The ABC of Chinese Language Part I

The unique feature of the Chinese written language originates from a pictograph and ideogram system as from one of the four remaining ancient civilizations. Its contemporary writing systems were the Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mayan calendar, and a cuneiform writing from Mesopotamia from 5,000 years ago.

1. Chinese language is not Alphabetical.

2. Learning Chinese language is a Bilingual process.

3. Competence in Chinese language involves Character Confusion at every level.

A: It is not Alphabetical.

While the other civilizations have transformed to a phonetic based language, Chinese did not. Even its influence on the closest neighboring languages, Japanese and Korean have a phonetic, syllabic writing system where the Chinese picture based and meaning based characters complement the sound-based words. Hence, spoken Chinese was not developed through an alphabetic or phonetic system. In other words, the written characters are more independent from the sounds they make. In practice, listening and speaking Chinese use different skills than reading and writing Chinese. Foreign learners have a difficult time because learning Chinese is more like learning two languages at the same time.

There are somewhere between 300-600 foundation characters called radicals that by their combination (2-5, up to 6) create thousands and thousands. One cannot make up a character without some rules of plan, symmetry, and meaning. These foundation characters help to indicate meaning, but do not necessarily help you to pronounce them as learning to read Chinese characters is based on an oral tradition.

B: From an alphabetical language speaker’s perspective, learning spoken Chinese and written Chinese is a Bilingual process.

Because written Chinese and spoken Chinese are much less connected than an alphabetical, phonetic language, learning Chinese is really learning two languages at the same time: speaking and listening Chinese vs. reading and writing Chinese.

You’ve probably heard about how an illiterate prisoner learned to read written language by decoding a bible and through sheer tenacity. Based on his command of his spoken language, he learned to read the written language on his own. That miracle of self taught literacy is based on a phonetic language, where alphabets repeat in regular frequency.

In Chinese, no Chinese speaker can ever learn to read written Chinese on their own. That means a Chinese speaker needs the benefit of an oral tradition to learn to read written Chinese. The pinyin system implemented in China since 1957 has helped more Chinese to learn Chinese characters. This phonetic system is used for children. As an adult, one is required to be weaned from phonetics and read Chinese characters purely based on memory.

For Part II, please wait til next week.