>>Chinese is all kanji. Lately simplified and now heading for pinyin to modernize it like romanji in Japanese.<<
Maurice, It is called "HanZi", not kanji<g>
No, Pinyin for Chinese is just as a helping tool for pronunciation. To pinyinize Chinese is only a pipe dream, will not be realized. It will never be a replacement of Chinese character. Too much essence of Chinese culture lays in the Chinese character.
Actually, I read that a British scholar claimed computer language in 21st century should be Chinese, since Chinese are the most effective language. One character can have multiple uses. One would only need to learn 1,000 or so Chinese Characters to deal with everyday life. by comparison, one has to learn 3,000 or so English words, or 5,000 French words to deal with every day life.
>>Japanese still uses heaps of kanji, but heavily supplements with hiragana, a rational phonetic system, with none of the English style exceptions. <<
80% of Japanese before WWII were Chinese character. Their language reform only started after WWII. Now I watch some older Japanese movies shot in late 50s or earlier, I can recognize 80% of them since they are just Chinese. |
