Sinoxenic language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sinoxenic languages are languages other than Sinitic languages which have at one point adopted written Chinese characters, or sinographs, which have greatly affected their vocabularies. The three national Sinoxenic languages are Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese; Vietnamese no longer uses sinographs but, like Japanese and Korean, retains a large number of Chinese loanwords from when it did. Several ethnic minorities in China, such as the Zhuang and the Bai, have also adopted Chinese characters for their use.

The term does not imply any linguistic genealogical affiliation with Chinese. Of the languages listed above, only Bai is related to Chinese.