Taiwanglish

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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

  • Also nonstandardly with an initial minuscule t.

Etymology[edit]

Blend of Taiwan +‎ English, after Chinglish etc.

Pronunciation[edit]

Proper noun[edit]

Taiwanglish

  1. (rare) The form of broken English proverbially encountered in the user manuals and technical documentation accompanying electronic devices manufactured in Taiwan.
    • 1988, Alfred Poor, “The Cheapest ATs Ever” in PC Magazine VII, № 3, ‘786 Computer Systems: 786 Stanford Systems 286‒10’, page 160/3:
      The motherboard configuration is explained in a tiny 25-page pamphlet, written in classic “Taiwanglish.” For example, there is a rubber-stamped notice on the title page: “IBM PC, PC/XT, PC/AT are registeled trademarks of.”
    • 1995, “Hung Michael Nguyen” (username), “Re: Calvin and Hobbes” in rec.bicycles.misc, Usenet:
      Maybe he meant “Taiwanglish”, the barely comprehensible English that used to be common on manuals, instructions, etc., from Taiwanese and Japanese (Japanglish) products, although in recent years, I have noticed it to be a lot better.
    • 2006, “Jim Howes”, “Re: BIOS Flash Help”, in uk.comp.homebuilt (Usenet):
      Eventually, after much reading of badly-translated taiwanglish ‘manuals’ I discovered that the Dallas 12887…had had its CMOS reset pin snipped off.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Taiwanglish.

Translations[edit]