Chinese to English & English – Chinese Translation

Business Language Services Ltd. (BLS) specialises in Chinese translation (both English to Chinese Translation and Chinese to English Translation). We can handle all variations of Chinese, whether traditional or simplified, Mandarin or Cantonese. We have a broad network of highly experienced, qualified professional Chinese translators, who only translate into their mother tongue. What’s more, all our Chinese translations are proofread by a second, independent linguist. BLS has an extensive database of Chinese interpreters, selected according to their expertise, specialist knowledge, friendly attitude and professional reliability. BLS also works with some of the best Chinese language tutors, enabling us to offer you tailor-made courses to match your precise needs and suit your ongoing work commitments.

Chinese Language

Chinese is a broad term referring to a large language family spoken as a mother tongue in one variation or another by approximately one fifth of the world’s population, or around 1 billion people. Chinese is highly diverse and the internal variations are significant, with some classifying them as dialects, but many linguists arguing their status as languages in their own right, particularly as most regional varieties are mutually unintelligible, despite sharing certain vocabulary or other features. All the varieties of spoken Chinese are tonal, meaning the same syllable can represent up to ten different words.

Standard Chinese is the official language of China and Taiwan and one of four official languages in Singapore. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Mandarin is by far the most spoken of the varieties, followed by Wu, Yue (including Cantonese) and Min. Mandarin is dominant in the north and south-west of China, while other varieties are more common in central and south-eastern China. Cantonese is an official language of Hong Kong (along with English) and Macau (along with Portuguese).

Though there are more than 20,000 Chinese characters, fewer than 10,000 are in common use. Chinese words are made up of two or more different characters, and there are therefore many more words than there are characters. Languages such as Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese have been heavily influenced by Chinese and thus contain a large number of Chinese loanwords. The English language also contains some Chinese loanwords, for example ‘tea’ and ‘kumquat’. Chinese has also absorbed a considerable number of words from other languages, e.g. 香槟 (champagne) from French and 高尔夫 (golf) from English.

A ‘sinophone’ is one who speaks Chinese natively or by preference. It derives from the Latin term for ancient China, Sinae.