在 The Linguist List (http://linguist.emich.edu) 中有个特别的服务是 Ask a Linguist (http://linguist.emich.edu/~ask-ling/) 。那里有一群专业的语言学家解答与语言相关的疑惑。这个 -ese 的问题就有人问过，回答说并非如此：
* 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 结尾的单字：
Genevese Genovese Kanarese Maltese Portuguese Tyrolese Afghan 阿富汗 African Albanian 阿尔巴尼亚 Amazonian Arabian Bermudan Chilean Colombian Cuban Egyptian Ethiopian Ghanaian 加纳 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.
缅甸 Bruma Brumese Asia
中国 China Chinese Asia
日本 Japan Japanese Asia
尼泊尔 Nepal Nepalese Asia
东帝汶 Timor Timorese Asia
越南 Vietnam Vietnamese Asia
刚果 Congo Congolese Africa
加纳 Java Javanese Africa
塞内加尔 Senegal Senegalese Africa
苏丹 Sudan Sudanese Africa
多哥 Togo Togolese Africa
圭亚那 Guyana Guyanese South America
马尔他 Malta Maltese Europe
葡萄牙 Porotugal Protuguese Europe
圣玛利诺 San Marino San Marinese Europe
