As I researched the Chinese writing system, I was surprisingly able to remember many rules of the language.
The Chinese writing system is a logographic system. Graphemes (smallest written unit of the language) represent words in logographic systems.Logographic by definition means: representing words in written form by a single symbol. In theory, it means each symbol means one idea.
Just like how we recognize these symbols
The Chinese system is like that, but with its entire language. Each Chinese character or logograph represents one single unit of meaning (morpheme) and one single segment of speech.
One of the most interesting and infuriating concepts of the Chinese writing system is HOW you actually write the characters. There is a specific way you make each stroke as well as in what order you make the strokes. Here's a website that goes through the basics of what kinds of strokes are made and what order they must be made in.
I decided I would record a video of me writing my name in Chinese.
So if you watched the video, you will have seen how exactly to write my name in Chinese. I went through what strokes in what order need to be made to complete the 2 characters that are my name.
The Chinese writing system is rather complex. Thousands of characters to represent thousands of sounds and words.
The pinyin system is the system that is used to help transcribe Chinese characters into the modern alphabet. Pinyin is also what is mainly used when teaching Mandarin and Chinese.
It is also how you would type in Chinese on the computer. I remember someone asking this question during class.
My Dad actually types in Chinese on the computer frequently and I've seen it in action.
The basics are that you type whatever word in its pinyin form and the computer program (you must be using some form of pinyin program for it to work) will change that into the character.
Here's a link to a youtube video of how that works: How To Type Chinese Characters
I do regret that I have lost some of my ability to write in Chinese. It truly is an incredible language and writing system. There is so much history behind it and has so much uniqueness to it.
When I was in Paris, I frequently did exchanges with the Chinese speaking missionaries, so I knew a few short phrases to stop someone on the street. I have long since forgotten most of those phrases, but I still remember how to say my name...I won't even try writing it here, I don't know how to write pinyin at all.
ReplyDeleteI was curious about what you were doing in the video, so I wrote a short note to myself and I tried to consciously change how I was writing (making letters backwards, stuff like that) and it was really hard! I'm impressed with the way that you wrote your name the wrong way as well as you did, to be honest, my writing looked terrible, so I guess what you said is true in English writing, just as it is in Chinese. :)
My brother in law speaks mandarin and I had no idea that you had to write the characters with certain strokes coming first. It is really something that I would never have thought of cause he taught me a few symbols and their meaning but didn't explain that there are rules to writing words. This was an awesome article thanks Shuan.
ReplyDeleteI would NEVER even attempt to learn Mandarin. I could barely follow your previous post about tones and what not. Now I have to learn thousands of characters? No thank you. :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I’m just glad that English only uses 26 letters (and 26 capitals I suppose) so I have to understand very few symbols. We don’t even have accents like Portuguese and French. Thank goodness! I guess we have the Greeks to thank for our current writing system, but I really don’t know much about that. Maybe someone will do a post on it. :D
Yea, I love the English language. It definitely seems to make more sense having a base 26 letters then creating combinations of them to form our words. But of course I've known English since I was 3 so obviously I can say that since I understand the language.
ReplyDeleteBut yea, it definitely puts a bit more perspective on writing when there is a specific way to write. We all were taught a certain way to write the alphabet letters. But as we grew up, we developed our own way of writing, while still retaining the basis of what we learned. With Chinese, you learn how to make the strokes and what order, and that's how you continue to write forever and ever.
I also had no idea how complicated the actual act of writing Chinese characters was. I mean, I knew there was an entire art form devoted to it and that the characters looked really complex, but everything I learn about their language seems to add to the complexity.
ReplyDeleteI honestly would be horrible at writing Chinese. Ever since I was little I've written my letters backwards from how we're "supposed" to. I just draw them all from bottom to top and it works fine for me. I guess I just started doing it that way early on and none of my teachers either noticed or cared to correct me, and now it's so much a part of my writing that I can't change it, so I think doing the Chinese strokes correctly would be very difficult for me. It's crazy to think that a skill like writing once didn't even exist when it can become so second nature to us that we can hardly consciously change how we do it.