Chinese Written Characters

    Chinese written characters are symbols which stand for the meaningful syllables of the spoken languageMost languages in the world are written with an alphabetAlthough the letters can be different from those of English or pinyinyet the principle is all the sameone letter stands more or less for each consonant or vowel soundChinesehoweveris written with characters (hn z )which stand for the whole syllableThere are about thirteen hundred phonetically distinct syllables in everyday useChinese characters are often referred to asideographswhich suggests that they stand directly for ideasThis is misleadingIt is better to think of the characters as standing for me meaningful syllables of the spoken language
    It is widely believed that Chinese written characterswhich are now in current useare the worlds oldest written language with a history of 3500 yearsThey began as pictures carved in oracle boneswidely known as pictographsThey are also known assquare characters because they are squareshapedOver several thousand yearsChinese characters evolved from pictographs
into squareformed characters consisting of strokeswith their structures becoming systemized and simpler
    Different from the alphabetic script which is spelled out in lettersChinese characters are written in various strokesOut of the thirty odd strokesonly eight are basic ones and all the others are their variantsThe strokes in a character are written according to some fixed rulesOnce the basic strokes and the rules of strokeorder are graspedthe writing of characters will become easyStructurallyChinese characters consist mostly of two or more basic structural components while some other character components stand by themselvesIn the singlecomponent charactersthe strokes are written or arranged as a compact integralbut most of the characters are compound ones which are composed of two or more componentsSome of the components are used as RADICALS
in Chinese dictionariesSo it is of key importance to know the components or RADICALS before you learn how to use a Chinese dictionaryThese character componentsjust like the 26 English lettersare limited in number and the basic strokes that form these components are relatively even more limitedA stroke can be defined as one single unbroken line drawn by the writer from the time the pen touches the paper until the pen lifts off the paperWriting characters in the correct order is essential for the character t0 100k correctThe basic rules are followed
1Top before bottom
   
2Left before right
   
These rules conflict whenever one stroke is to the bottom and left of anotherSeveral additional
rules resolve many of these conflicts
3Left vertical stroke(usually)before top horizontal stroke
   
4Bottom horizontal stroke last
   
5Center stroke before wings
   
6Horizontal strokes before intersecting vertical strokes

7Left-falling strokes before rightfalling strokes
   
A final rule can contradict the others
8Minor strokes(often)last
   
Despite these conflicts between rulesmost learners quickly acquire a natural feel for the prop
er stroke orderIn terms of component ordermost Chinese characters are combinations of simpler,
component charactersUsually the two parts are written at top and bottom
   
or left and right
   
So that the main two stroke order rules readily applyOccasionally these rules also conflict with
respect to componentsWhen one component is at the bottomleftand the other at the top-fight
the top-right component is sometimes written first
   
When there are several componentstop components are written first

These rules usually imply each component is written in its entirety before another component is
writtenExceptions may arise when one component divides another
   
encompasses another
   
    or the individual components are no longer discernible in modem writing
It can be seen that there are rules for the construction of characters and it is helpful to master these rules in learning how to read and write Chinese characters
    Minimal literacy in Chinese calls for knowing about one thousand charactersThese thousand charactersin combination of phrased and grouping wordsgive a reading vocabulary of several thousand wordsFull literacy calls for knowing some three thousand charactersIn order to reduce the amount of time needed to learn Chinese charactersa group of Chinese linguists started reform
ing Chinese language by lchanging the phonetic symbols into pn yn Romanization2)reducing the average number of strokes per character by halfsimplifying Chinese charactersAccording to a statisticsthe language reform in the PeopleS Republic of China in late l950s resulted in simpli
fying altogether 515 characters along with around l500 characters that share certain simplified radicalsTodaysimplified Chinese characters(also known as short-formed characters)are used in the Peoples Republic of China whereas the traditional characters(also known as unsimplified or longformed characters)are used in TaiwanHong Kon9and Macau and by some overseas Chinese
    One reason often provided for the retention of Chinese characters is that they can be readwith the local pronunciationby speakers of all the seven Chinese languagesThis is because the Chinese characters help to keep alive distinctions of meaning between wordswhich are fading in the spoken language

                                     汉语书写特点 

    汉语书写的特点是用汉字来代替各种意义的口语音节，世界上大多数的语言都是书写字母表，尽管英语中的字母和拼音不一样，但其拼写规则是一样的。一个字母或多或少代表某个元音或辅音发音，然而，汉语写的是汉字。一个汉字代表一个完整的音节。每天的日常用语大概会用到1300个不同的音节。汉字通常被认为是表意文字，说明汉字直接代表了它所要表达的意思，这个有点误导嫌疑。把它理解成，汉字代表口语中有含义的音节更为准确。
    普遍认为，现在通用的汉字是拥有3500年历史的世界最老的书写语言。它始于刻在甲骨上的图画，通常认为是古代石壁画。汉字同样被认为是四方体的文字，因为它方方正正。几千年来，汉字由古代石壁画逐渐演变为结构更加系统化、更加简单的、带有笔锋的四方体文字。
    与拼音文字看着字体就能发音不同，汉字由不同的笔锋构成。在三十种稀奇古怪的笔锋中，只有八种是基本笔锋，其他的都是他们的变体。汉字的笔锋是有一定规则的，一旦掌握了其基本笔锋和笔锋构成汉字的规律，汉字的书写就会变得简单。从结构上来说，汉字通常是由两个或两个以上的基本部分构成，其他则单独由一个部分构成。在单组份汉字中，笔锋紧凑而完整。但是大多数的汉字是复合型汉字，由两个或两个以上部分组成。在汉语字典中，汉字的一些偏旁部首作为查询根据使用。因此，在开始学习怎样使用汉语字典之前，必须先学会偏旁部首。这些汉语偏旁部首就像英语中的二十六个字母一样，数目是有限的。而构成汉字的部首数目更加少。一个笔锋被定义为书写者从落笔到抬笔中画出的一条实线。正确书写汉字的基础是书写笔划的顺序要正确，基本规律如下：
    1. 由上至下
    2. 由左至右
    3. 先左竖再上横
    4. 最底部的横最后写
    5. 先中间的竖再两边的点
    6. 若横竖相交，先横后竖
    7. 先撇后那
    8. 顿点放最后
    不管这些规律之间的冲突，大多数学习者很快就会自然而然的体会到笔划的正确书写顺序，按照笔划顺序，很多汉字是由简单的汉字组合而成。通常两个部分上下排列或者左右排列，这就是两个主要的笔划顺序规律。有时候这两个规律也会产生冲突，比如，当一个部首写在左下方，而另一个在右上方，有时候也会先写右上方的部分。如果有几个部分，那么先写上面的部分。这些规律表明，在写其他部分时，要先把一个部分完成才可。但当一个部分被另一个部分分开时则例外。
    汉语初级识字能力要求认识一千个汉字，而这一千个汉字进行组合成成语或短语之后，可以达到几千字的阅读词汇量。高级识字水平要求认识三千多个汉字。为了减少需要学习的汉字数目，早期的一组汉语学家改革了汉语。一、把发音记号用罗马拼音表示。二、把汉字的结构平均减半（汉字简体化）。根据统计，中国二十世纪五十年代的汉字改革简化了515个汉字，把1500个汉字的意思与其他汉字同化。如今，简体中文在中华人民共和国使用。然而，传统文字（也称作繁体字）则在台湾、香港、澳门和被一些海外华人使用。
    记忆文字的一个原因通常认为是因为汉字可以用中国七大方言读出来。这是因为汉字可以帮助区别词义。这一点，汉语口语是做不到的。