tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post823927952273249237..comments2024-03-19T21:41:42.835+01:00Comments on Poemas del río Wang: Missing womenStudiolumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-17845293643381364312021-12-29T16:39:51.051+01:002021-12-29T16:39:51.051+01:00If you think about it, you'll see that doesn&#...If you think about it, you'll see that doesn't make sense. If characters were needed for comprehension, people wouldn't be able to communicate vocally, they'd have to write everything down. The homophonic syllables are a red herring -- words in Chinese are rarely monosyllabic (people think they are because of the writing system, which makes them confuse words with characters), and actual confusion between homonyms in speech is as rare in Chinese as it is in English or any other language. If you write down a conversation in pinyin, it is exactly as understandable as it is in speech. Remember, people don't say "我爱你" to each other, they say "Wǒ ài nǐ" (or rather the sounds represented by that transcription).Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-51441570347289079882021-12-29T15:44:29.280+01:002021-12-29T15:44:29.280+01:00You’re right. You can write Chinese in Latin scrip...You’re right. You can <i>write</i> Chinese in Latin script, but it is hard to unambiguously <i>recognize</i> the content written in this way. With so many homophonic syllables looking in the same way in pinyin or any other Latinization, you miss the unique identification marks provided by the characters. I read fairly well Chinese, but I’m often at a loss when confronted with pinyin-only texts.Studiolumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377777909296284368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4565845984512808077.post-39726208822706947022021-12-29T14:31:48.371+01:002021-12-29T14:31:48.371+01:00Many wanted to switch to a Latin script – which, h...<i>Many wanted to switch to a Latin script – which, however, is almost imposible for writing Chinese</i><br /><br />Of course it's not impossible -- it's quite easy, and has been done many times. I'm not thrilled with pinyin, the official Latinization, but it's perfectly adequate; anything you can say in Chinese, you can write in pinyin. The problem is not the language, it's the previously existing literature that would become even more inaccessible than it is (of course even now it takes special training to be able to read pre-modern texts). That's not an insignificant consideration, but to me it pales before the huge gain in time and effort saved for the billion-plus Chinese who have to spend years learning what people with alphabetic systems learn in almost no time. I understand the pain of people who have spent those years and don't want to feel it's been wasted, but they should think of the greater good.Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.com