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Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents. As a comple

by tibbon 14y ago

Thanks! I really like those visually. While non-standard, I just might have to start using those in my English typesetting/formatting of documents. As a complete tangent, I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English, much as Spanish has if not moreso.

compay 14y ago
> I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English Right on. That was one of my favorite elements of the Firefly TV series.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  One of the criticisms of Firefly was that for a future that was supposed to have a large Chinese population / integration of Chinese culture, you never really saw any Chinese characters (aka whitewashing). That said, I always thought it was an elegant work-around to broadcast TV's limitations on cusswords.
WiseWeasel 14y ago
Maybe they could start picking up a phonetic alphabet in the meantime, so it doesn't take me that long to become competent with their written language.
- mkr-hn 14y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin
  - WiseWeasel 14y ago
    That doesn't appear to be used for internal communication, but rather for communicating with foreigners. I'm sure many millions of young Chinese schoolchildren would love it if Pinyin was adopted as a native written language, so they wouldn't have to spend quite so much mental effort memorizing the tens of thousands of characters needed to qualify for a diploma. Same goes for Japanese schoolchildren, since they're plagued with a non-phonetic alphabet as well. The widely-used phonetic [hiragana] alphabet is ready to replace their daunting kanji alphabet imported from China.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - jmadsen 14y ago
      Won't start a big argument, but replacing kanji with hiragana would make the language a vaguely-worded nightmare. Massive number of homonyms; huge number of verbs with slightly different nuance achieved through a different choice of kanji. The language IS evolving toward hiragana for simple, everyday words, but ask any adult who has to read children's books (all in hiragana) how painful it is to group the words correctly and you'll agree a bigger change won't come soon.
      - WiseWeasel 14y ago
        If there are many homonyms that could be mistaken despite context, how do people understand the spoken language? Are verbal inflections incompletely represented in hiragana versus kanji? As for grouping into words, other languages have found spaces useful. ; )
        Natsu 14y ago
        There's a tonal accent, which is not conveyed in writing. I believe there are some regional variations of it, too. In Japanese, it's related to something called the "accent nucleus." Googling that will give you a lot of random scholarly articles. Oddly enough the best simple explanation I could find was this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100122132557AAxv6Wy http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100122132557AA...
        WiseWeasel 14y ago
        So not only does hiragana need spaces, but it also needs accents?
        Natsu 14y ago
        Sort of. You're forgetting katakana, though. And there's still ambiguity, but live speakers know how to avoid it... usually. There's just so much nuance they convey that the language would be less expressive without kanji. Even if they are a pain in the rear to study.
runn1ng 14y ago
Dong ma?

by tibbon 14y ago

compay 14y ago

> I think that over the next 50 years, various Chinese phrases, language quirks and usage will start bleeding into English Right on. That was one of my favorite elements of the Firefly TV series.

Wingman4l7 14y ago
One of the criticisms of Firefly was that for a future that was supposed to have a large Chinese population / integration of Chinese culture, you never really saw any Chinese characters (aka whitewashing). That said, I always thought it was an elegant work-around to broadcast TV's limitations on cusswords.

WiseWeasel 14y ago

Maybe they could start picking up a phonetic alphabet in the meantime, so it doesn't take me that long to become competent with their written language.

mkr-hn 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin
- WiseWeasel 14y ago
  That doesn't appear to be used for internal communication, but rather for communicating with foreigners. I'm sure many millions of young Chinese schoolchildren would love it if Pinyin was adopted as a native written language, so they wouldn't have to spend quite so much mental effort memorizing the tens of thousands of characters needed to qualify for a diploma. Same goes for Japanese schoolchildren, since they're plagued with a non-phonetic alphabet as well. The widely-used phonetic [hiragana] alphabet is ready to replace their daunting kanji alphabet imported from China.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - jmadsen 14y ago
    Won't start a big argument, but replacing kanji with hiragana would make the language a vaguely-worded nightmare. Massive number of homonyms; huge number of verbs with slightly different nuance achieved through a different choice of kanji. The language IS evolving toward hiragana for simple, everyday words, but ask any adult who has to read children's books (all in hiragana) how painful it is to group the words correctly and you'll agree a bigger change won't come soon.
    - WiseWeasel 14y ago
      If there are many homonyms that could be mistaken despite context, how do people understand the spoken language? Are verbal inflections incompletely represented in hiragana versus kanji? As for grouping into words, other languages have found spaces useful. ; )
      - Natsu 14y ago
        There's a tonal accent, which is not conveyed in writing. I believe there are some regional variations of it, too. In Japanese, it's related to something called the "accent nucleus." Googling that will give you a lot of random scholarly articles. Oddly enough the best simple explanation I could find was this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100122132557AAxv6Wy http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100122132557AA...
        WiseWeasel 14y ago
        So not only does hiragana need spaces, but it also needs accents?
        Natsu 14y ago
        Sort of. You're forgetting katakana, though. And there's still ambiguity, but live speakers know how to avoid it... usually. There's just so much nuance they convey that the language would be less expressive without kanji. Even if they are a pain in the rear to study.

runn1ng 14y ago

Dong ma?