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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Asian 401
May 27, 2005
Origins of Writing
Writing has (we think) been invented only four times in human history:
Sumerians (ca BCE) - cuneiform
Egyptians (ca BCE) - hieroglyphs
Chinese (ca 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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

47. Asian 401
May 27, 2005
End
East Asian Writing Systems