On Chinese Writing: Evolution

Re:On Chinese Writing: Evolution by jwmullally on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:58PM (#14186432)

The movable-type printing press was invented 400 years earlier in China than Europe, but failed to take off due to the high number of characters (amoung other complexities).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type

> The world's first movable type printing press technology for printing paper books was [...] invented in ancient China around AD 1040 by [...] Bi Sheng

> Around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg made another version of a metal movable-type printing press in Europe

> The printing press may be regarded as one of the key factors fostering the Renaissance and due to its effectiveness, its use spread around the globe.

> The more limited number of characters needed for European languages was an important factor.

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Re:On Chinese Writing: Evolution by sunwooz on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:24PM (#14188962)

Would've been interesting if China adopted or developed an alphabet system to make it better suited for movable type printing earlier on.

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Re:On Chinese Writing: Evolution by kfihihc on Monday April 24, 2017 @10:51PM (#14190373)

That would be terrible.

There are[1] short story write with hanyu pinyin(a latin alphabet system) which all words with the same pronunciation.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_...

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