Chinese+Language

=A Character Study of the Chinese Language=

The Chinese Language has stayed the same for about 4,000 years. Try to think of something else that has stayed the same for that long. It’s hard to do that and that’s one of the many things that make the Chinese language so cool. Another important part is the Chinese characters, or letters. These characters started out as pictures of what they meant, but as time went on they changed, they didn't look like the things they represented. Over those years, some changes were made to the written part of the Chinese language but the basics of it are still the same. The importance of the written Chinese Language can be traced over 4,000 years by explaining its discovery, its characters, and the influences it had on other languages.

Many different types of the written Chinese language were created, but they aren’t very different from each other. A long time ago, Chinese characters and symbols were found carved onto turtle shells and animal bones. These bones are called oracle bones, and they were the earliest findings of the Chinese symbols. Later on, Classical Chinese became the main form of writing in China. In Classical Chinese most words were had one syllable and they were written with a single character. After Classical Chinese, Clerkly Script came along which is the Chinese writing system used today. Clerkly Script “became popular in part for its flowing script that was fast and efficient to write. Also, this writing system was much easier to use with pens, brushes and paper, which is part of the reason it was adapted as the main Chinese calligraphy method.” (“History of Chinese Writing System”) The Chinese language, in written form, evolved over those 4,000 years, increasing the literacy in china and making it easier for everyone. This shows how China’s writing improved and became more advanced due to new ideas that were much better. Writing Chinese is sometimes very simple but can also be extremely difficult. Chinese characters are writtenh basic strokes such as dots, dashes, and hooks. Even though that seems simple, writing some words would mean that you would have to write over sixty strokes. Even with a character that has a large number of strokes, all characters are given the same space no matter how complicated they are to write. This makes it difficult to write and sometimes even to read, but that’s not theonly thing that does that. There are about 1,700 possible syllables in Mandarin, which compares to about 8,000 in English. Each syllable in the Chinese language is written with a separate character, and each character has its own meaning, even though many are only used in combination with others. Some dictionaries, that are very old, and aren’t used a lot anymore “include about 56,000 characters but knowledge of about 3,000 would allow anyone to read Chinese newspapers and magazines.” (Ager) It’s incredible that most people, writing the Chinese language, are only familiar with about 5% of the whole entire language, although, it does make sense to not use something if it’s not needed. This also shows how China’s language has advanced over time.

Throughout history, Chinese culture and politics have had a great influence on unrelated languages such as Korean and Japanese. Korean and Japanese both have writing systems that use Chinese characters. A while ago, Japanese had no written system, and Chinese characters were used for the most part to represent Japanese words. Also, many Chinese characters were introduced into Korean for their meaning, just as in Japanese. Vietnam has also been influenced by China, because it was the only available method for writing Vietnamese until the 14th century. The written portion of the Chinese language has gone a long way, with its influences, traveling all across Asia. I would look at this as a great accomplishment.

The Chinese language is very individual in its written form, and for being a language that has remained basically the same for 4,000 years. Chinese writing was originally pictures of things they represented, but they are no longer that way. The written Chinese language is not only unique because of how long it has been around, but because of its characters and how it has influenced many other Asian languages.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ager, Simon. “Origins of Writing in China.” __Omniglot: Writing Systems and Languages of the World__. 23 Feb. 2009 .

__Chinese Characters__. Digital image. __Www.library.thinkquest.org__. 25 Mar. 2009 .

__Chinese Symbols__. Digital image. 2008. 26 Mar. 2009 .

Hays, Jeffry. "Written Chinese." 2008. 27 Feb. 2009 .

"History of Chinese Writing System." __Char4U.com__. 2003-2009. 1 Mar. 2009 .

Norman, Jeremy. __Clerkly Script__. Digital image. __HistoryofScience.com__. 2004-2009. 26 Mar. 2009 .

"Written Chinese." __Wikipedia__. 31 Feb. 2009 .