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Chinese character inscriptions have been found in turtle shells dating back to the Shang dynasty 1 (1766-1123 BC) proving the written language has existed for more than 3,000 years. The Chinese written language uses single distinctive symbols, or characters, to represent each word of the vocabulary. The vast majority of characters are written versions of spoken sounds that have meaning. A large dictionary usually contains 40,000 characters. 2 One must be able to recognize 2,000 to 3,000 characters to read a newspaper. Although the written system has been altered over time due to revolutions and political changes, the principles of the language along with the symbols and characters have remained basically the same. Pin-yin, the English form of Chinese In an attempt to make the Chinese language more understandable to the western world, China developed the "pinyin" (pin-yin) system. 4 The pinyin system uses the western alphabet and spelling to pronounce Chinese words. Chinese languages have been transliterated into the pinyin system since 1892 5 (except personal and location names). In 1977, Chinese officials made a formal request to the United Nations (UN) 6 to use the pinyin system for naming geographical locations in China. People who use pinyin are those who are more familiar with the western alphabet and are learning to speak Mandarin Chinese. Ni Hao! (Hello! How do you do!) Zao Shang Hao! (Good Morning!) |
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