Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has died

Re:Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has ... by nrjdhsbsid on Saturday January 14, 2017 @02:52PM (#13400217)

Does being situational make the language more efficient to speak? You don't need nearly as many words when the meaning is tied to context.

I've always been curious about east Asian languages and culture since they're relatively isolated from Western influence and historic ties to the British empire

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Re:Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has ... by bammyz on Sunday January 15, 2017 @04:11PM (#13406423)

This might be the case for illiterate people, but these days it's mandatory for Mainland Chinese citizens to complete at least 9 years of education. Different words with the same written form usually have different pronunciations, and different words with the same pronunciation usually have different written forms. It's rare for a word to carry different meanings solely depending on context.

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