Re: Chinese writing systems

Florian Rivoal scripsit:

> Homophones or the same word, not easy to say. I would say they are the
> same word in oral language, and different ones in writen language. But
> isn't that saying that they are homophones?
Not really.  It's an artificial non-traditional distinction introduced
under Western influence.  It's about as if English-speakers decided
to restrict the spelling "blue" to dark blue, and use "bloo" for light
blue, both pronounced the same, under the influence of Russian, which
has separate words for the two.

--
I am expressing my opinion.  When my            John Cowan
honorable and gallant friend is called,         jcowan@reutershealth.com
he will express his opinion.  This is           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
the process which we call Debate.                   --Winston Churchill