News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic. Parent comment

Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by panabee on Friday April 07, 2017 @08:11PM (#14064445)
exactly, so not sure whether the original assertion (i.e., most characters lack semantic meaning) is correct, but it's an interesting thought to consider.

someone could prove/disprove this by analyzing the 3000 most common chars and indicating what percentage contain a semantic component (even if obfuscated).

do you know if wikipedia or the parent is correct about 正 as the radical for foot?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by nonabelion on Friday April 07, 2017 @10:59PM (#14065046)
Wikipedia is correct. Radicals do carry a lot of semantic meanings. I think the most apparent examples are the names for chemical elements. For example, the radical 气 means gas. Hellium in Chinese is 氦，hydrogen is 氢. So look at the character you immediately know the natural state of the element. Moreover, even if you don't know a character, if you see it has the radical, you can guess what that is related.
[ Parent | on HN ]