Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Writing as a Conservitizing Agent in Language

From:<morphemeaddict@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 6, 2007, 12:33
In a message dated 3/5/2007 8:49:42 PM Central Standard Time,
leon_math@YAHOO.COM writes:


> Funny how people always say that... according to zhongwen.com, 82% of > characters are "phonetic complexes" (a part for meaning help, a part for sound > help) > >
The phonetic component is only a clue though, it's not meant to be an actual pronunciation. In many cases, yes, the pronunciation clue is quite sufficient to accurately pronounce the character. In many other cases, though, at least the tone will be different, and in quite a few cases the initial consonant will be different, although typically only in aspiration (the pinyin difference between "b" and "p" for example). The pronunciation clues are pretty specific to Mandarin and Cantonese and other closely related 'dialects'. 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. stevo

Reply

Adam Walker <carrajena@...>