Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by gfaure on Saturday August 20, 2016 @04:38PM
(#12328214)
That is a part of the analogy which definitely applies -- Chinese script (even Simplified) often completely ignores Huffman coding-like principles. Otherwise we wouldn't have words like 繼續 "continue" (41 strokes).
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Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by dou4cc on Saturday August 20, 2016 @11:59PM
(#12329299)
People like you looking for less strokes in China mix both English and 中文 words in a passage, which is silly in my opinion.
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by yorwba on Saturday August 20, 2016 @06:08PM
(#12328474)
For comparison, the letters in "continue" have approximately 15 strokes total.
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by pacaro on Saturday August 20, 2016 @08:20PM
(#12328895)
Or two strokes and a dot in cursive. A principle that also applies in Chinese and Japanese
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by labster on Saturday August 20, 2016 @08:04PM
(#12328865)
続く is 14 strokes, so Japanese beats English!
I could go on ... and "go on" is only 6 strokes.
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by vacri on Saturday August 20, 2016 @10:17PM
(#12329140)
You could just use the ellipsis, and use only three strokes. Or even simpler, an em-dash at one stroke. :)
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by leemailll on Saturday August 20, 2016 @06:26PM
(#12328538)
继续 21 strokes
jixu 8 strokes
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by vorg on Saturday August 20, 2016 @07:42PM
(#12328805)
继续 is 21 strokes when printed, but less when foreigners in China like me write them when we handwrite them quickly.
继 is 5 strokes handwritten (纟,䒑,丨,八,乚 each written in one stroke) and 续 is 4 (纟,十over乛,氵,人 each as one stroke), so that's 9 altogether.
Mainland Chinese who learn handwriting at school have a way of writing each character with only one or two strokes.
Re:If English were written like Chinese (1999)
by vacri on Saturday August 20, 2016 @10:22PM
(#12329148)
If you're only counting pen-down-pen up as a single stroke regardless of smooth movement, then any cursive word in any latin-based alphabet is a single stroke, unless it has an 'i/j' or some sort of diacritic in it (some people cross 't' in their cursive, some people do it separately).