TNAG-2591-FCO40-3779-Appointment-of-Chris-Patten-as-new-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--Ap-1992 — Page 45

the war ic3

changing in

ne

Language 15

The earliest forms

inscriptions iating from the

ND A GRAIHA

.39 Sen

二 Josan 1.

Whinese

(riting

thentur“

J.

C

cle-boug

From about 1000 9.0.

more abstract and closer to the

to 200 B.. icture WIL

form of modern characters. The

number of Chinese characters 15 about 16.000, but the Runde

everyday use is about 3000, and a working vocabulary, adequate for, say, reading a newspaper, is 7000 characters.

Most other languages are written in letters which

express the sounds of speech, but the characters in Chinese writing are in the form of picture symbols.

The Chinese also have their "alphabetic" way of writing, by classifying their characters "numerically", under 214 radicals,

for the major objects and functions common in daily life, such as

eye, eat

speak. They serve as roots from

man

人

食

which all other characters are derived.

THE FORMATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS

In the main, Chinese characters can be classified into six categories, according to

according to their formation. They are, in the order of evolution, PICTORIAL, INDICATIONAL, RADICAL, CONNOTATIONAL, BORROWING and TRANSFERRED.

PICTORIAL - characters formed from pictures. Most

Chinese characters are of this type.

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