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Korea Returning Chinese Character

I am just curious; how come the Japanese and Koreans not complete their language by creating their own characters?

Why depend on another script which is not for them?

For example, the Chinese don't depend on Russian or Sanskrit or Brahmi scripts.

Then how is eastern Asia so incomplete in linguistics despite having such big pride in each of these countries?
 
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I am just curious; how come the Japanese and Koreans not complete their language by creating their own characters?

Why depend on another script which is not for them?

For example, the Chinese don't depend on Russian or Sanskrit or Brahmi scripts.

Then how is eastern Asia so incomplete in linguistics despite having such big pride in each of these countries?

The peripheral cultures borrow from the core state or core culture. No surprise. The western Europe adopted Latin. The post colonial states adopted the alphabet from their colonial masters and very often, ditch their own language and adopt their master's language.

That is how Africa become Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone.
 
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But why does Japanese sound so different from Chinese when spoken? Even the names have more syllables than Chinese names?
 
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Good News, at least we can read the road name in Korea streets ^_^
 
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I am just curious; how come the Japanese and Koreans not complete their language by creating their own characters?

Why depend on another script which is not for them?

For example, the Chinese don't depend on Russian or Sanskrit or Brahmi scripts.

Then how is eastern Asia so incomplete in linguistics despite having such big pride in each of these countries?

Tujhe kaise pata chala?

How can you say what is for them and what is not?

Did you study philology?
 
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But why does Japanese sound so different from Chinese when spoken? Even the names have more syllables than Chinese names?
Same characters, same meaning, completely different when spoken, that's it; Bcs Korea and Japan had no words only speak language, then used Chinese characters as their writing characters, then developed their own writing words based on Chinese characters, so I can't speak their language but can read on paper and know the meanings
 
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But why does Japanese sound so different from Chinese when spoken? Even the names have more syllables than Chinese names?

This is a good question. The answer to this question will tell you why Chinese remains aln unity state while Roman get fragmented. There is no such thing as homogeneous Han people. We are all different tribe. Our father could even be from different language family.

However, the use of Chinese character eventually amalgamated us into one race.

Chinese character do not preserve phonetic information well, but rather preserve the meaning that the character represent. So Japanese could use Chinese characters and pronounce it with Japonic lexicon. This is call "Kun yomi" 訓読み in Japanese. Or they could borrow it phonetically from Han Chinese as well. Japanese call it 音読み.

Han Chinese could pronounce it the way we like.

But eventually all tribe who borrow Chinese characters are going to converge into a single race, especially if they are ruled by China. This is how Min Nan (my lect), Cantonese and Mandarin become one people although we could even be different race years back.
 
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Finally, I have been expecting this news for too long.
why? actually the likelyhood that Korea abandons her actual writing characters and returns to Chinese origin is like expecting having snowfall in South Vietnam. :lol:
 
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why? actually the likelyhood that Korea abandons her actual writing characters and returns to Chinese origin is like expecting having snowfall in South Vietnam. :lol:

You have a despise for own culture. You do not understand your own culture as well as Korean. Chinese characters is like Latin alphabet and it is a international way of writing system. Chinese characters is Vietnamese own tradition as well and Ho Chi Minh adores it. Latin is imported by your colonial master.

Below is Ho Chi Minh's caligraphy.

174993dnX340_b.jpg


USA tried to Latinized Japanese but Japan resisted it ferociously. Then USA tried to reduce Kanji. Their plans were taken down by Japanese eventually.

The Kana, They Are A-Changin’ | Tofugu

There is a lot of elite and grassroot support for Chinese characters in Korea. In 2009, they are able to rally an incredible 20 out of 21 living former Korean prime ministers petitioned for a return to Hanja education, to Lee Myung Bak's government. You cannot make 95% of ruling and opposition elites fighting for a common cause unless a hell lot of people agree that this is the only way good for the country.

º«¹ú20ÈÎÀúÈÎÇ°×ÜÀíÉÏÊé´Ùºº×Ö½ÌÓý_ÐÂÎÅÖÐÐÄ_ÐÂÀËÍø

改正 經緯
前文
第1章 總綱
第2章 國民의 權利와 義務
第3章 國會
第4章 政府
第1節 大統領
第2節 行政府
第1款 國務總理와 國務委員
第2款 國務會議
第3款 行政各部
第4款 監査院
第5章 法院
第6章 憲法裁判所
第7章 選擧管理
第8章 地方自治
第9章 經濟
第10章 憲法改正
附則

悠久한 歷史와 傳統에 빛나는 우리 大韓國民은 3.1運動으로 建立된 大韓民國臨時政府의 法統과 不義에 抗拒한 4.19民主理念을 繼承하고, 祖國의 民主改革과 平和的 統一의 使命에 立脚하여 正義·人道와 同胞愛로써 民族의 團結을 공고히 하고, 모든 社會的 弊習과 不義를 打破하며, 自律과 調和를 바탕으로 自由民主的 基本秩序를 더욱 確固히 하여 政治·經濟·社會·文化의 모든 領域에 있어서 各人의 機會를 均等히 하고, 能力을 最高度로 發揮하게 하며, 自由와 權利에 따르는 責任과 義務를 完遂하게 하여, 안으로는 國民生活의 均等한 向上을 기하고 밖으로는 恆久的인 世界平和와 人類共榮에 이바지함으로써 우리들과 우리들의 子孫의 安全과 自由와 幸福을 永遠히 確保할 것을 다짐하면서 1948年 7月 12日에 制定되고 8次에 걸쳐 改正된 憲法을 이제 國會의 議決을 거쳐 國民投票에 의하여 改正한다.
1987年10月29日

Above is content page and part of Korean constitutiion in Korean languages. Korean cannot do without Chinese characters. Their elites are good at it. This is a open secret.

Now the elite want to spread the good thing to peasant, that they have guarded closely to themselves.

FYI all Vietnam super cultural elites support Chu Nom. They are now waiting for the right time to bring it back.
 
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The problem with pure Korean alphabets (Hangul) is that Korean language is largely based on loan words from Chinese, so you get lots of lots of homophones that readers have to guess from contexts. Chinese is just not phonetic language, and pronunciation is not what unifies various Chinese dialects. Even now, Korean newspapers etc have to use parenthesis to indicate what Chinese words some complex terms are referring to.

I have quite a few Korean friends. I can even communicate with my Korean friends by writing to each other on piece of paper:P Sometimes pronunciations are very similar to my dialect. Korean names are pretty much based on Chinese characters so they have to know some Chinese characters in order to know their own names, which I believe stille hold true with respect to Vietnamese names, but I think most Vietnamese don't even know what their names mean.
I think if we use Chữ Nôm (字喃/ᨸ喃/ᦂ喃 [cɨ̌ˀnom]), you can read and understand them, too. Unlike China, we have fewer family names, most common familiy names are Nguyen or Trinh, the former Vietnamese dynasties. Sure, we know their meanings.

100px-Chu_Han_-_chu_Nho_-_Han_tu.png



Ch
 
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@Lux de Veritas

If a country uses Chinese characters or shares Sinitic culture and Confucianism it has nothing to do with them being friends or enemies of China.

Remember that the closets allies of Ming dynasty China were the Sulu Sultanate (Muslim, use Arabic script), Ryukyu (use Chinese script and confucianism), Malacca Sultanate (Muslim, use Arabic script), Korea (use chinese characters and confucianism)

Biggest Enemies of China in Ming dynasty were Japan (used chinese script and sinitic influenced culture), Dai Viet (vietnam, use chinese script and confucianism and culture is sinitic influenced), Oirat Mongols (use mongol script snd practice lamaist buddhism), Burma (indic buddhist culture and brahmic script).
 
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Vietnam has latinized its language and from sources I gathered, it is more difficult for Viet to return to Chu Nom than Japanese or Koreans. The latinize Viet codification was thought to be ugly, and causes much ambiguity. Right now, Chu Nom is not as dead as many Vietnamese peasants are thinking. The Chinese Vietnamese who have studied Chinese as a language in special program picks up Chu Nom easily.

I foresee the reinstitution of Chu Nom will follow the below path.

1) Chinese Vietnamese and Vietnamese students studying in China will be the cultural elites and first to pick up Chu Nom.

2) Due to emergence of China, Vietnam will offer Mandarin as 2nd language and many Vietnamese will go tri-lingual (Viet, Mandarin and English). These students will auto learn Chu Nom

3) China will flood Vietnam will China MNC. Those Chu Nom elites will be rewarded. It will spur more Vietnamese to learn Chinese.

4) Korean and Japanese MNC in Vietnam will require those with proficiency in Chinese characters. As Vietnamese work in Korean and Japanese MNC, they will pick up Korean and Japanese and eventually Chu Nom.

5) There will be a long period of time where Chu Nom and quốc ngữ will be used in parallel. Whether Chu Nom can totally replace Quoc Ngu or not, I not not able to predict. But Chu Nom will make a come back. That is for sure.

Today Samsung is the biggest MNC in Vietnam (sorry is my info correct)? When Korea go for Hanja, Samsung Viet managers will learn Korean and Hanja. Eventually, Viet will return to Chu Nom.
 
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why? actually the likelihood that Korea abandons her actual writing characters and returns to Chinese origin is like expecting having snowfall in South Vietnam. :lol:

I'm not saying that they should abandon their current writing style but use some Han-zi for important term just like what Japanese do. That will be suitable for the people of the three countries to communicate with each other.
For example we can read most of the menu in a Japanese restaurant (local), but we can't understand a word of Korean in their menu (local).
 
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