Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (7)

Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL);

(Semantics)

Why are ideographic languages mainly Chinese?

For thousands of years, the Chinese language has inherited and evolved its characteristics of meaningful literacy connecting from primitive pictorial writings into modern characters. From the linguistic perspective, most Chinese characters, vocabulary, phrases, idioms, poems, and even articles have different and profound meanings. 

As for semantic meanings, combining characters or words can express more meanings in Chinese (character + character = another word). For phonetic languages, each word has its pronunciation and corresponding spelling. For example, in English cows and bulls are different names for cattle. While in Chinese “niu” (牛) could be a “basic” character by adding another symbol to make a new word. Most of the time the added words are easy and simple to learn.

For example:

gong-niu (公牛) = bull, gong = male, niu = cow

mu-niu (母牛) = cow, mu = female, niu = cow

xiao-niu (小牛) = calf, xiao = small, niu = cow

shui-niu (水牛) = buffalo, shui = water, niu = cow

huang-niu (黄牛) = cattle, huang = yellow, niu = cow

mao-niu (牦牛) = yak, mao = fur, niu = cow

yan-niu (阉牛) = steer/ox, yan = castrated, niu = cow

niu-rou (牛肉) = beef, niu = cow, rou = meat

niu-nai (牛奶) = milk , niu = cow, nai = milk 

niu-pai (牛排) = steak, niu = cow, pai = row

niu-pi (牛皮) = cowhide, niu = cow, pi = skin

niu-wei (牛尾) = oxtail, niu = cow, wei = tail

Niu-jian (牛腱) = beef tendon, niu = cow, jian = tendon

xiao-niu-pi (小牛皮) = calfskin, xiao = small, niu = cow, pi = skin

There are too many to be listed in this section. Generally speaking, in ideographic languages (Chinese), if you would like to learn something about the animal “cow”, “niu” (牛) is the “root” word you can learn first. The combinations with other words are relatively easy. While in phonetic languages, you need to learn each different word one by one individually.

This is another reason that Chinese is easier to learn semantically. This is our opinion for further study. Your additional input is highly appreciated.

(To be continued)