Asia's Orthographic Dilemma

[badger2]

This is a political thread, because the introduction of a Japanese alphabet makes it so. Because the Japanese have never used an alphabet, introducing such a thing makes it political due to an alphabet's overall efficiency, which efficiency translates to political economy, an economy that begins in elementary school: Japanese children are forming consonants long before they enter any school, though they have never seen graphic representations of these consonants standing on their own, they are always hidden by the syllabary. If Japanese children were shown an alphabet of 26 letters with which to learn to write their language, it would be impossible not to call it political if and when it was begun to be used in their society.

We invite arguments that rebut the politics of reading and writing systems.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

No.
political

• adj.
  Of, relating to, or dealing with the structure or affairs of government, politics, or the state.

How do you not know it is a social movement promoted and funded from NGOs? Corporations?

 

[Auld Phart]

no, it does not.

moved to General Discussion

 

[badger2]

Affairs of government and the State do not exist without written language. Because it does not yet exist, the very idea of introducing, adopting, and using a Japanese alphabet would concern the State, government, and politics, making the very idea political. Learning it, using it, transmitting it, while others would not, makes it real and political. At that very point, the Japanese alphabet's use becomes a political weapon-tool which begins to trump, by its sheer and inherent alphabetical efficiency, the problematics of Asian orthography.

 

[badger2]

Biden's use of the term, "existential threat" can and should be compared to this thread, because of the possibility of there being a vote after introduction and use of said alphabet. duh

 

[Unkotare]

In case anyone was wondering, nothing in the OP makes any sense. There is nothing political about the development of hiragana or katagana. The OP seems to have some strange agenda, but does not seem to have a clue.

 

[Unkotare]

In case anyone was wondering, nothing in the OP makes any sense. There is nothing political about the development of hiragana or katagana. The OP seems to have some strange agenda, but does not seem to have a clue.

.

 

[braalian]

Don’t the Japanese already use romaji sometimes?

 

[Unkotare]

Don’t the Japanese already use romaji sometimes?

Very frequently. It's also part of the language.

 

[TheParser]

The OP has raised an important issue.

I feel that China will NEVER become the No. 1 nation in the world because of its cumbersome language.

Americans and Europeans and Latin Americans and Africans and Asians are simply NOT going to be afraid of a nation whose language consists of thousands of characters that one has to memorize.

If China wants to take over the world, it will have to have an alphabet.

(And Japanese is even more complicated!!!)

 

[braalian]

A real simplification of the Chinese and Japanese alphabets is long overdue.

 

[Unkotare]

The OP has raised an important issue.

I feel that China will NEVER become the No. 1 nation in the world because of its cumbersome language.

Americans and Europeans and Latin Americans and Africans and Asians are simply NOT going to be afraid of a nation whose language consists of thousands of characters that one has to memorize.

If China wants to take over the world, it will have to have an alphabet.

(And Japanese is even more complicated!!!)

That is unbelievably ridiculous. Because YOU don't understand something it's too "cumbersome"? You should hear what many students of the English language have to say.

 

[Unkotare]

A real simplification of the Chinese and Japanese alphabets is long overdue.

Already been done. Long ago.

 

[braalian]

You should hear what many students of the English language have to say.

Ricky Ricardo learning English spelling and the many joys of words ending in “ough”

 

[braalian]

Already been done. Long ago.

That why I said a REAL simplification.

Cause simple it ain’t.

 

[Unkotare]

That why I said a REAL simplification.

Cause simple it ain’t.

Nothing is "simple" until you understand it. Where do you think Hiragana came from? And the written Mandarin used in mainland China is a simplified form of the traditional style still used widely in Taiwan.

 

[braalian]

Nothing is "simple" until you understand it. Where do you think Hiragana came from? And the written Mandarin used in mainland China is a simplified form of the traditional style still used widely in Taiwan.

I get it.

Unfamiliar things seem harder to outsiders. That part is subjective.

But these languages are just objectively more difficult. It is objectively more difficult to learn thousands of characters than it is to learn 26.

Arabic writing is just as “alien” to English, French or Russian speakers as Chinese is. But Chinese is more difficult to learn because Arabic has a limited number of characters to memorize.

 

[Unkotare]

.....

But these languages are just objectively more difficult. .....

That sentence is the very definition of subjective.

 

[braalian]

That sentence is the very definition of subjective.

More characters = more difficult

 

[Unkotare]

... It is objectively more difficult to learn thousands of characters than it is to learn 26.
...

26 what? Letters, right? We put letters together to make the 500,000 - 1 million words in the English language. You don't need to know all one million words in order to speak, read, and write English for all practical purposes. We put words together to make sentences, right? How many possible sentences are there in English? How many paragraphs? How many stories, reports, essays or accounts?