More than 100 Chinese scholars have signed a letter of complaint over the inclusion of English words in the new sixth edition of Contemporary Chinese Dictionary.
The scholars believe the inclusion of 239 English words in the dictionary, including NBA and the PM2.5 measurement for air pollution, violates regulations regarding standards for the Chinese language.
The words take up 15 pages in the dictionary, which was published by the Commercial Press this year, the Beijing Evening News reported on Aug 28.
Li Minsheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at an academic symposium on Aug 27 that the dictionary plays an important role in setting the standard for the Chinese language.
Li said that if English words replace Chinese characters in the dictionary, it would damage the Chinese language.
However, Jiang Lansheng, who revised the sixth edition of the dictionary, said that including English words that are commonly used by Chinese is not misusing the English language, but is convenient for readers.
The regulation prohibits dictionaries from using alphabetic vocabularies but allows English in the appendix, Jiang added.
English words were first included in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary in 1996 when 39 were listed as an appendix.
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