Re: The pitfall of Chinese/Mandarin

Cheng Zhong Su wrote:
>Adam Walker wrote:
>I have heard that the distinction in written
> > chinese between <ta> `he'
> > >and <ta> `she' is a recent innovation, perhaps
> > inspired by foreign
> > >languages.
> > Actually, there are even more ta's there's one
> > listed inmy old dictionary
> > (which I've never actually seen used) with the cow
> > radical for animals and
> > there's one (which *is* in use) for divine use with
> > the omen radical. And
> > the ta that means "it" uses a different character
> > altogether.
> >
> > Adam
>Answer: You are right, the three 'ta' in Chinse are
>different in shape. When you read, you won'e mistake,
>but in more case, people exchange ideas by speak not
>by write. So, I think borrowing two sounds 'he' and
>'she' and keeping the old shape may be necessary.
>Yes the 'she' is inspired by foriegn language. It only
>happened in mainland of China, the Taiwanis insist the
>traditional writing system not only no 'she' but very
>hard to write.
>Su Cheng Zhong
Totally irrelevant, but is "Taiwanis" a mispelling of "Taiwanese", or is it
chalked on people-names like "Pakistanis", "Iraqis" etc?

                                                   Andreas

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