Re:Kenya will start teaching Chinese to elementary school st...
by knolax on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @05:40PM
(#18869749)
Yes but the point is that CA and 加州 are both two syllables in speech. In your example, "televison" is 4 syllables whereas "电视" is only two. As you've noted, the writing system has over time created a higher information to syllable ratio. A transition to a writing system with a lower information to syllable ratio would require a complete change in vocabulary and the translation of pretty much all written text.
Re:Kenya will start teaching Chinese to elementary school st...
by FabHK on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @05:48PM
(#18869801)
> the translation of pretty much all written text
Yes, agreed. It would by no means be trivial. Question is whether it would be worth it (in terms of freeing up time for children to study something else, for example).
I don't think so. The components of a polysyllabic word can give (more or less) strong hints to its meaning, but typically the word and its meaning must still be learned. But the same holds for radicals in Chinese characters, and even polysyllabic words in Chinese (电视/電視 is electric + vision, and that's TV. Television is distant + vision, and that's also TV.）
That two characters with 14 bits each carry more information than two characters with 5 bits each is clear, but not a huge advantage of non-alphabetic writing, or a decisive one (compared to the disadvantages).