Berlin: De Gruyter. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol 86, Issue 1 (1990), pp. 41-
55. — ISSN (Online) 1613-3668This article arises from a personal interest in the language and the culture of China, which is meant to be a future world power according to economic experts. Both the development of the nation as a crucial source of labour force and its inhabitants as potential consumers and the fact that this vast territory is gradually opening its frontiers and fostering commercial relations with western countries favour interaction at all levels, including language. This contact will allegedly involve exportation of some aspects of Chinese culture along with its language. Subsequently, the number of loanwords from Chinese into western languages has probably experienced an important increase in the last decades. Language contacts between China and Europe, and Britain in particular, have existed for centuries.
