A report on Chinese characters
Chinese characters are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese.
- Chinese characters112 related topics with Alpha
Japanese writing system
4 linksThe modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana.
Chữ Nôm
4 linksLogographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language.
Logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language.
It uses Chinese characters (Chữ Hán) to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented by new characters created using a variety of methods, including phono-semantic compounds.
Classical Chinese
11 linksClassical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 gǔwén "ancient text", or 文言 wényán "text speak", meaning
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 gǔwén "ancient text", or 文言 wényán "text speak", meaning
However, the non-phonetic Chinese writing system causes a unique situation where the modern pronunciation of the classical language is far more divergent (and heterogeneous, depending on the native – not necessarily Chinese – tongue of the reader) than in analogous cases, complicating understanding and study of Classical Chinese further compared to other classical languages.
Vietnamese language
6 linksAustroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national and official language.
Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national and official language.
Vietnamese was historically written using Chữ Nôm, a logographic script using Chinese characters (Chữ Hán) to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, together with many locally-invented characters to represent other words.
Japanese language
7 linksSpoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language.
Spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language.
The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters, known as kanji (漢字), with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana (ひらがな or 平仮名, 'simple characters') and katakana (カタカナ or 片仮名, 'partial characters').
Kangxi Dictionary
5 linksThe Kangxi Dictionary ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th.
Oracle bone script
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Oracle bone script was the ancestor of modern Chinese characters engraved on oracle bones—animal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination—in the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest known form of Chinese writing.
Shuowen Jiezi
4 linksAncient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty.
Ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty.
Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the Erya predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give the rationale behind them, as well as the first to use the principle of organization by sections with shared components called radicals (bùshǒu 部首, lit. "section headers").
Unicode
7 linksInformation technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems.
Information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems.
In the case of Chinese characters, this sometimes leads to controversies over distinguishing the underlying character from its variant glyphs (see Han unification).
Kangxi radical
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The 214 Kangxi radicals, also known as the Zihui radicals, form a system of radicals of Chinese characters.