Lesson 2

Chinese alphabet and pronunciations

English Alphabet

• As you realise the English language which has 26 symbols that construct all our words.

The Chinese Alphabet

• Unlike the English Alphabet– the Chinese alphabet developed from ancient times to now include almost 50,000 symbols each representing an individual word.

Some other Differences

• It’s read from top to bottom• And unlike English where each letter or

combination of letters have a sound Chinese writing is pictorial or based upon pictures.

Cross Language Interpretation

• That means many Chinese who cannot talk to each other due to different dialects can still communicate as their written language is the same.

Chinese Writing

• Originally many Chinese characters were basic pictures of what they were trying to communicate. See if you can guess what these ancient Chinese words say:

Mountains

Fish

Human

Ear

Moon

Rain

Development of Chinese Writing

• Ancient artifacts containing ancient text in many cases can be translated by modern Chinese. This is because the changes have been slight over the years.

Sun Horse Water Tree Bird

Ancient

Modern

Chinese can be written in English

• Pronunciations:– X is pronounced sh. So Xia is shar– Zh is pronounced j – So Zhou is jow– Q is pronounced ch – so Qin is Ch’in

When/how did Chinese writing originate?

• According to Chinese legend a man called Cangjie saw an angel whose face had unusual features that looked like a picture of writings.

When did Chinese writing originate?

• Another story says that Cangjie saw the footprints of birds and beasts in the sand, which inspired him to create written characters.

A More Historical Approach

• Current theories suggest the first emergence of Chinese writing was on the East Coasts about 4500 years ago.

A More Historical Approach

• This ancient Chinese culture was also renowned for their pottery work.

Discovery of Oracle Bones

• Chinese characters carved on ox bones and turtle shells.

• Dated from the Shang period (c1500-1000BC).

Discovery of Oracle Bones

• Discovered 1899 with the help of a common cold.

• Chinese medicines crushed bones/shells as medicines. Some believed they were ‘dragon bones’.

• Wang Yirong, Chinese politician and scholar, was the first to recognize the oracle bones as ancient writing.

Why they were created

• Religious shaman (leaders) – prod the bones or turtle shell with heated tools forming cracks and believed to foretell future events.

What sort of things did the bones say?

• When it came to the fifth day there was alarming news from the west. The Du Fang [a border people] are attacking our eastern borders and have harmed two settlements

• In the following ten days there will be no disaster however, there will perhaps be the coming of alarming news after this.