5 ms·

honestly this is just not?true. the Chinese script have evolved, but one can still look at inscriptions from thousands of years ago and understand it. it migh

honestly this is just not?true. the Chinese script have evolved, but one can still look at inscriptions from thousands of years ago and understand it. it might be hard for people to understand different dialects in China but they all use the same writing system, standardized in the Qin dynasty. Same with the borrowed Chinese characters in Japanese and Korean. A native Chinese speaker would have little problem reading those, although the pronounciations might be a little different

prevedmedved 8y ago
Are you seriously claiming that you can understand seal script inscriptions? Are you Indiana Jones?
- hnnmzh 8y ago
  Yes for me. Of course I don't know every single character by heart but with a little bit practice and the help of a dictionary you can read a lot. You can even download some seal script fonts and make all the Chinese websites shown in seal script.
  - hnnmzh 8y ago
    Some additional thoughts. With some training, people can read seal script inscriptions because the structure is already fairly close to regular script which is what people use today. The radicals are written in slightly different styles from today. It actually makes sense. Seal script is a very artistic form of calligraphy, so people use it for their seals hence the name. An example of the "drum" character: http://www.guoxuedashi.com/zixing/yanbian/11208mb/ http://www.guoxuedashi.com/zixing/yanbian/11208mb/ The horizontal arrow is the time line, starting from oracle bone script. The 4th one of the first row is seal script and the last regular script. The idea depicted here is hitting a decorated drum on a rack with a drum stick holding in the hand.
- hangonhn 8y ago
  Not sure if you know Chinese or not but seal script will look rather familiar to anyone who knows Chinese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script If you look at the picture on the upper right, you can make out "tian xia" and "wang" -- all under heaven (i.e. the world) and king (the character for emperor isn't invented yet)
  - hnnmzh 8y ago
    > the character for emperor isn't invented yet Hmm it's right there。 The 4th “皇” and 5th “帝”。 And the combined form “皇帝” - a title invented by the First Emperor himself。
    - hangonhn 8y ago
      Good catch. But that just adds more to my point: modern Chinese can understand seal script to a large extend because seal script is the ancestor of the modern (non-simplified) Chinese. My guess is that neither you nor I are "Indiana Jones".
- hungryhobo 8y ago
  your language requires Indiana jones, but don't assume that's the case for everyone
dak1 8y ago
That's no different than saying the English alphabet is just a modified version of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, and that with a dictionary and a bit of training you could use that too. 'ȝ' becomes 'g', 'Ð' becomes 'D', and we still use 'æ' today, which is also a rune, and they even used 'W'! Also, the number of characters in Chinese has also drastically changed over time. So while many characters have a 1:1 lineage, far more characters simply did not exist 1 or 2 thousand years ago. The only commonality is that they are based on pictographs and have a traceable etymology, although that's true for all languages.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- hungryhobo 8y ago
  the difference is a single runic symbol does not convey any meaning while the Chinese characters does. which is why it's not hard for the average Chinese speaker to figure out what an ancient Chinese inscription is talking about
magduf 8y ago
>Same with the borrowed Chinese characters in Japanese and Korean. A native Chinese speaker would have little problem reading those, although the pronounciations might be a little different The Japanese pronunciation of Chinese characters is absolutely nothing like the Chinese pronunciation of them, and the meaning is sometimes different too. (The Kanji for "letter" (as in a piece of paper you write a letter on) means "toilet paper" in Chinese.) https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/cj-false-friends.html https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/cj-false-friends.html
- hungryhobo 8y ago
  sure there are edge cases but at least I know it's paper, and i'd be able to figure its actually letter from context in the rest of the sentence
  - magduf 8y ago
    For many, yes, but you were still absolutely wrong about pronunciation. They're not even remotely the same, as the two languages are not in any way similar and don't share any kind of common root.

prevedmedved 8y ago

Are you seriously claiming that you can understand seal script inscriptions? Are you Indiana Jones?

hnnmzh 8y ago
Yes for me. Of course I don't know every single character by heart but with a little bit practice and the help of a dictionary you can read a lot. You can even download some seal script fonts and make all the Chinese websites shown in seal script.
- hnnmzh 8y ago
  Some additional thoughts. With some training, people can read seal script inscriptions because the structure is already fairly close to regular script which is what people use today. The radicals are written in slightly different styles from today. It actually makes sense. Seal script is a very artistic form of calligraphy, so people use it for their seals hence the name. An example of the "drum" character: http://www.guoxuedashi.com/zixing/yanbian/11208mb/ http://www.guoxuedashi.com/zixing/yanbian/11208mb/ The horizontal arrow is the time line, starting from oracle bone script. The 4th one of the first row is seal script and the last regular script. The idea depicted here is hitting a decorated drum on a rack with a drum stick holding in the hand.
hangonhn 8y ago
Not sure if you know Chinese or not but seal script will look rather familiar to anyone who knows Chinese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script If you look at the picture on the upper right, you can make out "tian xia" and "wang" -- all under heaven (i.e. the world) and king (the character for emperor isn't invented yet)
- hnnmzh 8y ago
  > the character for emperor isn't invented yet Hmm it's right there。 The 4th “皇” and 5th “帝”。 And the combined form “皇帝” - a title invented by the First Emperor himself。
  - hangonhn 8y ago
    Good catch. But that just adds more to my point: modern Chinese can understand seal script to a large extend because seal script is the ancestor of the modern (non-simplified) Chinese. My guess is that neither you nor I are "Indiana Jones".
hungryhobo 8y ago
your language requires Indiana jones, but don't assume that's the case for everyone

dak1 8y ago

That's no different than saying the English alphabet is just a modified version of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, and that with a dictionary and a bit of training you could use that too. 'ȝ' becomes 'g', 'Ð' becomes 'D', and we still use 'æ' today, which is also a rune, and they even used 'W'! Also, the number of characters in Chinese has also drastically changed over time. So while many characters have a 1:1 lineage, far more characters simply did not exist 1 or 2 thousand years ago. The only commonality is that they are based on pictographs and have a traceable etymology, although that's true for all languages.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
hungryhobo 8y ago
the difference is a single runic symbol does not convey any meaning while the Chinese characters does. which is why it's not hard for the average Chinese speaker to figure out what an ancient Chinese inscription is talking about

magduf 8y ago

>Same with the borrowed Chinese characters in Japanese and Korean. A native Chinese speaker would have little problem reading those, although the pronounciations might be a little different The Japanese pronunciation of Chinese characters is absolutely nothing like the Chinese pronunciation of them, and the meaning is sometimes different too. (The Kanji for "letter" (as in a piece of paper you write a letter on) means "toilet paper" in Chinese.) https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/cj-false-friends.html https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/cj-false-friends.html

hungryhobo 8y ago
sure there are edge cases but at least I know it's paper, and i'd be able to figure its actually letter from context in the rest of the sentence
- magduf 8y ago
  For many, yes, but you were still absolutely wrong about pronunciation. They're not even remotely the same, as the two languages are not in any way similar and don't share any kind of common root.