Chinese radicals as distinctive marks of language. (June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nie, Hongyin
• Is Part Of: Journal of Chinese writing systems. Volume 3:Number 2(2019:Jun.)
• Page Start: 115
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Subjects: Character borrowing -- Chinese character -- distinctive mark -- non-Chinese imitation -- semantic reading; Chinese language -- Morphology -- Periodicals; Chinese language -- Etymology -- Periodicals; Chinese language -- Etymology; Chinese language -- Morphology; Periodicals; 495.111
• DOI: 10.1177/2513850219839224
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2513-8502

Abstract

People of the southern ethnic minorities in China used to create their own scripts by imitating Chinese characters, in which some inherent Chinese radicals are borrowed, which indicate how the characters should be read semantically in their native language rather than in Chinese. This method, unexplainable by traditional Chinese theory, may not be regarded as a valid way of character creation, but proves to be an ignored fact existing in the "Southern Scripts of Chinese Imitation".