The Chinese Language, Ever Evolving

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/chinese-language-ever-evolving/

by robg • 17 years ago

23 3 17 years ago

roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com

tokenadult• 17 years ago

Submission upvoted because it is an interesting issue, particularly to me as a second-language user of Chinese. But I'm appalled at the choice of commentators by the New York Times. I wish they had asked someone with some real expertise on the subject, like William Boltz

http://depts.washington.edu/asianll/people/faculty/boltzwm.h...

or James Unger

https://pro.osu.edu/profiles/unger.26/

or some still living student of the late John DeFrancis.

A linguist would quibble, of course, that strictly speaking the writing system is not "the Chinese language" at all, because people use language whether or not they are literate, and indeed whether or not the language they speak has a writing system. What is desirable in a writing system is mostly efficiency, but what is usually preserved in a writing system is precisely it's most arbitrary and least efficient features, as it is passed culturally from generation to generation.

0_o• 17 years ago

Simplified Chinese characters are ugly and ridiculous, I am in China and I prefer to read and write in traditional Chinese.

vicaya• 17 years ago

Upvoted for Prof. Eugene Wang's perspectives. As a fan of Chinese calligraphy, I'm proficient in both Simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

The Chinese Language, Ever Evolving

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