Comments on: How did the Chinese language and script evolve? http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php Learn to speak Chinese today Fri, 27 May 2011 12:15:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: A New Twist on an Old Classic | Paw Print Online « DIY Projects http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php/comment-page-1#comment-1293 A New Twist on an Old Classic | Paw Print Online « DIY Projects Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:44:02 +0000 http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php#comment-1293 [...] How did the Chinese language and script evolve? [...] [...] How did the Chinese language and script evolve? [...]

]]> By: Taivo http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php/comment-page-1#comment-1290 Taivo Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:53:25 +0000 http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php#comment-1290 Well, I'm not going to write your paper for you, but here are some excellent resources: Jerry Norman. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Henry Rogers. 2005. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics 18. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright, ed. 1996. The World's Writing Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The chapter on Chinese in the Rogers book is especially good. Most of the stuff on the Internet or in popular works on the history of writing or the Chinese languages is garbage, but these three sources are very good and I use them when preparing my lectures on East Asian languages and Chinese writing. The following is the ONLY internet source that I would recommend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_writing Well, I’m not going to write your paper for you, but here are some excellent resources:

Jerry Norman. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Henry Rogers. 2005. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics 18. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Peter T. Daniels & William Bright, ed. 1996. The World’s Writing Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The chapter on Chinese in the Rogers book is especially good. Most of the stuff on the Internet or in popular works on the history of writing or the Chinese languages is garbage, but these three sources are very good and I use them when preparing my lectures on East Asian languages and Chinese writing.

The following is the ONLY internet source that I would recommend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_writing

]]> By: bryan_q http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php/comment-page-1#comment-1292 bryan_q Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:53:25 +0000 http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php#comment-1292 you could use http://www.zhongwen.com, http://www.ancientscripts.com/chinese.html, http://www.logoi.com/notes/chinese_origins.html or http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm Below is a translated page from Spanish to English, but some terms are still in Spanish, so get a Spanish to English dictionary. http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?tt=url&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.proel.org%2Fmundo.html&lp=es_en&.intl=us&fr=moz2 you could use
http://www.zhongwen.com, http://www.ancientscripts.com/chinese.html, http://www.logoi.com/notes/chinese_origins.html

or

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm

Below is a translated page from Spanish to English, but some terms are still in Spanish, so get a Spanish to English dictionary.
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?tt=url&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.proel.org%2Fmundo.html&lp=es_en&.intl=us&fr=moz2

]]> By: hznfrst http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php/comment-page-1#comment-1291 hznfrst Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:53:25 +0000 http://www.chineselanguagenow.com/how-did-the-chinese-language-and-script-evolve.php#comment-1291 It started out as pictures (pictograms), as did most writing. Ancient Chinese writing is much simpler than the modern, and you can almost figure it out just by looking at it. As time went by it added "ideograms" to its symbol vocabulary, which are more complex and arbitrary since ideas don't have obvious pictures associated with them. Turn the first letter of out Latin alphabet upside down and you will notice it looks like the head of an ox, which was its original meaning way back when. It started out as pictures (pictograms), as did most writing. Ancient Chinese writing is much simpler than the modern, and you can almost figure it out just by looking at it. As time went by it added "ideograms" to its symbol vocabulary, which are more complex and arbitrary since ideas don’t have obvious pictures associated with them.

Turn the first letter of out Latin alphabet upside down and you will notice it looks like the head of an ox, which was its original meaning way back when.

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