EAST ASIAN STUDIES

 

CHINESE LANGUAGE: EVOLUTION AND MODERN DAY

 

Signifigance: Unlike the English written language, the Chinese writing system is based on thousands of complex signs or "characters". Many other languages, such as Korean and Japanese, at least partially base their writing systems on Chinese characters. 

Ancient History: The first recognizable form of Chinese writing dates from 3,500 years ago, and has evolved signifigantly over time. However, written chinese has retained its anicient core, allowing it to become one o the lonest continuously used writing systems in the world. Many historians agree that the Chinese written systems evolved from rudimentary systems that involved symbols. These early patterns were called pictograms, and were found on late neolithic period pottery and jades. However, at some point it is thought that the symbols evolved and aquired linguistic value as logograms. The earliest recorded forms of chinese writing was etched into oracle bones. To account for sounds that indicated multiple symbols, additions to the original symbols created. creating new, compound signs. One way these "add-on" symbols are used is called "semantic determinatives" as they provide approximate or related meanings to the new signs. These semantic determinatives are known as "radicals", and function as the "root" of the word. As the language evolved,  radicals have been standardized to the point that Chinese dictionaries are sorted by the radicals. After the Shang Dynasty, the script became more linear and stylized. Complexity also increased as the characters deviated from the appearance of the objects they symbolized and radicals were added. As the language evolved, it was increasingly used by government bureaucrats. Lishu appeared as an efficient form of script to handle state matters. It differed from the Xiaozhuan form that is an ancestor of modern mandarin. 

Modern Day: Kaishu, or Standard Script, is the traditional script, and has Lishu elements but is more cursive and freeflowing.  This was the form used prior to the standardization of the Chinese writing system that occured in the mid 20th century. In an effort to promote literacy, many traditional characters were streamlined and However, other Chinese-speaking places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and various Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the Americas rejected this new system and continued to use the traditional script. Tradition runs deep in Chinese culture, and the fact that the simplified script carries political undertone did not help its wider acceptance. There are multiple arguments surrounding the use of simplified characters. First, there is the argument that the simplification represents the utopian ideal applied to language. The functioning idea is that if all are able to read, then all people have the potential to learn. However, this does not account for the disruption of cultural values. Some argue from a point of elitism, arguing that the Chinese literary canon is diminished by using simplified characters (and thus alienating traditional characters). Some also express concern over how simplified characters will be translated on the computer, citing the difficulty of getting a computer to respond to the Chinese writing system. Also, as the only indigenous and the oldest writing system in East Asia, the Chinese writing system is the basis for many other East Asian writing systems, some prominent and still in use.  At first the Japanese wrote fully in Chinese, but over time the Chinese script was adopted to represent Japanese words, syntax, and grammar. The result is a set of three scripts serving as a single writing system. One of the scripts, kanji is essentially Chinese characters, whereas the other two systems, hiragana and katakana are simplified forms of certain Chinese characters and used exclusively to represent sounds. Writing in Korea also began as an adoption of the Chinese script to fit the Korean language, and as a result Chinese characters called hanja came to represent both words as well as sounds.