Traditional and Simplified 20th Century character simplification (and writing) • There are two scripts in use today to write Modern Standard Mandarin • They are closely related CHIN 342/442 • “Traditional Characters” are used today in Taiwan, , and some overseas communities Autumn 2019 • Example: Daily News () Online)

Traditional and Simplified A simple example Characters • “Simplified Characters” are used today in mainland China, Singapore, and many overseas communities • Example: Guangming Daily () Online • Simplified characters are the first major change to the official Chinese in nearly 2,000 years

A simple example Why?

• What led to the first official change in the Chinese writing system in nearly 2,000 years? • What were the goals of simplification? • What were the specific mechanisms by which characters were “simplified”? • How effective was the policy?

p. 1 Motives for Character Goals of Simplification Simplification • Part of the same late 19th-c. / early 20th-c. • The goal of character elimination was language reform movement that led to eventually abandoned Guóyǔ/Pǔtōnghuà, Báihuà, and pīnyīn • What were the aims of character • When the Communists came to power in simplification? 1949, their stated goal was elimination of –Reduce number of characters to learn characters and their replacement by an –Reduce number of strokes per character alphabet; “simplification” was temporary –Reduce schooling time to literacy –Increase overall literacy rates (20% in 1920s)

Timeline of Simplication Techniques of Simplification (more examples in Course Packet)

• Lists of simplified characters issued in • Guiding principle for simplification: –1956 (515 characters) Where possible, use character forms with –1964 (2,238 simplified characters) historical precedent (#1-4 below) –1977 (later rescinded; never implemented) 1. Write two homophonous morphemes –1986 (minor change affecting 6 characters) with simpler of two characters (, ), • Simplification is in theory still ongoing; especially if one word is obsolete. Note: more minor changes were made in the some of these forms are very old. (This official character list in 2013 reduces the total number of graphs.)

Techniques of Simplification Techniques of Simplification

2. Formalize non-standard handwritten 3. Formalize calligraphic/cursive styles forms (cf. English “lite”, “nite”) () (, ) • These forms were already in popular • Ordinary handwriting and some informal use, but had never been calligraphic styles are cursive, with officially sanctioned adjacent strokes joined together • ⇒

p. 2 Calligraphic Calligraphic examples examples

⇒ ⇒

Techniques of Simplification

Calligraphic 4. Use simpler archaic forms () examples • These are forms attested in early texts and dictionaries; Shuōwén Jiězì always uses , never “traditional” form . ⇒ • Some simplified characters are older than traditional characters! 5. Invent new simplified forms (analogy with historically-attested techniques):

Which techniques were used? New Simplified Forms (see next slide) • Isolate one component, discard the rest ( ⇒ , ⇒ ) • Choose a different phonetic element with fewer strokes ( ⇒ , ⇒ ) • Replace a complex component w/ or ( ⇒ , ⇒ , ⇒ , ⇒ )

p. 3 Which techniques were used? Problems and Inconsistencies

1. 6. 1. dēng ⇒ ‘lamp’ but dèng ⇒ ‘(surname)’ 2. 7. 2. ràng ⇒ ‘make, let’ 3. 8. but rǎng ⇒ ‘howl’ 3. jiǎ ⇒ ‘(surname)’ 4. 9. but jià ⇒ ‘price’ 5. 10. 4. huán ⇒ ‘ring’ and huái ⇒ ‘embrace’

Problems and Inconsistencies What is “simple” anyway?

1. yán ⇒ (no change) • What is the right metric for measuring and jǐng ⇒ (no change), complexity and ease of learning? but yǔ ⇒ (cf. , , ) • Which of these characters are simple, and which complex? How many parts do 2. lóng ⇒ they have? fā ⇒ • xiǎng 3. fēng ⇒ • / xiāng ‘gallop’ (cf. / ràng) fèng ⇒

What is “simple” anyway? What is “simple” anyway?

• dá ‘the look of flying dragons’ (48) • Recent psycholinguistic studies have • zhé ‘loquacious’ (64) begun to provide some objective means • Does simplifying to , to , to for measuring cognitive processing in learning and reading Chinese characters reduce or increase burden of memory? • It’s hard to draw definitive conclusions, • These simplified radicals must now be but it seems that simplified characters learned in addition to the full form may have comparatively very slight characters (cf. ) drawbacks for learning and reading

p. 4 Judging Character Reforms Judging Character Reforms

• Have simplified characters met the • Have simplified characters met the original goals? original goals: –Reduce number of characters to learn –Reduce number of characters to learn slightly –Reduce number of strokes per character –Reduce number of strokes per character yes –Reduce schooling time to literacy –Reduce schooling time to literacy seems not –Increase overall literacy rates –Increase overall literacy rates seems not • For the last two, compare to Taiwan and Hong Kong

The 1977 Reform Proposals The 1977 Reform Proposals

• Let’s take a look at some of the • p. 33: dào à proposed simplified forms in the Course (cf. rèn à ) Packet that were rejected • p. 33: bìng à hú à (cf. guǎng à , chǎng à ) dàn à (cf. yún à )

“Simplified” Characters are The 1977 Reform Proposals Created all the Time

• p. 34: rǎng à , rǎng à (cf. ràng à )

• p. 35: zhēn à (cf. jiàn à )

p. 5 The future Cantonese Writing

• What is the future of traditional • In Hong Kong and Guǎngzhōu, formal characters in Hong Kong and Taiwan? is Standard Written • What is the future of Chinese characters Chinese (a written form of Mandarin). in general? • As a result, newspapers and other formal • How will political changes and writing in Hong Kong can be read and technological changes affect the use and understood by any educated Chinese structure of Chinese characters as a speaker functioning script? • But …

Cantonese Writing Cantonese Writing

• Cantonese is distinct: it is the only non- • Because written Cantonese employs Mandarin variety of Chinese having a Cantonese syntax and Cantonese fully developed, widely used written form vocabulary, as well as non-standard • Seen in characters, it is not readable by educated –notes speakers unless they know Cantonese! –advertisements • For example: –comics –etc.

Cantonese Writing Cantonese Characters

• Cantonese writing works this way: • To write the second syllable of Cantonese • Any morpheme that is cognate to a [mɐt⁵tʃʰøn⁵⁵] ‘what the hell’, the morpheme is written character is employed as a rebus. with the same character. For example, • To write the Cantonese negative [m̩ 21] [ŋɔ13] ‘I’ is written “”. ‘not’, the character (Mand. wú) is • For other Cantonese morphemes, the employed as a rebus, with ‘mouth’ added rebus principle is usually employed, often as semantic determinative: with determinative ‘’ (mouth) added • Other examples in Course Packet

p. 6 Next Time

• Writing Chinese without Chinese characters: Romanizations and Transcriptions • Lexicographic ordering: Dictionary organization and character look-up methods

End

• Look over the various examples in the course packet on what we’ve covered today.

p. 7