Chinese

History of Chinese Characters

Chinese characters, also known as Hanzi (Chinese), Kanji (Japanese), Hanja (Korean), and Chữ Hán (Vietnamese), have a rich history. Originally used for writing Classical Chinese, they have been adapted for other languages across Asia, much like Latin in Europe. However, in most countries, they have been largely replaced, and local languages are now written in other scripts or use English.

Evolution of Chinese Characters

Chinese characters have evolved significantly over time. Below are some key stages in their development:

  1. Oracle Bone Script (甲骨文): The earliest form of Chinese writing, used during the late Shang Dynasty. Oracle Bone Script

  2. Seal Script (篆書): common script for the latter half of the 1st millenium BC. Seal Script

  3. Regular Script (楷書): The modern standard form of Chinese characters. Example: The characters used in contemporary texts.

How Chinese Characters Work

Chinese characters are logographs, where each character represents a morpheme in the language. They can be categorized as follows:

Semantographs

  • Pictograms: Characters derived from images. Examples: 日 (‘Sun’), 月 (‘moon’), and 木 (‘tree’). Evolution of the character '山'

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  • Ideograms: Characters representing abstract concepts. Examples: 上 (‘up’) and 下 (‘down’).

  • Compound Ideographs: Characters formed by combining elements to convey meaning. Examples: 明 (‘bright’), 休 (‘rest’), 好 (‘good’).

Phonetics

Many characters are phono-semantic compounds, combining a phonetic element with a semantic radical. For instance, characters like 河, 湖, 流, 沖, and 滑 all include the water radical (氵) and convey meanings related to water.

河 is decomposed into semantic part (氵) and phonetic part （可）

More Examples: 火 fire : 火 ＋ phonetic 然 = 燃 (to burn)

木 wood: 木 ＋phonetic 主 = 柱 （pillar/ column, as a support in a building)

艸 plant: 艸 + 采 ＝菜 （vegetable)

Sino-Xenic Pronunciations

The influence of Chinese characters extends to other East Asian languages. Here’s how the same character can have different pronunciations:

一 ʔjit yī yāt nhất il iti itu i one
二 nyijH èr yih nhị zi ni zi   two
三 sam sān sāam tam sam san san san three
四 sijH sì sei tứ so si si   four
五 nguX wǔ ńgh ngũ wo go go u five
六 ljuwk liù luhk lục lyuk roku riku   six
七 tshit qī chāt thất chil siti situ   seven
八 pæt bā baat bát phal fati fatu   eight
九 kjuwX jiǔ gau cửu kwu ku kiu   nine
十 dzyip shí sahp thập sip zifu sifu   ten

Mandarin Sound Changes

  • Deletion of Final Consonants: [p], [t], [k] -> ∅ / _#
  • Deletion of Initial Ng: [ng] -> ∅ / #_
  • Merge of Final m and n: [m] -> n / _#
  • Palatal n to Rhotic: [nyV] -> er (V = any rime)
  • Palatalization Before Front Vowels:
    • [k] -> [tɕ] / _[+Front]
    • [ts] -> [tɕ] / _[+Front]
    • [h] -> [ɕ] / _[+Front]
    • [s] -> [ɕ] / _[+Front]

Korean Sound Changes

  • Deletion of Initial n, ng: [n], [ng] -> ∅ / #_
  • Final t to l: [t] -> [l] / _#

Japanese Sound Changes

  • Epenthesis to Final Consonants: C -> Cu / _# (where C is a stop)
  • Denasalization of ng Word Initially: ng -> g / #_
  • Merge of Final m and n: [m] -> n / _#

Sources

I literally stole everything from wikipdeia.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Xenic_pronunciations

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters

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