东亚文字的发展

东亚文字的发展

大家都知道汉字是古代中国人发明的。很多人津津乐道，汉字是历史悠久的文字。很少人说，汉字是先进的文字。因为字母文字才是先进的文字，汉字不是。
日本，韩国，朝鲜，越南都曾经使用汉字，现在他们都使用字母。韩国和朝鲜彻底抛弃汉字，日本还保留了一部分汉字。原因是日本没有被殖民过。
韩国和朝鲜曾经是日本殖民地，越南是法国殖民地，文字被强制改变。日文没有被强制改变，而是自然改变。不过现在日文已超越中文，变成了先进的文字，也就是字母文字。

中文至今还没有发展成字母文字，原因很多。其中一个原因是中国是一个多民族国家，有的民族使用不同的文字。由于政权更迭，中国曾经使用过拼音文字，例如蒙古文和满文。辛亥革命推翻了帝制，中国政治上进了一大步。但是中国文字上退了一大步，从字母文字退回到汉字白话文。
汉字白话文相当于日文万叶假名阶段。万叶假名就是日文的汉字白话文。日文后来创造了日文字母，也就是假名，日文进入了字母文字阶段。新中国成立后，制定了汉语拼音，这相当于日文的假名。现在中文像日文一样可以夹拉丁字母，但是夹汉语拼音还没有普及。等到中文夹汉语拼音，就和日文一样了。

全世界的文字最后都会发展到字母文字，无一例外。日文将来也会像朝鲜文和越南文一样抛弃汉字。日文发展的过程值得我们借鉴。日文发展的过程就是中文发展的榜样。

Father of Pinyin

Father of Pinyin

Chinese linguist Mr. Zhou Youguang, known as the father of Pinyin, passed away on January 14, 2017 at the age of 111. Zhou's contribution was to design a Chinese writing system scheme using Roman alphabet sixty years ago, which is referred to as Pinyin. Domestic and foreign news media reported the news. Linguisticly, some information from the reports is inaccurate.

“Before Pinyin was developed, 85% of Chinese people could not read, now almost all can”, BBC reported. However, Taiwan, another Chinese community, has not adopted Pinyin. People there almost could read too. Therefore, BBC attribute the low illiteracy in China to pinyin is unreasonable. Using Roman alphabet does not mean low illiterate. For instance, Romans Empire used Latin, but the vast majority of Europeans are illiterate. The vernacular movement in Renaissance improves the literacy rate. The reason is that it is easier to remember if letters or characters correlate with speech sounds. Therefore, the core cause of low illiteracy in China is the Chinese vernacular movement that took place nearly a century ago.

The New York Times reported, “adopted by China in 1958, Pinyin was designed not to replace the tens of thousands of traditional characters with which Chinese is written, but as an orthographic pry bar to afford passage into the labyrinthine world of those characters.” In fact, Pinyin was designed not to afford passage into the labyrinthine world of Chinese characters, but orthography of new Chinese writing system. In other words, the purpose of the design of Pinyin is to replace Chinese characters. Owing to conservatives strongly opposing, the temporary compromise was to acknowledge that Pinyin is not letters for writing, but Chinese phonetic alphabets. The effect is not good when using Pinyin as phonetic alphabets. It is the tool for the wrong job. Pinyin is Roman alphabets, not phonetic alphabets. Denying it is self-deception.

Kana, Japanese alphabet, were in use more than a thousand years ago, and Hangul, the Korean alphabet, were in use more than 600 years ago. Before they were officially in use, they all went through hundreds years of transition. Pinyin was in use in China almost sixty years ago and most Chinese people know Pinyin at present. The time is ripe for pinyin to be officially in use. All is ready except for the last push - We acknowledge that Pinyin is letters for writing. We can hardly do without Pinyin now.

Now the Roman alphabet is the mainstream of the writing system in the world, de facto standard. Roman letters are more efficient than Chinese characters, and the effect of twenty-six letters surpasses that of tens of thousands of Chinese characters. By adopting Pinyin, the Chinese writing system no longer need Romanization, the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman script by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization. China will have a modern writing system, and will also be a country with modern science.

现代仓颉

被称为拼音之父的语言学家周有光先生一月十四日逝世，享年112岁。周老的贡献是主持制定了“汉语拼音文字方案”，简称拼音。国内外新闻媒体都做了报道。从语言学角度看，有些报道是不准确的。

BBC报道，使用拼音之前，85％的中国人是文盲，现在几乎人人识字。但是，中国的另外一部分，台湾没有采用拼音，也几乎人人都识字。因此，BBC把中国文盲率降低的原因归功于使用了拼音，证据不足。并不是使用了拼音文字，文盲率就降低。例如罗马帝国时期，欧洲使用的拉丁文就是拼音文字，但是绝大多数欧洲人是文盲。文艺复兴时期的白话文运动提高了欧洲人的识字率。原因是如果书写系统里的字母或者符号和说话的声音有了关联，有助于记忆。所以中国文盲率降低的重要原因是一百年前的白话文运动。

纽约时报报道，1958年启用的汉语拼音，设计的目的不是为了取代成千上万的传统汉字，而是要让拼音成为帮助学习繁琐的汉字的一种工具。实际上，制定拼音不是要让拼音成为帮助学习繁琐的汉字的一种工具，而是制定中文书写系统的新标准。换句话说，制定拼音的目的就是为了取代汉字。只是因为思想保守的人强烈反对，最后妥协不承认汉语拼音是拼音文字，而是汉字的音标。拿拼音当音标使用，效果并不好。拼音不是音标，而是拼音文字。不承认是自欺欺人。

日本一千多年前就开始使用假名，朝鲜韩国六百多年前已经开始使用谚文。它们都经过上百年的过渡，才正式使用。中国使用拼音已经将近六十年，目前大多数中国人都懂拼音。正式使用拼音的条件已经成熟，差的就是临门一脚了-承认拼音是拼音文字。现在我们已经离不开拼音了。

现在拉丁字母是世界的主流，事实上的标准。拉丁字母比汉字效率高。二十六个字母的作用超过了成千上万的汉字。使用拼音后，中文不再需要罗马化。罗马化是国际标准化组织把不同的书写系统转换成拉丁字母。中国将有一个现代化的书写系统，中国也将成为一个有现代科学的国家。

Chinese and Mandarin

Chinese and Mandarin

The word “Chinese” means belonging to or relating to China, its people, or its language. The word "Mandarin" originally denoted the officials of the Qing Empire, or their language. The Qing Empire, or the Manchu dynasty, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912. Manchu is an ethnic minority in China.

Mandarin is a spoken language developed from a mixture of Han and Manchu languages hundreds years ago. The Han is the largest ethnic group in China that constitutes more than ninety percent of the population of China. In linguistics, Mandarin is a Creole language that is a hybrid language formed from the contact of two spoken languages. In china, Mandarin is named as Putonghua that is the language most Chinese speak.

Mandarin was written in both Manchu scripts and Chinese characters one hundred years ago, and now it is in Chinese characters only. Manchu scripts have been abandoned.

Mandarin was digraphia that use of two scripts for the same spoken language. There are many examples of digraphia in the world. Turkish, for example, that replaced a Perso-Arabic writing system with a Latin-based system in 1928. Another example is Hindustani, or Hindi-Urdu, which uses two different writing systems, Devanagari and Perso-Arabic. And there are other examples, such as Serbian, Punjabi, Konkani, etc.

Strictly speaking, all non-Latin writing systems are digraphia. The reason is that romanization by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is the conversion of writing from different writing systems to the Latin scripts. Pinyin, Chinese alphabet, is the official romanization system for written Chinese.

In conclusion, do not confuse Chinese and Mandarin. If you refer Chinese as the spoken language, there are many spoken languages Chinese people speak, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka, and etc. If you refer Chinese as the written language, it means Baihuawen, an official written language of Chinese.

中文和普通话

英文单词Chinese的意思是关于中国的，如中国人，中国的语言和文字。英文单词Mandarin原来的意思是指大清帝国的官员，或者他们使用的语言和文字。大清帝国这个满族人的王朝是中国最后一个王朝， 从1644年到1912年统治中国。满族是中国的少数民族。

Mandarin是几百年前由汉语和满语混合而发展形成的一种口语。汉族是中国最大的民族，人口占中国人口的百分之九十以上。在语言学中，Mandarin是两种口语混合而成的口语，也叫克里奥尔语。在中国Mandarin叫普通话，是大多数中国人说的口语。

一百年多前Mandarin用满文和汉字两种文字书写。现在满文已经被放弃，只使用汉字。

Mandarin曾经是一语双文，也就是一种口语使用两种不同的文字。世界上一语双文的例子不少。例如土耳其语，1928年用拉丁字母代替了阿拉伯字母。另外一个例子是Hindustani一种通用于印度和巴基斯坦的语言，它同时使用两种不同的书写系统，梵文字母和阿拉伯字母。还有其他例子，如塞尔维亚语，旁遮普语，康卡尼语等。

严格地说，所有的非拉丁字母的书写系统都可以一语双文。原因是ISO（国际标准化组织）的罗马化，把不同字母的书写系统都能换成拉丁字母的书写系统。拼音，中文使用的字母，是中文罗马化的国际标准。

总之，不要把普通话和白话文混为一谈。如果你把Chinese理解为口语，那么中国有许多种口语，如普通话，广东话，上海话，客家话等。如果你把Chinese定义为文字，那就是白话文，中国的通用文字。

Classification of Chinese Languages

Classification of Chinese Languages

Is Chinese a language or a group of languages? Before we answer the question, let's define the word “language” at first. There are four languages commonly used by humans: signed, spoken, written, and Braille.

We take English as an example. If you define “English” as the written English, then there is only one English. If you define “English” as the spoken English, there may be many English languages. For example, British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, South Africa English, India English, Hawaii English, Texas English, etc., and as many as you can name.

Similarly, if you define Chinese as a written language, there is only one form -- Baihuawen. If you define Chinese as spoken, the answer varies. For example, there are two -- southern and northern, or six, seven, eight dialects, or as many as you want. The truth is that we cannot classify spoken languages by each spoken language itself, because everybody speaks differently, strictly speaking. Usually we classify spoken languages by the group of people, like countries, areas, tribes etc., as we need. Therefore, the classification of spoken languages belongs to sociology, instead of linguistics.

Welcome to New Concept Linguistics.

Chinese Languages 的分类

Chinese 是一种language还是一组language？在我们回答问题之前，让我们先定义language。人类通常使用四种language：手语，口语，书面语，和盲文。

我们以English为例。如果你定义English 为英文，那么只有一种英文。如果你定义English 为英语，可能有许多英语。例如，英国英语，美国英语，加拿大英语，澳大利亚英语，南非英语，印度英语，夏威夷英语，德克萨斯英语等，以及更多的你能说出来的各种英语。

同样的道理，如果你定义Chinese为中文，那么现在中文只有一种，就是白话文。如果你定义Chinese为汉语，那么答案有多种。例如两种话 -- 南方话和北方话。或者六种，七种，八种方言。或者你想说有多少种就多少种。因为严格地说，我们每个人说的话都不同，现实的情况是，我们并不根据口语本身对口语进行分类。通常，我们是按照我们的需要，根据人群，如国家，地区，部落等，对口语进行分类。因此，口语的分类属于社会学，而不是语言学。


请参考新概念语言学。

Language And Dialect 语言和方言

Language And Dialect

Language is a tool of people for communication. In contrast to language, dialect is non-mainstream language. Generally, a dialect is a language spoken in a small area.

Dialect is associated with inconvenient and closed communication environment. With social development and traffic becoming convenience, dialect is bound to disappear because the dialect speakers are getting old and at last die, and their descendants are becoming to speak common language, which is a slow process, step-by-step process.

Therefore, the disappearance of dialects is irreversible unless communication is restricted again.

语言和方言

语言是人类交流的工具。相对于语言，方言是非主流语言，通常，说方言的地区是小地方。

方言总是和交通不方便和封闭的环境有关系。随着社会的发展和交通变得方便，方言必然消失，因为说方言的人会变老，最后死亡，他们的后代开始说通用的语言，不过这个过程是缓慢的，渐进的。

因此，方言的消失是不可逆转的，除非交流再次受到限制。

Chinese morphology (1)

Chinese morphology (1)

What is a Chinese word? -- One Chinese character or two Chinese (multiple) characters?

You may have been very well familiar with Chinese language. However, I'm afraid that you probably don't know what a Chinese word is even you are a reputable linguist. Everyone knows what a word is in English. It is formed by a letter or multiple letters separated by spaces or punctuation marks in a sentence. Therefore, even though you don't speak English, you can easily recognize an English word as a single composition of letter(s) in between spaces. A word, also known as the smallest unit, is the basic part in a sentence. Other than punctuation marks, a sentence is built by one or multiple words.

In China, everyone knows that a Chinese sentence is formed by one or Chinese characters. To put it in another way, characters are the smallest units for a Chinese sentence. Hence, a Chinese character functions exactly as a word in a Chinese sentence. From the above logic then, I have concluded that two or multiple characters should not have been regarded as a "word". Instead, "phrase" is perhaps a much more appropriate identity in this case. Nevertheless, over the years, linguists along with Sinologists have been labeling "two Chinese characters" as a "word".

If you are one of them and insist this is a fact, I assume you're also saying that a Chinese character is not a word. Then, what on earth is a Chinese character? From a linguistic perspective, a word is the smallest unit in a sentence. According to this, both a character and a letter in a sentence shall be called a "word". For instance, when letter "I" and "a" appears in an English sentence, they are "words" instead of "letters". The same argument should be applied to a Chinese sentence, where a character functions as a "word" as opposed to a "character".  Therefore, I confidently believe that the habitual identification of two Chinese characters as a "word" doesn't make sense, that it is a mistake in fact.

Such erroneous view may have been caused by the numerous existence of meaningful phrases that are shaped by "double characters" in Chinese, as "have to" in English. Whereas "have to" means the same as "must", it is evidently a "two-word" phrase, instead of a single word. Further, linguistically speaking, morphology is the study of the forms of words, not the meanings of words. In the case of English, we can tell the form of a word by the spaces which separate either one or multiple letters. For Chinese, a character is structured by one or multiple strokes in a square shape.

Thus, if you accept that a Chinese character forms a word, then two characters should be regarded as a phrase. Otherwise, if you still believe two characters make a Chinese word, then you must deny that a Chinese character can be a word. If you regard both one and two Chinese characters as a word, it is a self-contradiction. In addition, because of word's property being a unit in writing, computer is capable of word-count while it is lame in terms of counting phrases. As a matter of fact, because two or multiple characters do not present themselves as a single unit, computers to this day can only count the number of Chinese characters only.

Finally, I'm firmly convinced that a character in a Chinese sentence is a unit, or a word. Therefore, two or multiple characters form a phrase. Space is not used for Chinese scripts in the same way as for English, so Chinese "compound word" simply doesn't exist.  

Chinese translation

Chinese morphology (1)

什么是中文word？一个汉字，还是两个（多个）汉字？

可能你已经非常熟悉中文。 但是你不一定知道什么是中文的word，哪怕你是一个著名的语言学家。每个人都知道什么是英文的word。 它是句子里，由空格或者标点符号隔开的，一个字母或多个字母组成。因此即使你不懂英语，你也能很容易看出，空格之间，由字母组成的一个单位。word是句子的基本单位，也叫最小单位。 除了标点符号之外，一个句子由一个或多个word组成。

在中国，大家都知道中文的句子由一个或者多个汉字组成。 也就是说，汉字就是中文句子的最小单位。因此，汉字就是中文句子中的word。根据以上逻辑推理，我得出结论，两个或多个汉字不能被当作一个word。这种情况叫phrase应该更准确。然而多年来，语言学家和汉学家都把“两个汉字”叫做一个word。

如果你和他们一样，坚持（两个汉字是一个word）这个观点，我认为你只能不承认一个汉字是一个word。 那么，一个汉字究竟是什么？从语言学的角度来看，句子里最小的单位是word。 根据这一点，句子里的一个汉字或者一个字母都应该叫做word。例如，当字母“I”和“a” 出现在英语句子中时，它们是word而不是“字母”。同样的道理，中文句子中的一个汉字也是word，而不是character字符。因此，我坚信，习惯性地把两个汉字叫做一个word不能自圆其说，实际上是一个错误。

这种错误的观点可能是因为中文里有很多两个汉字组成代表一个意义的phrase词引起的。就像英文里的have to。虽然have to和must意思差不多，但是，have to是一个（两个word的）phrase，不是一个word。此外，语言学里，morphology是研究word的形式，不是word的意义。 以英文为例，英文word的形式是空格之间的字母组成。中文word的形式是方形当中的笔划组成。

因此，如果你认为一个汉字是一个word，那么两个汉字就是一个phrase。反之，如果你认为两个汉字是一个word，那么你就必须否认一个汉字是一个word。 如果你把一个汉字和两个汉字都看成一个word，这是自相矛盾的。此外，由于word是文字的单位，计算机能够统计word的数量，（phrase不是一个单位）计算机不能统计phrase的数量。

最后，我坚信，中文句子里的一个汉字是一个单位，也就是一个word。 因此，两个或多个汉字就是一个phrase。 中文没有英文里的空格，所以中文没有复合word。

The fundamental gap between written Chinese and English

The fundamental gap between written Chinese and English

The fundamental gap between written Chinese and English is the number of words, basic units of written language. Chinese has about ten thousand words in a dictionary while the number of English is more than four hundred thousands. If you count a noun with plural and singular forms as two words, and a verb conjugation, together with prefixes and suffixes, the number of English word may be over a billion.  

The word in written language is similar to the pixel in digital imaging. The more pixels in an image, the closer the result can resemble the original. The more words in a language, the clearer the thought can be illustrated. The number of words is a significant criterion. It is clear evident when you compare the science books written in these two different languages. 

The basic units in written language are pictograms and words. Pictograms in writing enable humans to write and record history. Growing number of words emancipate thinking and enable humans to access and develop science.  

中英文之间真正的差距

中英文之间真正的差距是word数量的差距，或者说是基本单位数量的差距。中文字典里有大约一万个word，英文字典里有四十多万个。如果算上名词的单数和复数，动词各种不同的时态变化word的前缀和后缀，英文word总数可能超过一百万。

书面语言里的word有点像数码相机的像素。数码照片的像素越多，照片越清晰。书面语言的word越多，意思表达越清楚。word的数量至关重要。如果你比较中英文的科举书籍，这种差距非常明显。

书面语言的基本单位是象形文字和word，象形文字使人类有了书写记录历史。不断增加的word解放了人类的思想，使人类发现和发展了科学。

Why Did Lu Xun Say

Why Did Lu Xun Say If The Chinese Characters Are Not Eliminated, China Is Doomed?

Why did Lu Xun say if the Chinese characters are not eliminated, China is doomed? You will realize what he said after you read the following paragraph that Lu Xun wrote in "silent China".

The ethnic nature of the Chinese tends to go for a settlement in a conflict. For instance, your suggestion for installing a window to enhance brightness in the house would not be acceptable. However, if you instead call for taking down the rooftop, they would then agree to install a window as a compromise. In the same reasoning, without being pushed for drastic measures toward a reform, they simply would never choose to go for a moderate peaceful step.

Reference: Lu Xun, the preeminent writer of the twentieth century in China.

Chinese translation

为什么鲁迅说汉字不灭中国必亡？

为什么鲁迅说汉字不灭中国必亡？如果你读了下面他在《无声的中国》里的这段话，你就会明白为什么。

中国人性情是总喜欢调和、折中的。譬如你说，这屋子太暗，须在这里开一个窗，大家一定不允许的。但如果你主张拆掉屋顶，他们就会来调和，愿意开窗了。没有更激烈的主张，他们总连平和的改革也不肯行。

Lu Xun Said

Lu Xun Said

Lu Xun said if the Chinese characters are not eliminated, China is doomed. I say if pinyin is not in use, science in China is always falling behind. The reason is that the number of Chinese words is too small. No one has been able to produce any scientific theory in Chinese as a result of the small number of Chinese words, which limits our mindset.
I do not advocate abolition of the Chinese characters right now. Rather I am in favor of a multi-script system, in which pinyin will be permitted without restriction. The purpose of the using pinyin is to increase the number of Chinese words. 
Although characters and pinyin will coexist for a period time to come, I predict that Chinese characters will be abandoned eventually sooner or later in the future.


Reference: Lu Xun, the preeminent writer of the twentieth century in China.

Chinese translation
鲁迅先生说

鲁迅先生说，汉字不灭，中国必亡。我说，不使用汉语拼音，中国科学一定落后。原因是中文 word 数量太少了。数量少到已经严重限制我们的思维，以至于至今还没有人能使用汉字创造出科学理论。
我反对现在停止使用汉字，而是主张立即放开使用汉语拼音，也就是中文里同时使用汉字和拼音。使用拼音的目的就是为了增加中文的 word。
虽然汉字和拼音会同时存在一段时间，但是我认为汉字将来迟早会被淘汰的。

A Word or Two Words

A Word or Two Words

Q: Are two Chinese characters a word or two words?
A: If a Chinese character is a word, then two characters are two words, unless you do not acknowledge a character is a word. Actually it is. 
Therefore, it is self-contradictory if you say two Chinese characters are a word.
 
*Character is a short for Chinese character


Chinese Translation

两个汉字

问题：两个汉字是一个word，还是两个word？
回答：如果一个汉字是一个word，那么两个汉字就是两个words，除非你不承认一个汉字是一个word。实际上一个汉字确实是一个word。
因此，如果你说“两个汉字是一个word”，就是自相矛盾。

How Many Words Are There In Modern Written Chinese?

How Many Words Are There In Modern Written Chinese?

 Now that we know a Chinese word is a Chinese character, so the question is easy and simple. Just count the number of Chinese characters in a dictionary. That is it.

According to Xinhua Dictionary, the most authoritative standard modern Chinese dictionary, there are about ten thousand Chinese characters in it. Then there are about ten thousand Chinese words in modern written Chinese.

Chinese translation：

现代中文有多少个word字？

现在我们已经知道中文的word就是汉字，所以这个问题就简单了。只要数一数字典里有多少个汉字，就这么简单。

根据最权威的现代中文字典，新华字典收录了大约一万个汉字，那么现代中文使用大约一万个word。

The Structure Of Sentences And Words

The Structure Of Sentences And Words

A sentence is composed of either a single or multiple words, which begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (period), a question mark, or an exclamation mark.

A word is composed of either a single or multiple letters, which shown with a space on either side, unless followed by a punctuation mark.

A Chinese word is composed of either a single or multiple strokes or radicals, which shown within a rectangle space.

Of course, all of these apply only to written language.

句子和字（单词）的结构

句子由一个字（单词）或者多个字（单词）组成，英文句子开头的第一个字母要大写，句子末尾是一个句号，问号，或者感叹号。

英文字（单词）由一个字母，或者多个字母组成，字（单词）的前后两边都有一个空格，除非后面紧跟一个标点符号。

中文的字，也就是汉字是由一个笔画（多个笔画），或者一个偏旁部首（多个偏旁部首）组成一个方格形状。

当然，这里讨论的都是书面语言，也就是文字。

The Structure Of Written Language

The Structure Of Written Language

The basic units, or the smallest units of written language are words. Words compose a sentence. Sentences compose a paragraph. Paragraphs compose an article. That is the structure of written language.

There are no letters and morphemes in written language because they are not stand-alone in a sentence. If they stand alone they are a word.

In the same way, the basic units, or the smallest units of written Chinese are Chinese characters. So Chinese characters are Chinese words. Chinese characters, Chinese words, compose a sentence.  The following are the same as English.

There are no strokes and radicals in written Chinese because they are not stand-alone in a sentence. If they stand alone they are a Chinese characters.

Linguistic terms:

一个字 a word

一个词 a phrase

一个句子 a sentence

一个段落 a paragraph

一篇文章 an article

一个偏旁部首 a radical, which is equivalent to a English morpheme

一个笔画 a stroke, which is equivalent to an English letter

中文和英文的结构 

英文的基本单位，也叫最小单位是word。word组成句子。句子组成段落。段落组成文章。这就是文字的结构。

英文文章里没有letters （字母） 和 morphemes （语素），因为它们不是句子中的独立单位。如果它们是独立的单位，它们就是一个word。 

同样，中文的基本单位，也叫最小单位是“字”，所以汉“字”就是中文的word。汉字组成中文句子，结构的其余部分和英文一样。

中文文章里没有笔画和偏旁部首，因为它们不是句子中的独立单位。如果它们是独立的单位，它们就是一个汉“字”。

The Secret about Chinese Language You Might Not Know

The Secret about Chinese Language You Might Not Know

-- My comment on "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard? " 

By: Wang Yujiang

I recently read an essay on “Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard” by David Moser of the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies. As a native Chinese speaker, I would like to clarify and correct some information about the Chinese language noted in this essay. I will also share with you some secrets about the Chinese language you might not know.

Firstly, is Chinese hard to learn? It depends on what you want to learn. If you learn spoken Chinese only, it is as easy or as hard as every other language including English. Written Chinese is certainly hard. As we all know that there are thousands of Chinese characters instead of 26 alphabet letters as in English.

The Chinese characters are so numerous that most native speakers do not know how to write most of them unless they check a dictionary. In China, everybody has had an experience of writing or saying the wrong characters.

Secondly, David Moser wrote, “the writing system just ain't very phonetic.” He may say that the classical written Chinese is not phonetic; however, the contemporary written Chinese (Baihuawen) is phonetic. A Chinese character now stands for a sound, or a syllable. The Baihuawen in Chinese means the writing is like speaking.

Thirdly, David Moser wrote, “tonal languages are weird.” David Moser and many linguists regard Chinese as a tonal language. Actually, it is not. They do not distinguish the name of characters and the sounds they represent. English letters have both names and the sounds they represent. Chinese characters also have names and sounds they present.

Since we produce around four hundred sounds for thousands of Chinese characters, we have to use different tones to distinguish them when we talk about a single character. That is a tonal character not a tonal language. When we speak, we do not follow the tones marked in the dictionary that linguists call change of tone. Chinese intonation is the same as people speaking English.

Fourthly, David Moser wrote, “there's classical Chinese.” Now nobody uses classical Chinese because it is a clipped way of writing, which is similar to writing a telegram message. Sending a telegram was generally charged by the word. To save money, people typically wrote their telegrams in a very compressed style. Ancient Chinese people used knife-pen or brush-pen to write characters on bamboo slips, which are very slow. To save time, they had to pack as much information into the smallest possible number of characters. This is classical Chinese.

Classical Chinese is a style of writing without spaces and other marks between words and sentences. When reading classical Chinese, readers must put in the punctuation themselves to extract meaning from the writing. About a century ago fountain pens and pencils were introduced into China. Consequently the New Culture movement developed contemporary Chinese writing that replacing classical Chinese.

Now Chinese writers punctuate articles so the readers only have to space (multi-syllable) words by themselves. However, spacing words is still hard work for readers, because it is mostly trial and error. I guess it is especially hard work for a foreigner. If the writer spaces the words, Chinese is as easy as English.

Fifthly, David Moser wrote, “there are too many Romanization methods and they all suck.” There is only one scheme for the Chinese phonetic alphabet (pinyin) passed by the Chinese Congress and it works. Unfortunately it sucks because some conservative intellectuals resist it.

Conservatives believe that alphabets are not suitable for Chinese. If they know arbitrariness theory in linguistics, they will realize that any symbol is good for any language. In fact, the Chinese alphabet is a Roman alphabet that has been used by many languages in the world for long time.

Sixthly, I agree with what David Moser wrote, “the (Chinese) writing system is ridiculous.” However, my support is a little bit different. The progress of a language is based on the growth of the smallest units in writing, which is a simple metric to quantify languages. The Chinese characters are the smallest units of the Chinese writing. No matter how many Chinese characters there are, the quantity of them is limited, because the growth of characters in writing is unsustainable. Even though we treat Chinese characters as phonetic letters, we do not group them into a multi-syllable smallest unit, because they were the smallest units.

Since a Chinese character is the smallest unit, now ten thousand Chinese characters build up only then thousand smallest units. That is it, no more. Meanwhile twenty-six English characters (letters) build up hundreds thousands the smallest units (words), and they are still continually increasing. Needless to say, letters are more efficient than Chinese characters. Using thousands of Chinese characters instead of dozens letters is the reason why the Chinese writing system is ridiculous.

Lastly, if you ask me why written Chinese is so hard. As far as I am concerned, there are two causes. You have to space (multi-syllable) words by yourselves when you read contemporary Chinese writing, and there are numerous Chinese characters.

References:

New Concept Linguistics

《Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard》 by David Moser from University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/1991Moser.pdf

Logogram and Phonogram

Logogram and Phonogram

By: Wang Yujiang

There are two kinds of characters or symbols in writing systems. They are logogram and phonogram.

A phonogram is a character or symbol or combination of them that represent a single vocal sound, namely a phoneme or a syllable, without reference to meaning. For example, alphabetic letters and Japanese Kana are phonograms.

A logogram is a character or symbol that represents a concept, namely a word or phrase, for example, numerical digits, punctuation marks, and other individual symbols. Most logograms do not stand for a single vocal sound.

Is a Chinese character a logogram or phonogram? It depends. Please read my blog “Is a Chinese character a logogram or phonogram?”

Hypernym and Hyponym

Hypernym and Hyponym

Hypernym and hyponym are linguistics terms, and many people name them superordinate and subordinate. Superordinate is greater in degree, rank or position than subordinate. But hypernym is not great than hyponym and they are not in hierarchy. Hypernym is common property (future) of hyponyms.

In general, there are a number of hyponyms for each hypernym, but at least there are two. For example, tulip and rose are hyponym of flower, and simultaneously flower is a hypernym of tulip and rose. Tulip and rose are co-hyponyms. Co-hyponyms are not related to one another, in other words, they are incompatible.

If A is a kind of X,

If B is a kind of X,

Then A is a hyponym, B is a hyponym, X is a hypernym, A and B are co-hyponyms. 

The hypernym is often used as part of the definition of hyponyms. The meaning of each hyponym “contains” the meaning of hypernym. For example, the meaning of words tulip and rose “contains” the meaning of the word flower. Thus, hyponymy is sometimes referred to as inclusion. The hypernym is the included word and the hyponym is the including one.

Hypernym and hyponym are not biological classification, and they are not same in different languages. For example, whale in Chinese is a kind of fish, and Chinese does not have hyponym of crocodylia which refers to crocodile and alligator. Watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, pumpkin, wax gourd, cucumber, snake gourd, bitter gourd in Chinese are hyponym of word melon.

Hypernym and hyponym are culture classification. For example, English doesn’t have hyponyms which refers specifically to the uncle younger or older than speaker’s father and the uncle from speaker’s father or mother side, but Chinese dose. Ticket in Chinese includes stamp, cash, vouchers food stamp etc. Taurus, mustang, escape, explorer in English are hyponym of ford.

Hyponym is a name of individual, and hypernym is a collective name of a group, so hyponym is more precise while hypernym is much efficient as it can quickly talk about a group of things.

Word Classes

Word Classes

Word classes are also known as parts of speech. English words have been traditionally classified into eight parts of speech, and are still done so in most dictionaries. They are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, determiner, preposition, conjunction, and pronoun. In linguistics, we recap them into two classes: open class and closed class.

Closed class words are known as function words or grammatical words, which have little meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words in sentence. We almost never invent new determiners, prepositions, conjunctions or pronouns, so they are called closed word classes.

Open class words are known as content words or lexical words, which include nouns, verbs (except auxiliary verbs), adjectives, and most adverbs, to which new words can be added as the need arises. Not only are nouns naming words, all open class words are naming words. Verbs are names of action; Adjectives and adverbs are names of attribute.

Dictionaries list meanings focus many content words as possible, but describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammar describes the use of function words in detail, but treat content words in general terms only.

Is Chinese a tonal language?

Is Chinese a tonal language?

By: Wang Yujiang

Many linguists regard Chinese as a tonal language. Actually, it is not. They do not distinguish the name of characters and the sounds they represent. English letters have both names and the sounds they represent. Chinese characters also have names and sounds they present.

Since we produce around four hundred sounds for thousands of Chinese characters, we have to use different tones to distinguish them when we talk about a single character. That is a tonal character not a tonal language. When we speak, we do not follow the tones marked in the dictionary that linguists call change of tone. Chinese intonation is the same as people speaking English.

How many kinds of language are there?

How many kinds of language are there?

How many kinds of language are there? It depends on how you categorize them. Language is sending and receiving signals which carry information. If you categorize them by receiving method, then there are three. Although human have five sense organs: eyes, ears, tongue, skin, and nose, we commonly receive signals through sight and touch modes.

If you categorize language by the durability of signals, there are two. One is dynamic, like speaking and body language (sign language). The other is permanent, like writing and Braille. So there are four kinds of languages: speaking, writing, sign language, and Braille.

Sign language and Braille are mainly used for hearing and visually impaired people. For other people there are two kinds of language - speaking and writing.

What is language?

What is language?

Language is a method of human communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Language includes body language, spoken language, written language, and Braille.
Language is the tool of thinking.