国产av不卡一区二区_欧美xxxx做受欧美_成年人看的毛片_亚洲第一天堂在线观看_亚洲午夜精品久久久中文影院av_8x8ⅹ国产精品一区二区二区_久久精品国产sm调教网站演员_亚洲av综合色区无码一二三区_成人免费激情视频_国产九九九视频

  Home>News Center>Life
         
 

The legacy and future of the Chinese language
By Eric Abrahamsen and Jerry Chan (That's Shanghai)
Updated: 2004-09-03 15:45

A picture tells a thousand words ... or is it the other way around? It's incredible to think that after 4,000-odd years, the basic structural tenets of written Chinese characters have remained relatively unchanged.

It's even more amazing that a nation (make that a planet) of people who speak hundreds, perhaps even thousands of different Chinese dialects can all read the same script.

The Chinese language is unique precisely because of its distinct history and development. But it is also a language in constant flux.

Consider this: Although English is largely considered the most practical language for business and commerce, Chinese remains the most widely used language in the world - spoken by one-fifth of the world's population.

There may even come a day when learning Chinese, like present-day English, becomes compulsory for business, politics and cultural exchanges - a trend that has become increasingly plausible as more foreign students enrol in Chinese courses and China as a nation takes a more prominent role on the international stage.

But what forces are shaping the ongoing development of the Chinese language? Making sense of this requires an understanding of the changes it's undergone in the past.

Like most early writing systems, written Chinese evolved out of a 'pictographic' script - meaning that each character was a picture of an idea or thing (like the inscriptions on oracle bones and shells from the Shang Dynasty), into a 'logographic' system, in which each character stands for a spoken syllable.

But what sets Chinese apart today is that it is the only logographic writing system still in use - others either died out or, like Egyptian hieroglyphics, were converted into alphabets.

There have been many movements to standardize Chinese over the ages. China's legendary emperor Qinshihuangdi is credited with making the first attempt, when he devised a nationwide script called 'Small Seal.' Later, during the Han Dynasty, this was further refined into four categories: the 'clerical,' 'running,' 'draft,' and 'standard' scripts.

In the centuries that followed, official Chinese (wen yan wen) was written following these guidelines - a condition that made it very difficult for ordinary citizens to learn how to read and write.

Nonetheless, this standardization gradually allowed people of varying dialects (some of which are so different they could almost be considered separate languages) to all read and write in the same way.

It wasn't until the early 20th century that reformers like Lu Xun and Hu Shi successfully campaigned to have official written Chinese follow the everyday vernacular we now refer to as 'baihuawen.'

After Liberation, the government called for a new 'national alphabet' and began considering proposals for switching over to Roman, Cyrillic, Arabic characters and even a system based on numerals.

Out of this emerged 'pinyin' - the highly useful writing system based on the Latin alphabet that's made learning Chinese a hell of a lot easier for many a foreign student.

For a time it looked as if pinyin would replace characters altogether, but when this proved infeasible, the jianti zi character system was standardized, which simplified the strokes in a number of common words.

The Chinese we hear, speak and read around us everyday is a direct outcome of this long evolution of reform and refinement - an interplay of visionaries chasing ideals, and common people trying to make themselves understood.

Today, the centrally orchestrated reform of the Chinese script (along with centrally orchestrated decrees in general) is probably a thing of the past.

The State Language Affairs Commission, which evolved from the government body responsible for script reform in the 1950s, plays a more passive role than it once did - mostly just watching the natural evolution of language and giving the official stamp to generally accepted terms.

With the advent of new technologies comes new language (jingji, for 'economy,' entered the language during the Republican period; shouji, for 'cellphone,' much more recently), but it is the general populace that settles on the favored usage. Shouji won out over the more awkward yidong dianhua, for example, and the phonetic transliteration for 'laser' - leishe - fell to jiguang, (lit. 'machine light') which more or less means what it says.

New technology is changing the language in more ways than one - the popularization of computers in the 1980s necessitated a practical method of getting Chinese characters onto the screen using the widely-available Western keyboard. Early systems where each character was assigned a four-digit code (usable only by highly trained typists) quickly gave way to a host of new input programs created by companies vying to make their product the industry standard. Next up were programmes modeled on the stroke-order of traditional calligraphy, where certain brush-strokes were assigned to certain keys.

Fang Shizeng, now retired, was once at the heart of the effort to make a millennia-old tradition cooperate with 20-year-old technology. As a member of the State Language Affairs Commission, he worked with scholars at Peking University to develop the first really practical pinyin-based input programme - ABC. If you've got a Chinese version of Windows on your computer, you've got a copy of ABC (you've also got a copy of MS-PinYin, Microsoft's ABC knock-off - but if you want a discussion of Microsoft's business practices, it's best to contact Fang directly).

"Pinyin input programmes are a great tool for literacy," says the fervent Fang. "We did studies - people who used wubi (brushstroke-based input programs) don't learn new characters, their putonghua doesn't improve, children's literacy is not increased. Pinyin helps people learn new characters, and spreads the use of putonghua."

The program he helped create can analyse a sentence written in pinyin and guess, using a database of common phrases culled from years of newspaper text, which characters the typist wants. It adapts to users' preferences, and can even extrapolate from strings of initials - typing in p-t-h, for instance, will produce the characters for putonghua.

Fang is wholeheartedly in favor of technology's effects on the written language and there's no doubt that the programme is a small masterpiece of design, but Fang doesn't seem to have considered the extent to which it can, in turn, affect the language people use. Typing unusual characters can require several seconds of hunting through a list, increasing the chances that typists will settle for more common turns of phrase, and though newspapers are an accepted authority on language usage, straying from the programme's database can require a deliberate effort of will. The inevitable trend is towards a homogenisation of language.

And, potentially, towards the elimination of characters themselves. "With a large amount of computer inputting being based on Pinyin with automatic conversion to characters, Chinese are increasingly forgetting how to write characters," says John DeFrancis, a professor of linguistics at the University of Hawaii who foresees the eventual demise of the written character. Though older generations of Chinese speakers are often unfamiliar with pinyin, younger generations are almost universally proficient in it. For now, Chinese schooling heavily emphasises written characters, but as computers become more common, it's conceivable that, in time (DeFrancis estimates about one hundred years), pinyin will replace characters altogether.

Fang isn't so sure. "Have you looked at something written entirely in pinyin? It's not really readable." That's true, though it might be easier for someone who had never known anything else.

DeFrancis cites the "increasing vernacularisation of the Chinese writing style" as a potential factor in the death of characters. Academic and literary Chinese are dense forms of the language, fraught with rare characters and esoteric references that would be almost impenetrable if rendered into pinyin. As written Chinese comes more to resemble spoken Chinese, this difficulty will be bypassed (spoken Chinese, after all, can be more or less perfectly represented by pinyin and the four tones).

On the other hand one has to wonder - what will become of Chinese poetry (to take the most extreme example) when characters are gone? The Daode Jing would be gibberish in pinyin. The loss of characters would slam a door between modern speakers and the Chinese literary tradition, whose continuity is one of its greatest marvels.

But perhaps complaints such as these are no longer pertinent - it may simply be too late for anyone to do anything about it. Fang's greatest wish is that the Chinese would learn to put spaces between words to make them easier to read. DeFrancis, though he predicts the eventual end of the Chinese character, seems to have no personal feeling about it one way or the other. The future will be decided by the evolution of usage; the Chinese language is in the hands of the Chinese.



Zeta-Jones is the tops in fashion
HK Queen of film to portray Olympic champion
Speed matches for 1 yuan mobile phone card
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

Russia school standoff ends with 250 dead

 

   
 

Beijing slams Chen's splittism remark

 

   
 

China to have 140 million cars by 2020

 

   
 

China eager to promote prosperity in Asia

 

   
 

Hearing held on disputed traffic regulation

 

   
 

Nation ups efforts in fight against TB

 

   
  Stewardesses vie for "beautiful angel" title
   
  Bill Clinton to undergo bypass surgery
   
  Jackson acknowledges settling past claims
   
  Zeta-Jones is the tops in fashion
   
  Documentary explores Beckham's sex secrets
   
  The legacy and future of the Chinese language
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Feature  
  Chinese Lady Dai leaves Egyptian mummies for dead  
Advertisement
         
农村一级毛片| 欧美午夜电影在线观看| 精品国产三区在线| 欧美巨大丰满猛性社交| 国产精品久久久久久福利| 一级在线观看| 天天干狠狠干| 男人j桶女人的网站| 日本黄色小网站| 国产女人免费看a级丨片| 欧美久久精品一级黑人c片| 精品对白一区国产伦| 在线成人小视频| 在线观看中文字幕不卡| 亚洲二区在线视频| 亚洲人成精品久久久久久| 国产视频不卡一区| 99久久精品久久久久久清纯| 国产成人小视频| 老司机免费视频一区二区三区| 99国产精品私拍| 激情欧美一区二区三区| 亚洲乱码精品| 久久综合88| 成人精品影院| 欧美日韩国产免费观看视频| 久久av资源| 久久91精品| 蜜桃国内精品久久久久软件9| 久久综合偷偷噜噜噜色| 成年永久一区二区三区免费视频| 99久久精品一区二区成人| av综合电影网站| 小黄鸭精品aⅴ导航网站入口| 中文字幕高清在线播放| 欧美家庭影院| 超碰在线观看免费版| 午夜在线播放| 国产福利视频在线| 18+激情视频在线| 七七成人影院| 咪咪网在线视频| 英国三级经典在线观看| 午夜影院在线播放| 亚洲精品永久免费视频| 一根才成人网| 色尼玛亚洲综合影院| 成人软件在线观看| www.成人在线视频| 经典三级久久| 琪琪久久久久日韩精品| 亚洲尤物av| 妖精一区二区三区精品视频| 亚洲制服欧美另类| 日韩啪啪电影网| 亚洲一区欧美| av成人毛片| 蜜桃传媒麻豆第一区在线观看| 六月丁香婷婷色狠狠久久| 国产一二精品视频| 99热精品一区二区| 欧美激情综合在线| 亚洲美女屁股眼交3| 亚洲一区二区3| 色猫猫国产区一区二在线视频| 欧美日韩日日夜夜| 精品少妇一区二区三区免费观看| 亚洲激情电影中文字幕| 日韩国产激情在线| 国产亚洲精品激情久久| 亚洲欧美在线看| 久久久av电影| 18性欧美xxxⅹ性满足| 九九久久九九| 女人在下体塞跳蛋在线观看| www亚洲天堂| 在线免费视频你懂得| 成人在线二区| 91福利在线尤物| 成人精品高清在线视频| 国产一区二区三区免费在线| 欧美日韩另类图片| 999精品色在线播放| 亚洲每日更新| 精品影院一区二区久久久| 成人涩涩免费视频| 中文字幕欧美国产| 亚洲综合免费观看高清完整版| 欧美日韩另类视频| 欧美一区二区美女| 在线观看91久久久久久| 高清欧美性猛交xxxx| 国产浴室偷窥在线播放| 天天躁日日躁狠狠躁超碰2020| 中文字幕电影在线| 极品白浆推特女神在线观看| 色网站免费在线观看| 午夜影院一区| 中文字幕久久精品一区二区| 日韩免费高清| 久久久国产精品一区二区中文| 国产成人av一区| 中文字幕一区二区三区蜜月| 狠狠干狠狠久久| 日韩欧美一级片| 中文字幕日韩av综合精品| 午夜精品一区二区三区视频免费看| 精品卡一卡卡2卡3网站| 91婷婷韩国| 成年人视频在线看| 免费观看一级欧美片| av在线亚洲色图| 综合激情网站| 国产在线麻豆精品观看| 国产人成亚洲第一网站在线播放| 婷婷夜色潮精品综合在线| 欧美日韩精品一区二区| 亚洲欧美一区二区三区情侣bbw| 高清欧美一区二区三区| 美女网站免费看| 日本一区视频| 深夜福利视频一区二区| 精品午夜电影| 午夜一区在线| 国产女人水真多18毛片18精品视频 | 成人国产在线观看| 亚洲一区在线视频| 欧美大片日本大片免费观看| 久久夜精品va视频免费观看| 影音先锋在线资源中文字幕| 成人免费网址在线| 日本在线观看网站| 亚洲一区有码| 午夜视频一区| proumb性欧美在线观看| 性久久久久久久久| 亚洲电影av在线| 欧美亚洲另类在线| 波霸ol色综合网| 蜜桃视频网站在线观看| 曰本一区二区| 在线观看一区视频| 99精品视频中文字幕| 欧美午夜精品久久久久久浪潮| 精品中文视频在线| 深田えいみ中文字幕99久久| 久草亚洲一区| 波多一区二区| 国内黄色精品| 国产亚洲精品v| 国产亚洲综合av| 欧美日本一道本在线视频| 久久这里有精品| 日本大片在线看黄a∨免费| 日韩av高清在线| 久久99国产精品二区高清软件| 91综合视频| 韩国欧美国产一区| 亚洲福利一区二区| 夜夜嗨av色综合久久久综合网| 欧美性猛交ⅹxxx乱大交免费| 96久久久久久| 丝袜美腿一区| 欧美福利影院| 久久综合成人精品亚洲另类欧美| 欧美日韩日本视频| 欧美激情手机在线视频| 最近久乱中文字幕| www555久久| 91日韩在线| 99麻豆久久久国产精品免费| 欧美日韩精品专区| 性欧美在线看片a免费观看| 国产主播色在线| 欧美一区国产| 影音先锋久久资源网| 欧美极品少妇xxxxⅹ高跟鞋 | 精品国产3级a| 欧美第一页草草影院浮力| 免费一级在线观看| 国模大尺度视频一区二区| 国产精品日本欧美一区二区三区| 国产精品久久久久久久久免费相片 | www.综合| 久久久久免费av| 久久蜜桃av一区精品变态类天堂| 欧美一区在线视频| 在线视频一区二区三区在线播放| 在线国产一级| 综合激情久久| 国产一区二区三区免费看| 亚洲午夜精品17c| 亚洲石原莉奈一区二区在线观看| 羞羞视频免费| 日本一本在线免费福利| 久久理论电影| 国产欧美精品区一区二区三区| 亚洲国产婷婷香蕉久久久久久| 国产精品久久久精品a级小说| 午夜精品一区| 精品久久久亚洲| 91视视频在线观看入口直接观看www | 日本欧美加勒比视频| 午夜精品一区在线观看| 欧美精品在线视频观看| 成人免费乱码大片a毛片软件| 超碰一区二区| 国产农村妇女精品一区二区| 亚洲国产wwwccc36天堂| 不卡毛片在线看| 写真福利理论片在线播放| 国产精品日本一区二区三区在线| 日韩高清中文字幕一区| 亚洲国产日韩在线一区模特| 免费91麻豆精品国产自产在线观看| 成年人免费看的视频| 国产成人精选| 蜜臀va亚洲va欧美va天堂 | 一区二区三区免费网站| 亚洲女人天堂av| ed2k情侣啪啪91av| aaa在线播放视频| 在线免费高清一区二区三区| 亚洲精品中文字幕在线观看| 久久亚洲精品毛片| 中文在线最新版天堂8| 国产精品巨作av| 99热这里都是精品| 亚洲欧美一区二区激情| 国产经典第一页| 玖玖玖电影综合影院| 国产一区二区三区精品视频| 91精品黄色片免费大全| 亚洲精品自产拍在线观看app | 李宗瑞系列合集久久| av成人男女| 97久久精品人人做人人爽| 亚洲国产精品久久久| 九九热青青草| 日韩电影精品| 国产成人亚洲综合a∨婷婷| 精品久久久久久久久久久久久久久| 日本免费资源| 欧美日韩精品免费观看视欧美高清免费大片 | 欧美一区二区高清| 免费黄网站观看| 国产精品麻豆成人av电影艾秋| 久久精品国产99久久6| 在线播放中文字幕一区| 日本视频免费| 日本久久二区| 国产成人精品三级麻豆| 精品久久一二三区| 日日干天天草| 第一区第二区在线| 久久久久久99久久久精品网站| 中文字幕精品www乱入免费视频| 制服丝袜中文字幕在线观看| 日韩在线黄色| 国产精品美女久久久久aⅴ国产馆| 理论片在线不卡免费观看| 天堂а√在线8种子蜜桃视频| 欧美日韩国产在线观看网站| 亚洲一级片在线观看| 亚洲男人天堂影院| 狂野欧美激情性xxxx欧美| 香蕉久久久久久久av网站| 欧美日韩视频在线观看一区二区三区 | 欧洲一区av| 亚洲欧洲美洲一区二区三区| 婷婷久久综合九色综合绿巨人 | 91九色综合| 成人免费视频app| 中日韩美女免费视频网站在线观看 | 欧美日韩视频在线观看一区二区三区| 色姑娘资源站| 麻豆一区在线| 日本一区二区三区在线不卡| 久久久97精品| 国产激情视频在线观看| 亚洲一区二区毛片| 欧美一级夜夜爽| jizz国产| 国产日产精品_国产精品毛片| 亚洲精品国产无套在线观| 午夜精品福利在线观看| av电影免费在线观看| 久久天天综合| 亚洲黄一区二区| 日本大片在线观看| 精品1区2区3区4区| 欧美裸体bbwbbwbbw| 老女人av在线| 国产精品久久久久av蜜臀| 国产精品三级久久久久三级| 91精品91久久久久久| 国产无遮挡裸体视频在线观看| 久久99久久精品| 亚洲第一精品夜夜躁人人躁| 又黄又爽在线观看| 欧美在线影院| 欧美一区二区视频网站| 久播影院第一理论片| 国产高清一区| 欧美日韩在线精品一区二区三区激情| 四虎免费av| 欧美日韩第一| 欧美综合色免费| 99视频资源网| 97久久夜色精品国产| 91福利在线看| 青青青草视频| 亚洲午夜精品| 亚洲第一综合色| 青草视频.com| 亚洲人成网www| 欧美香蕉大胸在线视频观看| 九九热这里只有| 欧美日韩夜夜| 亚洲一区二区免费视频| 人人干人人插| 精品理论电影| 欧美性xxxxxxxx| 宅男午夜视频| 国产欧美不卡| 亚洲欧美精品伊人久久| av在线之家电影网站| 国产日韩一区二区三区在线| 日韩经典一区二区三区| 中文字幕在线播放| 狠狠网亚洲精品| 欧美日本在线视频中文字字幕| 咪咪网在线视频| 91免费视频大全| 最近中文字幕第一页| 国产日韩欧美中文在线| 亚洲人成影院在线观看| 香蕉青柠影院| 欧美综合在线视频观看| 欧美日韩精品系列| 亚洲第一偷拍| 91福利社在线观看| 污污网址在线观看| 奇米影视一区二区三区| 久久久精品免费视频| 国产免费不卡| 亚洲免费三区一区二区| av女片在线| 1000部精品久久久久久久久| 国产亚洲精品美女久久久久| 7777kkk亚洲综合欧美网站| 国产视频在线观看一区二区三区 | 久久午夜精品| 欧美噜噜久久久xxx| 亚洲最大的免费视频网站| 精品福利免费观看| 美女网站在线观看| 蜜臀国产一区二区三区在线播放| 久久久久久久久久av| 日韩欧美中文字幕在线视频| 色综合久久综合网97色综合| 在线看国产视频| 国产精品一卡二| 亚洲国产图片| 日韩精品免费一区二区在线观看| 精品国产精品网麻豆系列 | 草草在线观看| 亚洲天堂网中文字| jizzjizzjizz亚洲日本| 久久在线精品| 久久久亚洲精选| 精品亚洲自拍| 欧美成人r级一区二区三区| 制服丝袜中文字幕在线| 国产精品日产欧美久久久久| 色总=综合色| 日本女优在线视频一区二区 | 理论片影音先锋| 国产亚洲一区二区三区啪| 精品99999| 老牛影视精品| 亚洲一卡二卡三卡四卡无卡久久| 国产精品㊣新片速递bt| 国产专区综合网| 精品入口麻豆传煤| 欧美黄在线观看| 久久久精品一区二区| 日韩在线成人| 日韩免费福利电影在线观看| heyzo一区| 亚洲综合在线免费观看| 亚洲国产精华液| 99久久伊人网影院| jizz中国免费| 日本成人中文字幕在线视频| 中文字幕av免费| 亚洲91精品| 欧美成人免费全部| 日韩成人av在线资源| 欧美精品一区二区三区蜜桃视频|