Chapter 3 Three Chinese languages

Three Chinese Languages ​​1 Under the arrangement of an uncle from far away, I frequently live in a Cantonese mutual aid club in Beijing. This kind of club or regional mutual aid club - called club in the United States, means "meeting hall", refers to people in a certain area or a certain An organization where a family group helps their fellow countrymen in a strange place.There are generally places where travelers live, and sometimes there are schools and teachers of their own to help them meet unexpected needs. In fact, members of this kind of club come from the same place, speak the same dialect, and have a natural affinity.Family affection is a part of the Chinese family system, and it is also a very real emotion.A man helps his relatives from his own race, and he is sincerely proud that such a distinguished member of his country has appeared.

Living in the clubhouse of fellow villagers in Guangdong, Zhu Pin's sense of loneliness has eased a lot, because he now has many friends.Some low-level officials' families from their hometowns also live here.He doesn't feel alone and he can converse with them happily in Cantonese. Zhu Pin thought he should learn Mandarin to make it easier for him to integrate into the city, but he hasn't done so yet.His pronunciation is not good.On his first day in Beijing, he wanted to buy a morning newspaper, but the waiter brought him steamed buns with stuffing.He pronounced it incorrectly, both words are pronounced pao-tse, but with different tones.

Putonghua, especially the purer Beijing language, is the national language of China and is spoken throughout China in one form or another.Dialects vary widely, but apart from the provinces along the southeastern coast, as already mentioned, the differences are not so great that the Manchus in the northwest cannot communicate normally with the Yunnanese in the southwestern border.There are three main dialect groups in the coastal zone between Guangzhou and Shanghai, apart from the Shanghai Dashan which separates the remaining dialect areas from the rest of China: Shanghainese, Fujianese and Cantonese.The differences between the dialects themselves and between the dialects and the Chinese language family are as great as the differences between Italian and Spanish.Foreigners are more familiar with these dialects than pure Mandarin because businessmen abroad often use them to communicate and communicate.But starting from Shanghai and passing the Yangtze River, people speak with only a slight accent, which is no more different from Beijing Mandarin than a Virginian's voice is from a New Englander.All school courses are now taught in Mandarin, which has spread throughout China.

(Most Chinese immigrants to the United States are Cantonese, and they speak Cantonese dialects; on the other hand, overseas Chinese in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore speak Hokkien-Amoy dialect.) Chinese belongs to the Indo-Tibetan language family, which includes Chinese and Tibetan.Siamese and Burmese. (It's completely different from Japanese, and irrelevant.) These languages ​​have many characteristics: they are composed of monosyllables, which means that the vast majority of words are composed of monosyllabic words; different words are distinguished by different tones.However, each root word is exactly one syllable, because it is difficult to determine which word it contains.There are many two-syllable Chinese characters, such as huo, which means "fire", and che, which means

"Car" becomes huoche, which means "train". Electrictalk means "telephone" and Electricsee means "television".But the monosyllabic basic words are always recognizable. The various syllables appear to be the same - li, liu, lin, long are examples - and they are limited in number.They don't have syllables with two final consonants, like lsp, usk, arp, ost, or even syllables like a single consonant, like it, ik, lp.There are also no double consonants, like SP-, St-. sir-, br-, or dr-.Some of the final P, t and k's remain in southern dialects.Common names such as Chiang Kai-shek, which is the Cantonese pronunciation (Chieh-shih is the Mandarin pronunciation). The spelling of the Chiang surname originated during the popularization of the language by the Kuomintang in Guangdong, and it has spread rapidly since then.The final consonants that only exist in Mandarin now are n and ng. This is because they are musical and make them easy to produce musical intonation, which is why we can quickly pronounce surnames like chang, chin, and chen.

A curious consequence is that Chinese has only about four hundred syllable forms in all, through which words in all languages ​​are expressed.Different languages ​​have their own patterns: Italian and Hawaiian always prefer vowels at the end (Roma, MIlano, Honolulu); German doesn't care about explosive consonants, like hM. Ch, nuch.For example, the British tend to soften these consonant forms: the words slaughter and flight are related to the words Schlacht and Flucht, and while still retaining ght in spelling, they are no longer pronounced.The hobbies of different nationalities subtly affect the changes of national languages.

Because of the limited number of similar monosyllabic characters, Chinese gradually differentiates words based on tones.Chinese is constantly eliminating consonants at the end, such as p, t, k, and even m, which are known to have existed in the time of Confucius, and are still preserved in Hokkien and Cantonese.The same syllable has different meanings in different intonations.The same syllable indicates very different things when the pronunciation changes.There are only four tones in Chinese.Tao is an excellent example of how the meaning of a word changes with tone. A tao = knife The second tone of t'ac= peach

Three tones of tao = escape Four tones of tao = to, way A voice like John, as you whispered to him from a distance. Twice gliding out, like a person asking a question: "Are you sure, John?" Three slow and soft voices, like a soft reproach: "Okay, okay, John, it doesn't matter." Four voices, very sudden, like an urgent order; "John!" Chinese people speak without realizing the pronunciation.If you ask a Cantonese how many tones there are in their dialect, his answer is no.He speaks only with a natural tonal character, the same way a German child who speaks half a year (halbes Jahr) would never think of it as neuter.He also never said haterJahr (masculine) or halbeJahr (feminine) because he had never heard of it.

Although there are only four tones, Chinese still has about 1,600 syllable forms in the four tones.However, there are still many words with the same pronunciation and the same tone, which prompted the evolution of ancient Chinese, not toward the spelling of letters but toward a type of writing image. The spelling order of the letters is based on the different sounds, obviously it cannot distinguish the different meanings of a word, the pronunciation with different tones can indicate different things.The writing of Chinese characters originally appeared as a pictorial system, but this description is only partially correct.In the original sense, most symbolic words are single images.These forms became fixed over time.

Later that changed.Because languages ​​rarely have syllabic forms, many words appear to be the same when spelled. The word "bao", with different spellings, refers to different things: "a bag", "hug", "run", "eat well", "a robe", "a bubble", "firecrackers", etc. Wait.It's so confusing. The most basic symbolic meaning of "bao" originally came from the image of a fetus conceived in the mother's womb. To distinguish one pao from another in spelling, the Chinese developed a lexical hierarchy called "roots," adding radicals to basic symbolic words to identify different things.So pao becomes a pure phonetic symbol, and we have the following series of characters: root meaning hug bag plus hand hug running bag plus feet running robe bag plus clothing a robe full bag plus food next to eat a full bubble bag plus water A Bubble Cannon Pack plus Fire Firecrackers

The image principle works, but is limited in its use.There are many occasions where it is necessary to distinguish images of sand from images of rice.Thus, a bird's footprint at the water's edge (river) is used to represent sand.Yet how does one use images to represent the word "but"?Obviously this is impossible, the ancient Chinese "borrow" means "ignite a fire", and use it to mean "but", because they have the same pronunciation.Gradually many important words are widely used due to their phonetic value, and this phonetic symbol plus word root has become the most common way to create Chinese characters.As we saw above with the "bag" example, the keyword becomes a phonetic symbol and develops other features. Three Chinese Languages ​​2 Today's most complete Chinese encyclopedia dictionary lists more than 40,000 such word-forming features, and about three-quarters of them are ancient and dialect words that are not used in current literature.A good comprehensive collegiate dictionary includes about 14000 such features.It is enough for a small urban publishing house to be familiar with such characteristics as 7000 to 9000.A well-educated person should know these word-formation features, but a person who is familiar with 3000 to 4000 such features can read newspapers proficiently.This is what a Chinese high school student should master.Where many of these features are varied, or repeated, or used only in a few places, further limitations are possible.The Japanese use Chinese word-formation features, but the number of these features has been officially limited. There are about 1,850 such features in use now, and elementary school students only need to master about 800 such features.From the polysyllabic features of Chinese vocabulary we talked about above, it is easy to see that 2,000 such features constitute a large number of words; school, society, education, illustration, meeting, and settlement are all two-syllable words spelled as two characteristic. This way of writing is a double-edged sword for China. It is indeed too difficult. If you want to practice writing beautiful and well-formed calligraphy without painstakingly learning these characteristics, it will not work.This exercise in the pursuit of beautiful calligraphy has consumed incalculable hours.It also limits the popularity of culture among the populace.Literacy became the privilege of the intellectual class. There were four social classes in ancient Chinese society: the first was scholar-officials, the second was peasants, the third was artists, and the fourth was businessmen: among them, scholar-bureaucrats were always the most respected. For more than a thousand years, one of the most unique things in Chinese civilization has been the feudal examination system, the national examination for intellectuals.For an intellectual, there is always a chance to become famous throughout the country, and to gain national recognition and honor. These exams are like a series of tests that select national champions in the field of literature.First, an intellectual must pass a local exam, confined to the area in which he lives.Those who pass these exams with honors or honors (similar to a bachelor's degree) are eligible to sit for the provincial exam.Successful players who passed the provincial examination (similar to a master's degree) could participate in the palace examination held every three years in the capital, proctored by the emperor himself.These exam questions include historical essays, moral essays, current political issues, classical art, and poetry.One can imagine how glorious it is to be the national champion among many intellectuals!The emperor personally rewarded him with a white horse and paraded through the capital.The emperor also usually betrothed a princess to him as a wife, and he was awarded a high rank in the government.He "flyed to the top".This is an achievement worth working hard and cherishing, and it is also the goal that intellectuals all over China strive for and dream of. Whether it is first or not, passing the palace examination is a great honor in itself, and it is also an acknowledgment of one's knowledge.In the Confucian temple in the capital, the names of these intellectuals were engraved on stone tablets in their honor.A hundred years later, a village can still remember that an intellectual once became a Jinshi.The whole village and the whole family are proud of it.Most Jinshi were appointed as Grand Scholars or Hanlin, and were in charge of the compilation work of the Imperial Academy.Others were appointed magistrates. These exams became a means for state agencies to select talents, and the entire country's educational system was built around this examination system.Rural schools, provincial universities and intellectuals train players.Some intellectuals have been known to struggle to pass these exams in their old age.Passing the exam is success in itself.Failure in these exams, even at the district level, is considered a major failure in life.There are many excellent intellectuals in modern schools who have failed such examinations.There are also some special universities that have nothing to do with this kind of examination.They were the rudiments of a true university, the academies, dedicated to research and learning.Under the guidance of a mentor, academy members help to raise the standards of young intellectuals, though without degrees.An academy is a free organization of intellectuals dedicated to learning.According to their status, grades and family background, those who passed the national examination were selected as cabinet ministers, government officials and civil servants.The intellectuals naturally became the ruling class.This is a good thing, this status is achieved on individual performance and talent; everyone with the potential to learn in this area has a chance, because families are actually willing to invest in motivated children.Knowledge is always respected.Unfortunately, success is limited to those who have mastered poetry and rhyme writing.This examination was abolished in 1904.It is now replaced by examinations at junior schools, intermediate schools and universities. Chinese writing has had a historic impact on Chinese culture.Writing became an important means of unifying China.Regardless of the variety of languages ​​they speak, because the visual characteristics of written words do not depend on pronunciation, they cannot be misunderstood.The symbol of the cross of Christ is a similar example.The English, French and Germans say and spell it differently (Cross, Crois, Kreuz), yet the meaning of the image of the cross is well understood by all nations, independent of language. This has had a profound impact on the emotions of the Chinese people, who have a strong sense of cultural identity and cultural respect.Today, literate Chinese can easily read and accurately understand the works of Confucius. Although the pronunciation has changed a lot in the lost years, the written characters have not changed.Confucius spoke the ancient language, but his written language has not changed.If a person can read modern Chinese literature freely, then with the same training he can read Chinese philosophical classics five hundred, seven hundred or two thousand years ago.Compare the difficulty for Westerners to read the works of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived only six hundred years ago.If the works of Confucius were difficult to read a thousand years ago, would the Chinese still worship Confucius? The writing of pictographs is not affected by time and space.But at the same time it also raises another really huge difficulty.Chinese people have been writing in ancient Chinese for two thousand years, which is completely different from the spoken language of today.Learning ancient Chinese is as labor-intensive as Westerners learning to read and write Latin.For intellectuals in the ruling class, mastering the written language is also a strenuous task. One of the most important revolutions occurred in China in 1917. Hu Shi, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, led the revolution in Chinese character writing and won.All schools now accept this system.This makes writing Chinese characters easier. For these reasons, the monosyllabic character of Chinese has had a profound impact on Chinese history and culture.We don't know where it originally came from, few consonants and syllables, and little emphasis on phonetics.In any case, this makes the Chinese language far away from the writing of Pinyin in the process of formation.This has also gradually formed a highly developed and specialized intellectual class, which has become a powerful force to unify the country and a strong link connecting history.Today mass education is breaking down the privilege of the few who can read and write.I don't think the Chinese will give up their traditional way of writing, because it is associated with Chinese culture and the profound beauty of calligraphy. Calligraphy as an art is comparable to and closely related to painting.But while retaining these features, at least reduce the number currently used as much as possible, and at the same time achieve the purpose of simplifying the text by reducing strokes and eliminating more complex forms. It was a full moon night, and Zhu Pin racked his brains to figure out the spelling of Chinese characters.Now he is tireless.He strolled in the white courtyard of the Guangdong Guild Hall, bathed in the silver moonlight, and his thoughts flew back to his home.A poem his father taught him haunts his mind again.The bright moonlight in front of the bed is suspected to be frost on the ground.Looking up at the bright moon, bowing your head and thinking about your hometown. This is a poem by Li Bai.Zhu Pin read it in Chinese, and felt that he was a complete Chinese.Suddenly, the sheer magic of Chinese phonetics and language—unrivaled simplicity—overwhelmed him.He didn't know why this happened.The brevity of pronunciation and the tones of words are what make Chinese so unique.At this time, he saw the graceful beauty of the Chinese language, and he was eager to learn more.