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Having tones does not make a language inherently easier to learn, nor does having ideographs. If China would truly be better off using a non-tonal language with
by jasshiru 10y ago
Having tones does not make a language inherently easier to learn, nor does having ideographs. If China would truly be better off using a non-tonal language with an alphabetic script, it's only because the language of the British Empire was non-tonal with an alphabetic script.
Actually, the mess that is English orthography is hardly more "manageable" than Chinese script. There are loads of phonetic elements in Chinese characters.
- beevai142 10y agoIt's unquestionable the Chinese script is more difficult to learn than alphabetic scripts. This is directly reflected in the amount of time children and language learners have to spend on it, and the resulting reading ability.