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From: erickson@Hawaii.Edu (Blaine Erickson)
Subject: Re: "pitch accent" vs. "tone"
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Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 00:23:57 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:50652 sci.lang.japan:32548

sdlee@cs.hku.hk (Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~})  wrote:

>"Fei" == Fei Li <fli@htc-tech.com> writes:
>
>  Fei>   My favorate: " Shi(4) shi(2), shi(4) shi(2) shi(1) shi(2)
>  Fei> shi(1) shi(2), This time , this stone lion eats wet stone,
>
>  Fei>                  shi(2) shi(1) shi(3) shi(4)" stone lion
>  Fei> begins disappear
>
>  Fei>   Translation: "Now, the stone lion ate wet stone, the stone
>  Fei> lion began to disappear."

>These sentences, though quite extreme, demonstrates  one reason
>why we cannot  replace Chinese characters with a  phonetic
>script!

Perhaps not, but characters *can* be replaced by a *phonemic* script. 
Pinyin and Romatzh Guoyuh (sp?) are just two examples of unambiguous,
Latin alphabet-based systems for writing Mandarin.  Besides, as
pointed out by Fei Li, no one talks this way; the archaisms in this
passage give that away.

>There are too  many characters  which sound closely.

Characters are not the same as words.  Despite popular opinion,
Mandarin and other Chinese languages are *not* predominantly
monosyllabic; in fact, they have plenty of polysyllabic words.  For
this and other myths, see John DeFrancis' "The Chinese Language:  Fact
and Fantasy."

>The  same   happens to Japanese Kanji.  The Japanese tried to 
>eliminate Kanjis with kanas, but failed in the end.

No, they didn't try to eliminate kanji.  The main failure of script
reform in Japan is the nationalists in the Monbusho, who want to have
lots and lots of kanji in use.  In North Korea and Vietnam, however,
Chinese characters have been eliminated from use, and in Vietnam, at
least, literacy rates are much higher now than they were when
characters were in use.  I suspect the same for North Korea, but who
can get reliable information out of The Hermit Kingdom?

Blaine Erickson
erickson@hawaii.edu

