taryn Posted June 16, 2005 at 09:55 PM Report Share Posted June 16, 2005 at 09:55 PM I’m trying to figure out whether or not Chinese in as much as writing/reading is concerned, is considered “syllabic.” (In fact, I don’t even know if that’s a word. I’m no linguist.) I’m a beginning learner but I’ve repeatedly noticed that as I’ve been transcribing Pimsleur, one syllable typically corresponds to one character. [Except the “r” sound in annoying instances like 过一会儿.] Most of the learning materials I’ve encounter go to great lengths to explain that Chinese is not a phonetic language but I’ve not yet a seen a reference to the pattern of syllables to characters. I only noticed because having briefly studied Japanese, I had noticed a similar pattern. (But I guess hiragana and katakana are both syllabic AND phonetic.) Anyways, I guess my question is whether or not that is a Chinese language pattern that I should expect to continue or does it simply occur with easier words? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted June 17, 2005 at 01:58 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 at 01:58 AM Characters always refer to one syllable. Words can be single character, single syllable (我), double character+double syllable (我们) and so on, so on. There was an article on Sinosplice.com recently about multisyllabic characters - perhaps of interest, but not of much practical value to the learner. Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taryn Posted June 17, 2005 at 01:59 PM Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 at 01:59 PM Roddy you rock! Actually, that article is pretty interesting. I love language! I'm seriously contemplating a career change... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beirne Posted June 17, 2005 at 04:50 PM Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 at 04:50 PM FYI, most characters have a phonetic component, but it may have been phonetic a thousand years ago when the syllable was pronounced differently. Knowing the character components will give you a guess as to how a character is pronounced if you don't have anything else to go one. Nothing more than a guess but it may help in a pinch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpoon Posted June 17, 2005 at 08:51 PM Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 at 08:51 PM I just haven't figured out when it's a meaning component, and when it's a phonetic component :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taibei Posted June 18, 2005 at 02:49 AM Report Share Posted June 18, 2005 at 02:49 AM Taryn, Statements like "Chinese is not a phonetic language" are fairly common; but they're a result of confusion. It's important not to conflate Chinese characters with Mandarin or any other language. Chinese characters are a script (a means for recording language); they are not a language themselves. Properly speaking, they are a morphosyllabic writing system. Reading the above selection and this one should help answer your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpoon Posted June 20, 2005 at 12:32 AM Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 at 12:32 AM Stage 1: Protowriting Form: Pictograph of wheat: Function: To represent the idea "wheat" Stage 2: Real Writing Form: Pictograph of wheat: or Function: To represent the word ləg ("wheat") To represent the word ləg ("come") hmm perhaps this explains the chinese homophone issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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