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步 and 歩 are similar for sure, and for people aware of what's in Han unification, it's probably not that bad. But the problem is, there are many characters very
by powersnail 6y ago
步 and 歩 are similar for sure, and for people aware of what's in Han unification, it's probably not that bad.
But the problem is, there are many characters very similar to each other, with a difference of one stroke already. 今 and 令 for example, are both simplified Chinese, but with completely unrelated meaning.
So, when you see a character that looks familiar, how can you tell whether you are looking at a character that you don't know or a character you know but rendered in a different language?
- moron4hire 6y agoHow do I look at the sequence of Roman characters “gift” and decide if it is an English-language thing I want vs a German-language thing I don’t? You can’t code your way out of a context trap.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> 今 and 令 for example, are both simplified Chinese, but with completely unrelated meaning. This isn't the best example of meaning, as neither one of them really means anything standing alone like that.
- microcolonel 6y agoIn the case of 今, it means something on its own in Japanese; and to a lesser extent it means something on its own in standard Chinese (kinda like 這, sometimes like 現在) and definitely in classical Chinese. In Japanese, 令 doesn't tend to mean much on its own (though it can still be read a couple ways), but in Chinese it has many standalone meanings.
- microcolonel 6y agoWhile 今 and 令 may be stylized similarly today in Chinese, they are clearly distinct, those sorts of things are not unified in the Han Unification. In fact 令 is different enough that the version of it no longer commonly used in China now has its own codepoint.