Chinese characters
Chinese Characters (中文字符)
Chinese characters (中文字符, pronounced: Zhōngwén zìfú) are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. They have been adapted to write a number of other Asian languages. They remain a key component of the Chinese culture.
Etymology
The term "Chinese characters" is a translation of the Chinese phrase "汉字" (Hànzì), which means "Han characters". The Han dynasty was a period in Chinese history when the use of characters became standardized.
Types of Chinese Characters
Chinese characters can be classified into six categories, known as liùshū (六书):
- Xiàngxíng (象形): These are characters that are stylized pictures of the objects they represent.
- Jiǎnhuà (简化): These are simplified characters that are easier to write and remember.
- Huìyì (会意): These are characters that combine two or more pictographic or ideographic characters to suggest the meaning of the word they represent.
- Xíngshēng (形声): These are characters that include a "phonetic" part and a "semantic" part.
- Zhuǎnzhù (转注): These are characters that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings.
- Jiǎjiè (假借): These are characters that are borrowed to represent a different word with the same or similar pronunciation.
Related Terms
- Radical (部首, pronounced: bùshǒu): A key component of the Chinese character, which often provides semantic information.
- Stroke (笔画, pronounced: bǐhuà): The smallest unit of Chinese characters, each stroke is a movement of the pen.
- Simplified Chinese (简体中文, pronounced: jiǎntǐ zhōngwén): A form of written Chinese, developed in the 1950s and 1960s, to increase literacy.
- Traditional Chinese (繁體中文, pronounced: fántǐ zhōngwén): The original form of written Chinese, used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Chinese characters
- Wikipedia's article - Chinese characters
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