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Chinese writing is the oldest system of writing in the world
and has changed very little in over 4,000 years. The earliest form is
believed to have begun as pictures that were written on bones about 2,000
BC. Some of these early Chinese characters took the appearance of the
objects the were meant to represent. Chinese writing has always been very
important to the people and culture of China, and has served to bind the
people together. There are many different dialects spoken throughout China,
but the written language is the same. Without the ability to communicate
through a single written language it would be very difficult for Chinese
people from different parts of the country to communicate.
There are about 80,000 Chinese characters that make up the written
language, though you need learn only about 4,000 to be able to read
satisfactorily. Due to the fact that many of the characters are seldom used
in everyday life the average person would not even recognize many of the
characters.
The Two Main Versions of Chinese Writing
Traditional Chinese Writing - Traditional Chinese is practices
mainly in Taiwan and Hong Kong, though it is used in some other places as
well. Traditional Chinese writing differs very little from the form used
in Mainland China.
Simplified Chinese Writing - Many of the more commonly used words
have been "simplified" to improve literacy. Though simplified characters
have been used since ancient times they were only officially adopted by
the government of China in 1958. Romanization of Mandarin
Chinese
Pinyin - Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet in a phonetic manner to
translate
Mandarin Chinese into "words" that may be read more easily by people in
Western cultures that use the Latin alphabet. Pinyin is also used in
China to enter
Chinese text into computers, as it would be impossible to create a
keyboard containing thousands of characters. Learn More About
Chinese Writing
To learn more about Chinese writing and the art of calligraphy try a
search on one of the major search engines. There are many Websites, books
and other resources dedicated to these topics. You can also find many
helpful sites that provide information allowing you to practice speaking
Chinese, which may come in handy if you ever visit China. |
