The ultimate aim of the reform being carried in the Chinese writing system is to gradually replace the ideograms with a phonetic writing system. Before this can be done, the characters should first of all be simplified and the number of strokes of the characters reduced so as to relieve much of the burden of both users and learners of Chinese. The simplification of Chinese characters is two fold: reduction of the number of the characters (mainly through the elimination of the complex variants) and reduction of the number of the strokes of which a complex character is composed (by the popularization of the simplified characters). Since the 1950s and especially with the publication of the1964 list, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) has officially adopted this simplified form of Chinese Characters.
This simplification conforms entirely to the general tendency of development of the Chinese characters towards greater simplicity. The simplified forms, as compared with their complex equivalents, are much easier to learn, to memorize, to read and to write. A very few examples will help to show the advantages of the simplified over the complex forms: men 们 (們), ma 马 (馬), huan 欢 (歡), jin 进 (進).
Showing posts with label Chinese character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese character. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Learning Chinese Character (Hanzi / Kanji)
Learning Chinese for non Chinese speaking is admitly considered as a bit more difficult compared to learning other languages. The biggest burden is for memorizing thousands of Chinese characters. Surprisingly, actually it's not really a burden for a young child to study Chinese Language (including its characters) eventhough it's not their first language.
Actually if we study more deeply about Chinese, we can see lots of interesting background about it. Here are some of them:
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Chinese Language is one of the world’s oldest written languages, also the oldest ‘surviving’ writing systems. Unlike the other languages, Chinese language is formed of characters. Chinese character is known as Hanzi (in Mandarin Language) or Kanji (in Japanese language). Generally speaking, each character stands for a meaningful syllable. In order to understand reading and writing in Chinese for everyday use, one should understand about 3000 Chinese characters. Actually total number of Hanzi is more than 50,000 characters of which only 5,000 – 8,000 are still in common use now.
Chinese characters in use today developed from the pictographs cut on Oracle Bones dating from over 3,200 years ago and the pictographs found on ancient bronze vessels dating a little later. Only about 1,400 of the 2,500 known Oracle Bone pictographs can be identified with later Chinese characters and therefore easily read. These 1,400 pictographs include most of the commonly used ones. In the course of their history of development, Chinese characters evolved from pictographs into characters formed of strokes, with their structures very much simpler. Most of the present-day Chinese characters are known as picto-phonetic characters, each formed of two elements, with one indicating the meaning and the other the sound.
Chinese characters have made great contributions to the long history of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture, and Chinese calligraphy is a highly developed art. But Chinese characters have serious drawbacks. It is very difficult to learn, to read and to write and still more difficult to memorize. Reforms should be carried to make the characters easier.
(from many sources)
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Actually if we study more deeply about Chinese, we can see lots of interesting background about it. Here are some of them:
------
Chinese Language is one of the world’s oldest written languages, also the oldest ‘surviving’ writing systems. Unlike the other languages, Chinese language is formed of characters. Chinese character is known as Hanzi (in Mandarin Language) or Kanji (in Japanese language). Generally speaking, each character stands for a meaningful syllable. In order to understand reading and writing in Chinese for everyday use, one should understand about 3000 Chinese characters. Actually total number of Hanzi is more than 50,000 characters of which only 5,000 – 8,000 are still in common use now.
Chinese characters in use today developed from the pictographs cut on Oracle Bones dating from over 3,200 years ago and the pictographs found on ancient bronze vessels dating a little later. Only about 1,400 of the 2,500 known Oracle Bone pictographs can be identified with later Chinese characters and therefore easily read. These 1,400 pictographs include most of the commonly used ones. In the course of their history of development, Chinese characters evolved from pictographs into characters formed of strokes, with their structures very much simpler. Most of the present-day Chinese characters are known as picto-phonetic characters, each formed of two elements, with one indicating the meaning and the other the sound.
Chinese characters have made great contributions to the long history of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture, and Chinese calligraphy is a highly developed art. But Chinese characters have serious drawbacks. It is very difficult to learn, to read and to write and still more difficult to memorize. Reforms should be carried to make the characters easier.
(from many sources)
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