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<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Chinese Language and Script (www.chinaknowledge.de)</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../System/styles.css" type="text/css"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta name="description" content="An introduction into the Chinese language and script."> <meta name="DC.creator" content="Ulrich Theobald"> <meta name="DC.Publisher" content="Ulrich Theobald"> <meta name="DC.Language" content="en"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../../System/ding.ico" type="image/x-icon"> </head> <body> <div class="im-centered"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-3 navigationleft"> <a href="../../index.html"><img src="../../System/logo.png" width="75" height="86" border="0" title="Home"></a> </div> <div class="col-6"> <div class="title">ChinaKnowledge.de -</div> <div class="subtitle">An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art</div> </div> <div class="col-3"> <div> <script> (function() { var cx = '013050407773911876316:n9qohf_gclw'; var gcse = document.createElement('script'); gcse.type = 'text/javascript'; gcse.async = true; gcse.src = 'https://cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=' + cx; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s); })(); </script> <gcse:search></gcse:search> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="im-centered"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-3 article"> </div> <div class="col-9"> <ul> <li class="navigationbarhorizontal"><a href="../../index.html">HOME</a></li> <li class="navigationbarhorizontal"><a href="../../History/history.html">History/Politics</a></li> <li class="navigationbarhorizontal"><a href="../../Literature/literature.html">Literature</a></li> <li class="navigationbarhorizontal"><a href="../../Literature/Script/script.html">Language/Script</a></li> <li class="navigationbarhorizontal"><a href="../../Literature/Religion/philosophy.html">Philosophy</a></li> <li class="navigationbarhorizontal"><a href="../../Literature/Religion/religions.html">Religions</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="im-centered"> <div class="header"> <h1>Chinese Language and Script</h1> </div> </div> <div class="im-centered"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-3 navigationleft"> <ul> <li><a href="language.html">Chinese Language</a></li> <li><a href="hanzi.html">Chinese Script</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="col-6 article"> <p>With 1.5 billion speakers, the Chinese language is the most spoken language of the world. It is nevertheless one single language that is spoken in the same form in all parts of China, nor has it been unchanged over time.</p> <p>The script by which the Chinese language is written is an ideographic script embedded into clouds of mystery. It is an obstacle for education and literacy and has nevertheless been used for a vast treasury of literature. And is has provided an example for the scripts of neighbouring states.<br> This part of the encyclopaedia provides an introduction into important aspects of both the Chinese language and the Chinese script.</p> <table id="t05"> <tr> <th>About the Chinese Language</td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="language.html">The Chinese Language</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="wenyan.html">Classical Chinese (<i>wenyan</i> 文言)</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Topolects ("Dialects")</td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="../Science/guangyun.html">The <i>Guangyun</i> 廣韻 rhyme system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="sherhymes.html">The <i>she</i> 攝 rhymes</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="fanqie.html">The <i>fanqie</i> 反切 system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="zhiyin.html">The homophony (<i>zhiyin</i> 直音) systems</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="qieyin.html">The <i>qieyin</i> 切音 transcription systems</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="ladingxua.html">The <i>Ladingxua sin wenz</i> 拉丁化新文字 transcription system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="gwoyeu.html">The <i>Gwoyeu Romatzyh</i> 國語羅馬字 transcription system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="zhuyin.html">The <i>Zhuyin</i> 注音字母 transcription system (Bo-po-mo-fo)</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="pinyin.html">The <i>Hanyu pinyin</i> 漢語拼音 transcription system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="wadegiles.html">The Wade-Giles transcription system</a><br><a href="wadegilespinyin.html">Wade-Giles to Hanyu Pinyin conversion table</a></td> </tr> <tr> <th>About the Chinese Script</th> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="hanzi.html">Chinese script</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="hanzi-simplification.html">Character simplification</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Calligraphy</td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="radicals.html">The radical systems</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="sijiao.html">The <i>sijiao haoma</i> 四角號碼 "four corners" system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="shangxiaxing.html">Lin Yutang's two corners instant index system 上下形檢字法</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="zuoshangwen.html">Liu Dah-ren's left-top speedy radical system 左上文快檢部首</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="guixie.html">The <i>guixie</i> 庋擷 Harvard-Yenching indexing system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="cangjie.html">The <i>Cangjie</i> 倉頡 system</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Computer codification and input systems</td> </tr> <tr> <th>Derivates of the Chinese script</th> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="khitanscript.html">The Khitan script</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="jurchenscript.html">The Jurchen script</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Tangut script</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Japanese Kanji</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Japanese Kana</td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Vietnamese Chữ Nôm script</td> </tr> <tr> <th>Other scripts and languages used in China</th> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="turkicscript.html">The Türkic script (Orkhon script)</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="phagspascript.html">The 'Phags-pa script</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Manchu script</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Nü shu, Women's script</td> </tr> </table> </div> <div class="col-3 navigationright"> <ul> <li class="navigationbar"><a href="wadegilespinyin.html">Wade-Giles/Pinyin Conversion Table</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="im-centered"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-9 footer"> <p>2000ff. © Ulrich Theobald · <a href="mailto:theobald_uli@hotmail.com">Mail</a> · <a href="../../About/about.html">About</a></p> </div> <div class="col-3 donate"> <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="XY7FBVYVKXS4J"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!"> <img alt="" valign="bottom" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/de_DE/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"> </form> </div> </div> </div> </body> </html>