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Yes but later Egyptian eras began using hieroglyphs as a syllabary then eventually an alphabet, with various mixed usage as one might expect. We can also see a

Yes but later Egyptian eras began using hieroglyphs as a syllabary then eventually an alphabet, with various mixed usage as one might expect. We can also see a partial transition with Japanese hiragana and katakana. The mystery to me is why China never took the next step? Perhaps the two are related. Maybe if you don't switch to an alphabet before your society builds up too many traditions and too much structure, the weight of history (and the social status of using a complex script) tends to calcify many aspects of that society, including the writing?

azurezyq 8y ago
Japanese is no example. Actually you can refer to Wikipedia and you'll find Japanese and Chinese are totally different languages. Japanese "leveraged" some Chinese characters while building the writing system. There's really not a "next step" here. As a Chinese, I've never had difficulty learning to recognize characters when I was a kid. Also they are not random stroke combinations, there's always logic inside and you get that easily after your Chinese reach a certain level. Just like when you see hydro- in Eng, you know it has something with water. Chinese may be difficult as a second language but I cannot find data to support it also difficult as a first language from personal experience. I began to read novels before 10yo anyway.
- EdwardDiego 8y ago
  My Chinese colleague can't write the character for "sneeze" without looking it up. Anecdotally, that suggests that Chinese script is somewhat harder than others.
DonaldFisk 8y ago
Egyptian is the oldest written language. In its final stage (Coptic) Egyptian adopted a modified Greek alphabet. Greek is the oldest written language still in use today. It was originally written in a syllabary (Linear B) but, 3000 years ago, adopted the Phoenician abjad, adding vowels. Like modern Chinese languages, Ancient Greek had word tones, indicated by accents. Chinese is the oldest script still in use today in a relatively unmodified form. One Sinitic language (Dungan), which is to a large extent mutually intelligible with Mandarin, is written entirely in the Cyrillic alphabet.

azurezyq 8y ago

Japanese is no example. Actually you can refer to Wikipedia and you'll find Japanese and Chinese are totally different languages. Japanese "leveraged" some Chinese characters while building the writing system. There's really not a "next step" here. As a Chinese, I've never had difficulty learning to recognize characters when I was a kid. Also they are not random stroke combinations, there's always logic inside and you get that easily after your Chinese reach a certain level. Just like when you see hydro- in Eng, you know it has something with water. Chinese may be difficult as a second language but I cannot find data to support it also difficult as a first language from personal experience. I began to read novels before 10yo anyway.

EdwardDiego 8y ago
My Chinese colleague can't write the character for "sneeze" without looking it up. Anecdotally, that suggests that Chinese script is somewhat harder than others.

DonaldFisk 8y ago

Egyptian is the oldest written language. In its final stage (Coptic) Egyptian adopted a modified Greek alphabet. Greek is the oldest written language still in use today. It was originally written in a syllabary (Linear B) but, 3000 years ago, adopted the Phoenician abjad, adding vowels. Like modern Chinese languages, Ancient Greek had word tones, indicated by accents. Chinese is the oldest script still in use today in a relatively unmodified form. One Sinitic language (Dungan), which is to a large extent mutually intelligible with Mandarin, is written entirely in the Cyrillic alphabet.