A simple explanation of Chinese characters

Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by agrand on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @04:28AM (#10743208)

OP here. I think the reality is obviously more messy than what the article tends to portray. All natural languages are messy in their own idiomatic ways.

One of the goals of the article was to emphasize the structure in the Chinese language, because most people who are not familiar with it just assume it's just a big bunch of meaningless ideograms.

It's a "simple" introduction, not a thorough one. It's meant to tease people's curiosity. If you start with a negative bias towards Chinese, you won't be able to see where it shines.

Things that you express with tones in English, can be expressed with particles in Chinese. They can also be expressed in other modulations at the sentence level.

Some subtleties of English definitely can't be expressed in Chinese, but the reverse is equally true. And that's the point I want to stress. Chinese is very different, and where there is difference, there is richness.

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Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by imron on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @06:39AM (#10743616)

Hi OP, nice article.

I notice however that you've taken a graphic from the front page of my website: http://www.hanzigrids.com (though interestingly, a slightly older version than the graphic currently there).

You're welcome to keep using it, but it would be nice if you could add some attribution.

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Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by agrand on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @07:41AM (#10743867)

I wasn't sure were it came from (did a google image search for this one), should have been more careful. Fixed.

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Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by imron on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @07:57AM (#10743935)

Thanks!

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Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by oxygenoxy on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @08:08AM (#10743985)

Is it possible to add stroke order to hanzigrids?

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Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by stevendaniels on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @05:16PM (#10747786)

If you're looking for stroke order animations, try out my site , Tasty Mantou: https://www.tastymantou.com/blog/the-best-chinese-character-...

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Re:A simple explanation of Chinese characters by imron on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @06:17PM (#10748140)

It's something I've been planning to add for ages, unfortunately I have a number of other priorities at the moment which mean that work on HG tends to get put on the back burner.

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