Writing Systems of Asia Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Writing Systems of Asia Today’s Topic: East Asia Asian 401 East Asian Writing Systems

Chinese half-Yuan bill Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Chinese half-Yuan bill Worth about 7 cents. Point out that languages are not coterminous with national boundaries. This is a Chinese bill. Do you see any Chinese on it? (In fact, there is: but it’s in Roman script.) What languages are on it? Note that script and language are not identical: the Arabic script is not writing Arabic, but Uyghur. There is a Roman script writing Chinese. Note that the Zhuang is written in a Roman-derived script, with odd symbols for tone marks. All these words are Chinese borrowings except ‘five’. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Writing and Language We must clearly distinguish writing from spoken language All human societies have spoken language; all human children learn it naturally (exception: deaf community) Only some societies have writing; it must be formally learned East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Writing and Language No form of writing exists independently of spoken language Writing is relatively new: invented about 5000 years ago We will look at writing from a linguistic perspective: what is its relationship to spoken language? East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Writing and Language There is no inherent connection between a script and a language. One script can be used to write different languages (e.g. Roman script for English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish). One language can be written in different scripts (e.g. Uighur, Serbo-Croatian) East Asian Writing Systems

Definition of Writing What is writing? How might we define it …? Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Definition of Writing What is writing? How might we define it …? “The representation of spoken language through the use of visible, (potentially) permanent signs.” Are these signs writing? We generally agree that these signs are not writing because, although they have conventionalized meanings and communicate information, they are not tied to specific utterances. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Definition of Writing No writing system represents all aspects of spoken language. For example, most writing systems don’t represent intonation very well. Some don’t represent vowel sounds. Native speakers can use context to supply information that is missing. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Origins of Writing Writing has (we think) been invented only four times in human history: Sumerians (ca. 3200 BCE) - cuneiform Egyptians (ca. 3200 BCE) - hieroglyphs Chinese (ca. 1250 BCE) - characters Mayans (ca. 600 BCE) - hieroglyphs Your textbook describes the development process Or three times -- it seems likely that the Egyptians knew about Sumerian. East Asian Writing Systems

Origins of Writing Many other writing systems have been invented Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Origins of Writing Many other writing systems have been invented But all were invented by people who already knew about the concept of writing Example: The Phoenician alphabet, which gave rise to the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Arabic alphabets East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Definitions: script script: a set of signs, or graphs, which form a system that can be used for writing Examples of scripts Roman alphabet Cyrillic alphabet Arabic alphabet Chinese characters A a å are all allographs of one grapheme <a> East Asian Writing Systems

Definitions: orthography Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Definitions: orthography orthography: a writing system, i.e. a script the language-specific rules for how to use the graphs in the script to write words English and French orthographies both use the Roman script (w/modifications) Arabic and Urdu orthographies both use the Arabic script (w/modifications) East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Script types Scripts can be broadly classified according to the unit of spoken language represented by each graph. Languages have sound-based units that lack inherent meaning (phonemes, syllables). Languages have meaningful units that include sound (morphemes, words). East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Script types logographic: each graph writes a morpheme or a word; each graph thus represents both sound and meaning phonographic: each graph writes a sound with no inherent meaning syllabic: each graph represents a syllable alphabetic: each graph represents a phoneme East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Script types other types: some phonographic scripts are neither strictly alphabetic nor syllabic, such as the “abugidas”, “alphasyllabaries”, or “akṣara-based” scripts of South India The four ex nihilo writing systems were apparently all logographic in origin East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Script types The script types just described are idealized. Over time, the precise relationship between graph and speech unit can shift. (Cf. English spelling, which has become irregular over time.) Native speakers can tolerate a high degree of ambiguity and inconsistency in a writing system. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Example 1: Tangut Tangut Empire (11th-13th centuries) in what is now Northwest China Invented a logographic script Want to show some examples that are less well known than the ones in your reading. Chinese is the best-known logographic script. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Example 2: Yi A minority people of Southwest China speaking a Tibeto-Burman language Syllabic script, each of about 800 graphs represents a syllable including tone Japanese kana is the best-known syllabic script. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Example 3: Tibetan Tibetan alphabet invented around 7th century, derived from Indic script East Asian Writing Systems

East Asian Writing: Chinese May 27, 2005 East Asian Writing: Chinese Chinese writing is logographic Each graph (“character”) represents one morpheme 人 rén [ɹən35] ‘person’ 男 nán [nan35] ‘male’ 的 de [tə] ‘possessive particle’ Some morphemes are free, some bound East Asian Writing Systems

East Asian Writing: Chinese May 27, 2005 East Asian Writing: Chinese Chinese characters do not write words! Many words have two morphemes; they are written with two characters: 男人 nánrén ‘man’ (‘male’ + ‘person’) Homophonous morphemes are written with different characters: 南 nán ‘south’ 難 nán ‘difficult’ 仁 rén ‘benevolence’ The fact that homophonous morphemes are written with different characters is what makes this script logographic rather than syllabic. East Asian Writing Systems

Chinese morphology Chinese is monosyllabic Chinese is isolating Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Chinese morphology Chinese is monosyllabic >99% of Chinese morphemes are one syllable Chinese is isolating Morphemes never change form Characters write morphemes; so each character writes one syllable that has an invariant pronunciation and a meaning “Chinese characters write meaningful syllables.” Skip Chinese Character Composition East Asian Writing Systems

Chinese character composition Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Chinese character composition Over 90% of Chinese characters are composed of graphic elements that are found in other characters Functionally, these graphic elements may be phonetic: related to the sound of the morpheme semantic: related to the meaning of the morpheme Neither phonetic nor semantic elements give precise information East Asian Writing Systems

方 房 紡 放 Phonetic Components ‘square’ ‘house’ ‘spin’ ‘release’ fäng Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Phonetic Components 方 ‘square’ 房 ‘house’ 紡 ‘spin’ 放 ‘release’ fäng fáng fâng fàng East Asian Writing Systems

青 情 精 倩 Phonetic Components ‘green’ ‘feeling’ ‘essence’ ‘pretty’ qïng Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Phonetic Components 青 ‘green’ 情 ‘feeling’ 精 ‘essence’ 倩 ‘pretty’ qïng qíng jïng qiàn East Asian Writing Systems

心 情 恨 愛 Semantic Components ‘heart’ ‘feeling’ ‘hate’ ‘love’ xïn qíng Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Semantic Components 心 ‘heart’ 情 ‘feeling’ 恨 ‘hate’ 愛 ‘love’ xïn qíng hèn ài East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Chinese text example 话说贾元春自那日幸大观园回宫去后，便命将那日所有的题咏，命探春依次抄录妥协，自己编次，叙其优劣，又命在大观园勒石，为千古风流雅事。因此，贾政命人各处选拔精工名匠，在大观园磨石镌字，贾珍率领蓉，萍等监工。因贾蔷又管理着文官等十二个女戏并行头等事，不大得便，因此贾珍又将贾菖，贾菱唤来监工。一日，汤蜡钉朱, 动起手来。 (from Dream of the Red Chamber) East Asian Writing Systems

East Asian Writing: Japanese May 27, 2005 East Asian Writing: Japanese Japanese had no writing when they first encountered Chinese civilization. Educated Japanese read and wrote Chinese. The Japanese language could not be written. Gradually, the Japanese learned to employ Chinese logographs as phonographs to represent the sound value of Japanese syllables. East Asian Writing Systems

East Asian Writing: Japanese May 27, 2005 East Asian Writing: Japanese Around the 9th century, the Japanese invented two syllabaries by simplifying the forms of phonographically-used Chinese characters. The resulting standardized syllabaries are called kana East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese kana One type, hiragana, is derived from cursive forms of Chinese characters. They are rounded. The other type, katakana, is derived by taking part of a Chinese character. They are angular. Both syllabaries have graphs that represent the 45 CV syllables of Japanese, plus one additional graph for syllable-final -N. East Asian Writing Systems

Japanese Pronunciation Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese kana Character 加 天 不 保 呂 Meaning ‘add’ ‘sky’ ‘not’ ‘guard’ ‘spine’ Japanese Pronunciation KA TEN FU HO RO Hiragana か て ふ ほ ろ Katakana カ テ フ ホ ロ Value ka te fu ho ro East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese writing Both hiragana and katakana are full syllabaries; either one alone could be used to write all the sounds of Japanese Japanese writing today uses three scripts: Chinese characters (kanji) Hiragana Katakana Example: 新しいジュースです. “It’s a new juice” East Asian Writing Systems

Japanese writing Kanji is used to write root morphemes Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese writing Kanji is used to write root morphemes Hiragana is used to write inflectional morphemes and grammatical words Example: hanas-emasita ‘spoke’ 話 せ ま し た Suffixes indicating politeness and past tense are written in hiragana. The root ‘speak’ is represented by kanji. Writing は な せ ま し た is also acceptable. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese writing Katakana is usually reserved for non-Chinese foreign loan words, onomatopeia, and visual emphasis (like italics) “It’s a new juice” 新しいジュースです. Atarasii djuusu desu new-PRES juice be East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese kanji One kanji can represent more than one morpheme. There are two root morphemes for ‘new’ in Japanese: the native root atara- and the borrowed Chinese morpheme shin. The Chinese character 新 can be used to write both. A Japanese reader relies on context and morphological rules to determine how to read each kanji. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Japanese writing Japanese “mixed-script” writing is one of the most complex writing systems on earth. It employs three scripts at the same time. One kanji can have anywhere from one to five or more possible pronunciations. Most have two or three. Why not do away with kanji and only use a kana syllabary? Answer is too complex for this class! As Prof. Salomon said, “simplicity is not the only consideration”. East Asian Writing Systems

East Asian Writing: Korean May 27, 2005 East Asian Writing: Korean As in Japan, for an ancient Korean to be literate meant reading and writing Chinese. Korean could not be easily written. In 1443 King Sejong invented the alphabet now called hangŭl Korea has a holiday celebrating the alphabet The only alphabet based on scientific principles of articulatory phonetics East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Korean alphabet The shapes of the letters mimic the shape of the articulators in the vocal tract Modifications to letters indicates changes of features such as aspiration and nasalization Examples: ㄴ ㄷ ㅌ /n/ /t/ /th/ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ /s/ /tʃ/ /tʃh/ East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Korean alphabet The Korean alphabet is unusual in that the letters are not placed in a row Letters are grouped into syllable blocks, the same size and shape as a Chinese character Example: To write the word hangŭl, the letters are ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ /h a n k ɯ l/. It is two syllables, so two blocks: 한글 East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Korean alphabet Korean writing is an alphabet, but also represents some features of phonemes (like aspiration and place of articulation), and syllable boundaries. It also represents morphemes! {kuk} means ‘country’. It has an allomorph /kuŋ/ that occurs before nasals. East Asian Writing Systems

Korean alphabet {han} ‘Korean’ + {kuk} ‘country’ = /hankuk/ ‘Korea’ Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Korean alphabet {han} ‘Korean’ + {kuk} ‘country’ = /hankuk/ ‘Korea’ {kuk} ‘country’ + {min} ‘people’ = /kuŋmin/ ‘citizen’ In Korean writing, the morpheme {kuk} is always written 국: 한국 /hankuk/ 국민 /kuŋmin/ East Asian Writing Systems

Chinese characters in Korean Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Chinese characters in Korean Like Japanese, Korean has thousands of borrowed Chinese morphemes Historically, these words were written with Chinese characters; hangŭl was used for inflectional endings and native Korean words Over the last fifty years, the use of Chinese characters has declined considerably No longer used in North Korea Increasingly rare in South Korea East Asian Writing Systems

Korean text example 靑, 日에 야치차관 조치 요구 Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Korean text example 靑, 日에 야치차관 조치 요구 “核정보 발언 무례”…정상회담 무산 가능성도외교부, 日대사 불러 조치 촉구 이태식 외교통상부 차관으로부터 소환요청을 받은 다카노 도시유키 주한일본대사가 26일 굳은 표정으로 외교부청사에 들어서고 있다. - Hankook Ilbo newspaper, May 26, 2005 In this example, 青、日 refers to Korea and Japan. The latter is an abbreviation -- the first of the two Chinese characters used to write Japan (日本 일본). The former is also an abbreviation, the first Chinese character used to write the word for “The Blue Tile Terrace” (青瓦臺 청와대) or “Blue House”, which is the official government residence of the Korean president. Just as with “The White House” in English, “the Blue House” is often used metonymically to refer to the Korean government. East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Summary: Chinese The Chinese invented Chinese characters around 1250 BCE One of only four civilizations to invent writing from scratch In Chinese, Chinese characters write monosyllabic morphemes (logographic) [Most Chinese characters contain phonetic and semantic elements] East Asian Writing Systems

Summary: Korean & Japanese Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Summary: Korean & Japanese Educated Japanese and Koreans originally used Chinese as their written medium of communication Because of their familiarity with Chinese, many Chinese words and morphemes were borrowed into spoken Korean and Japanese East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Summary: Japanese In the 9th century, the Japanese derived syllabaries (kana) from Chinese characters. There are two syllabaries: rounded hiragana and angular katakana Hiragana, katakana, and kanji are all used together in written Japanese East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 Summary: Korean In the 15th century, King Sejong invented the Korean alphabet hangŭl Letter shapes are based on principles of articulatory phonetics Chinese characters are still used occasionally in South Korea to write borrowed Chinese morphemes East Asian Writing Systems

Asian 401 May 27, 2005 End East Asian Writing Systems