Amazonian Arabian Bermudan Chilean Colombian Cuban Egyptian Ethiopian Ghanaian 加納 Haitian 海蒂 Indian Indonesian Iranian Jamaican Kenyan Korean Libyan Malaysian
