What are the disadvantages of a Logographic writing system?

What are the disadvantages of a Logographic writing system?

Disadvantages of logographic writing: a) Too many characters to learn (thousands). b) Spelling cannot be predicted from writing. Advantages of logographic writing a) Well-suited to an ISOLATING language like Chi- nese b) Allows for mutual intelligibility among lan- guages (Mandarin/Wu (Shanghai)/Cantonese).

What was one advantage of the Chinese system of writing?

What was the major advantage of the Chinese writing system? People in all different parts of China could read the same writing system, even if they didn’t speak the same language.

Why is Chinese writing complicated?

Because the majority of modern Chinese words contain more than one character, there are at least two measuring sticks for Chinese literacy: the number of characters known, and the number of words known. These counts are complicated by the tangled development of Chinese characters.

What languages are logographic?

Writing systems that make use of logograms include Chinese, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and early cuneiform writing systems. No known writing system is totally logographic; all such systems have both logograms and symbols representing particular sounds or syllables.

Which modern language uses a partially syllabic writing system?

Chinese written with Chinese characters uses a(n almost 100%) syllabic writing system. Japanese kana, although aften referred to as syllabic, are actually moraic, so a syllable like hon or sai is written with two graphs, one for each mora.

Did ancient China have a writing system?

Chinese civilization is truly ancient, as is its writing system. This ancient writing system, called Jiaguwen, was pictographic, meaning each symbol represented a physical object.

What are the drawbacks of block printing?

Answer:

  • Wooden blocks were expensive.
  • Printing wasn’t possible on the wooden blocks.
  • It was hard to write on these wooden blocks.
  • Not available for everyone.
  • Very time consuming.

Who invented Chinese block printing?

Bi Sheng
Bi Sheng (毕昇 ) During the Song dynasty in 990-1051 AD, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing. His creation was made out of Chinese porcelain during the time of 1041-1048. Today, Bi Sheng is known as a key contributor to the invention of printing as one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China.

Are there any drawbacks to Chinese writing?

The Chinese writing system has certain drawbacks when compared with the simpler phonetic systems of the West. It obviously takes a great deal more time and effort to master. Many characters are extremely complex, some being made up of more than twenty-five strokes.

How is the writing system in China different?

History of Chinese Writing System. For instance, while the pronunciation of the word “one” may vary from Mandarin to Cantonese, the written character is the same. Spoken Chinese has changed remarkably over the centuries, while Chinese writing has changed little from the ancient Chinese.

How old is Chinese writing?

The Chinese writing system is one of the oldest known written languages – some of the earliest examples of ancient Chinese writing date back to over 4,000 years ago. The Chinese writing systems uses a logographic system (a series of symbols that represent a complete word or a phrase).

What kind of books are written in Chinese?

Until relatively recently, Chinese writing was more widely in use than alphabetic writing systems, and until the 18th century more than half of the world’s books were written in Chinese, including works of speculative thought, historical writings of a kind, and novels, along with writings on government and law.