Chinese script and language

• The Chinese writing system
• Evolution of characters
• Chinese numerals
• Simplified characters
• Phonetic transcription of Chinese (Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Bopomofo, etc)
• Spoken Chinese: Cantonese, Dungan, Gan, Hakka, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Xiang

---

Origins of writing in China

Most linguists believe that writing was invented in China during the latter half of the 2nd millenium BC and that there is no evidence to suggest the transmission of writing from elsewhere. The earliest recognizable examples of written Chinese date from 1500-950 BC (Shang dynasty) and were inscribed on ox scapulae and turtle shells - "oracle bones".

In 1899 a scholar from Beijing named Wang Yirong noticed symbols that looked like writing on some "dragon bones" which he had been prescribed by a pharmacy. At that time "dragon bones" were often used in Chinese medicine and were usually animal fossils. Many more "oracle bones" were found in the ruins of the Shang capital near Anyang in the north of Henan province.

The script on these "oracle bones" is known as 甲骨文 (jiăgŭwén) - literally "shell bone writing". They were used for divination, a process which involved heating them then inspecting the resulting cracks to determine to answers to one's questions. The bones were then inscribed with details of the questions and the answers. Most of the questions involved hunting, warfare, the weather and the selection of auspicious days for ceremonies.

Further information about the oracle bones:
http://www.chinapage.com/oracle/oracle00.html
http://www.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/uclib/bones/bones.htm

A collection of oracle bones in the National Palace Museum near Taipei.

Recently archaeologists in China have unearthed many fragments of neolithic pottery, the oldest of which date from about 4800 BC, inscribed with symbols which could be a form of writing. None of these symbols resemble any of the Shang characters and the likelihood of deciphering them is remote given the paucity of material.

[ contents ]

The Chinese writing system   

Chinese is written with characters known as 漢字 [汉字] (hànzi). Each character represents a syllable of spoken Chinese and also has a meaning. The characters were originally pictures of people, animals or other things but over the centuries they have become increasingly stylized and no longer resemble the things the represent. Many of the characters are actually compounds of two or more characters

How many characters?

The Chinese writing system is an open-ended one, meaning that there is no upper limit to the number of characters. The largest Chinese dictionaries include about 56,000 characters, but most of them are archaic, obscure or rare variant forms. Knowledge of about 3,000 characters enables you to to read about 99% of the characters in Chinese newspapers and magazines. To read Chinese literature, technical writings or Classical Chinese though, you need to be familiar with about 6,000 characters.

Usage

Characters can be used on their own, in combination with other characters or as part of other characters. 

Strokes

Chinese characters are written with the following twelve basic strokes:

A character may consist of between 1 and 64 stokes. The strokes are always written in the same direction and there is a set order to write the strokes of each character. In dictionaries, characters are ordered partly by the number of stokes they contain.

Notes

The 39-stroke character (3 x thunder) means "the sound of thunder" and is always written doubled (靐靐). The 48-stroke character (3 dragons) means "the appearance of a dragon walking".

When writing Chinese, every character is given exactly the same amount of space, no matter how many strokes it contains. There are no spaces between characters and the characters which make up multi-syllable words are not grouped together, so when reading Chinese, you not only have to work out what the characters mean and how to pronounce them, but also which characters belong together.

Homophones

There are approximately 1,700 possible syllables in Mandarin, which compares with over 8,000 in English. As a result, there are many homophones - syllables which sound the same but mean different things. These are distinguished in written Chinese by using different characters for each one.

Not all the following characters are pronounced with the same tone, so to Chinese ears they sound different. To Westerner ears however they all sound the same. These syllables can be distinguished in speech from the context and because most of them usually appear in combination with other syllables.

If you look closely, you will notice that some of the characters above have parts in common. These parts give you a clue to how to pronounce the characters.

 

Compound words

Chinese verbs and adjectives generally consist of one character (syllable) but nouns often consist of two, three or more characters (syllables):

 

Simplified characters

In an effort to increase literacy, about 2,000 of the characters used in China have been simplified. These simplified characters are also used in Singapore, but in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia the traditional characters are still used. Here are some examples (simplified characters in red):

 

Chinese characters, with some modifications, are also used in written Japanese and Korean, and were once used to write Vietnamese.

[ contents ]

---

Sample text in Chinese

 

Hànyŭ pīnyīn transliteration

Rénrén shēng ér zìyóu, zài zūnyán hé quánlì shàng yīlù píngdĕng. Tāmen fùyŏu lĭxìng hé liángxīn, bìng yīng yĭ xīongdì guānxì de jīngshén hùxiāng dùidài.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

 

Recommended books

Books about Chinese characters and calligraphy

Mandarin, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Taiwanese and Cantonese language courses, dictionaries, etc.

 

Chinese Courses in the United States and the United Kingdom 

Learn to Speak,  Listen, Read, and Write.  
Easy build conversations in foreign languages. Hear how words are pronounced, spelling, vocabulary, and start speaking quickly. 
Excellent for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Speakers. For all levels 
Study and learn a foreign language in another country or in the US.  Immerse yourself into the culture. 
Learn a Language with Books, Tapes, CD's, Movies, Videos. Immerse yourself into the culture.