Re: Writing as a Conservitizing Agent in Language

> The pronunciation clues are pretty specific to
> Mandarin and Cantonese and
> other closely related 'dialects'.
Rather they are specific to whichever Middle Chinese
(or earlier) dialect the speaker who cobbled the
character spoke.  Which dialects actually get the most
milage out of the clue depends on which one happens to
be closest to that ancient dialec after sound changes
for that syllable.

> None of this changes the fact that the characters
> are still used as if they
> conveyed only semantic information and the phonetic
> component is pretty much
> ignored as irrelevant.
>
Not so.  I lived in Taiwan for three years and
frequently observed students making educated guesses
as to pronunciation based on those cluse and even
adults useing such clues to guess at the pronunciation
of obscure characters (for which I had a penchant).

Adam

> stevo
>

11 Ed ingredjandu ad il bedi, videruns al credura simu al Maja, il seu marri; ad
caderuns ed adoruns sivi, ed abriruns uls sustrus tesorus ed eviruns al jura,
ul crisu djul Livanunu, ed murra.

Machu 2:11

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