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Languages are for communicating, if there is ambiguity, ask and let the person clarify it. In fact, zhuyin is equally bad resolving the Lion Poet as well. Whil

by eva1984 10y ago

Languages are for communicating, if there is ambiguity, ask and let the person clarify it. In fact, zhuyin is equally bad resolving the Lion Poet as well. While in reality, no one really speaks like this. > Now people who want to be seriously literate have to learn an additional set of characters It is not left to you to decide what is 'literacy'. In a society that most of people using simplified characters, understanding traditional chinese brings marginal benefits, as you don't speak Shakespeare's english on daily basis. More convincing counterexample will be nation like Vietnam and Korea, where Chinese characters have been long deprecated, are not illiterate in any way, and are doing absolutely fine. Some traditional Chinese users often fall into the trap of associating language/writing system to their own identity, preventing themselves from thinking about the stuff they are actively objecting in a more rational and constructive way, such is this case. Simplified Chinese is here because people are happy with it and it is not limiting their expression. If the language serves the purpose of enabling communication between people, then it is a good language, and it has every reason to stay. I didn't see why a thriving language with 1 billion user base should go anywhere based on some niche group's agenda.

chei0iaV 10y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've been explained, the issue with Simplified Chinese is that it's "simplified" by removing characters for homonyms in Mandarin Chinese. So this works fine for Mandarin speakers, but in places like Taiwan, where they speak a different dialect, it does not make sense since there is one character for different words that are not pronounced the same, making the writing difficult or impossible to read... Which is why they stick to Traditional, and might understandably feel Simplified as an affront to their identity.
- emodendroket 10y ago
  Ok: you are wrong. There are several classes of simplification and most of them involve standardizing common written shorthand or replacing radicals to form new characters. There is some replacing of characters for homophones, but this is the least common type of simplification. As for Taiwanese, the problem there is that, simplified or not, the language features a lot of words that just don't have a standard representation in Chinese script. The whole idea that Chinese script lets Chinese people just write their vernacular speech and all understand each other is fallacious. Almost all written material in Chinese (especially anything formal) is written according to the grammar and vocabulary of Mandarin (although perhaps it will be read with the pronunciation of a different Sinitic language).

by eva1984 10y ago

chei0iaV 10y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've been explained, the issue with Simplified Chinese is that it's "simplified" by removing characters for homonyms in Mandarin Chinese. So this works fine for Mandarin speakers, but in places like Taiwan, where they speak a different dialect, it does not make sense since there is one character for different words that are not pronounced the same, making the writing difficult or impossible to read... Which is why they stick to Traditional, and might understandably feel Simplified as an affront to their identity.

emodendroket 10y ago
Ok: you are wrong. There are several classes of simplification and most of them involve standardizing common written shorthand or replacing radicals to form new characters. There is some replacing of characters for homophones, but this is the least common type of simplification. As for Taiwanese, the problem there is that, simplified or not, the language features a lot of words that just don't have a standard representation in Chinese script. The whole idea that Chinese script lets Chinese people just write their vernacular speech and all understand each other is fallacious. Almost all written material in Chinese (especially anything formal) is written according to the grammar and vocabulary of Mandarin (although perhaps it will be read with the pronunciation of a different Sinitic language).