The secret behind how Chinese characters work - Gina Marie Elia

翻译人员: Christina Tang 校对人员: Jinnie Sun

According to legend, in the 27th century BCE,

据传说，在公元前 27 世纪，

the Yellow Emperor of China charged his historian, Cangjie,

黄帝命史官仓颉

to develop a system of writing.

造字。

Sitting alongside a riverbank, Cangjie noticed the imagery that surrounded him.

仓颉坐在河岸边，注意到周围的意象。

From this, he created the first Chinese characters.

由此，他创造了最初的汉字。

And that night, the sky rained millet while ghosts cried,

那一夜，天空下起了毛毛雨， 同时鬼魂在哭泣，

fearing their actions may now be condemned by the written word.

他们害怕自己的行为 会受到文字的谴责。

We can’t say for sure whether the story is true.

我们无法确定这个故事是否属实。

But the earliest artifacts containing Chinese characters

但是最早的包含汉字的文物

date to the Shang Dynasty, around 1250 to 1050 BCE,

可追溯到商代，大约在 公元前 1250 年至 1050 年，

still making it one of the earliest forms of written language.

至今仍是最早的书面语言形式之一。

Characters etched on ox bones and turtle shells

刻在牛骨和龟甲上的文字

show Shang kings’ writings to their ancestors,

展现了商王对祖先的祭文。

discussing everything from agriculture to the origins of a toothache.

他们在其中无所不谈， 从农业到一次牙痛的根源。

And as the legend suggests,

正如传说所暗示的那样，

these ancient characters were mainly pictograms,

这些古代文字主要是象形图，

or symbols that resemble what they’re meant to represent.

或与其代表的东西相似的符号。

Even today, some of the most foundational Chinese characters remain pictographic,

甚至在今天，一些最基本的汉字 仍然是象形的，

like rén (人), which means person, and mù (木), which means wood or tree.

例如“人”，意思是人， 以及“木”，意思是木头或树。

Some characters are ideograms, or symbols that represent abstract concepts,

一些字是表意文字 或代表抽象概念的符号，

like the numbers yī (一), èr (二), and sān (三).

例如数字“一”、“二”和“三”。

Others are compound ideograms,

其他是复合表意文字，

which combine two or more pictograms or ideograms.

它组合了两个或多个象形符号或表意符号。

For example, xiū (休) places the character for person

例如，“休”将人这个字

next to the character for tree and means to rest.

放在表示树的字旁边， 意思是休息。

However, most modern-day characters are known as logograms,

然而，大多数现代汉字被称为词符，

and are constructed of two components: a radical component,

由两个部分组成：一个形旁

which gestures at the meaning of the character,

表示字的含义，

and a sound component, which hints at its pronunciation.

以及一个声旁提示字的发音。

And all characters are built from a variety of strokes,

所有的字都是由各种笔画构成的，

which are often simplified to eight basic types.

通常简化为八种基本类型。

There are 214 radicals, each with its own definition.

总共有 214 个形旁， 每个形旁都有自己的定义。

Some can stand alone, while others cannot.

有些可以独立存在，而另一些则不能。

For instance, the radical rì (日), written on its own means sun.

例如，“日”这个形旁单独书写时 就是太阳的意思。

It’s also used in characters with sun-related definitions,

它也被用于与太阳有关的字中，

such as xiǎo (晓) meaning dawn.

如“晓”，意为黎明。

The radical cǎo (艹), on the other hand, never stands alone,

而形旁“艹”则从不单独出现，

but can be found within characters related to grass and plants,

但可以在与草和植物有关的字中找到，

like huā (花) meaning flower.

如“花”，意为花朵。

And the radical shuǐ (水), meaning water, always stands alone,

形旁“水”，意为水， 总是单独出现。

but has a variant (氵) that is used when it’s part of more complex characters

但它有一个变体（氵）， 在它是更复杂的字的一部分时使用，

like hé (河), meaning river.

如“河”，意为河流。

Radicals can appear in different positions:

形旁可以出现在不同的位置：

to the left, to the right, above, below,

左、右、上、下，

or even surrounding the rest of the character.

甚至环绕着字的其他部分。

There are many more sound components than radicals,

声旁比形旁多得多，

with estimates ranging in the thousands.

估计在数千以上。

Similar sounding words often share the same sound component,

发音相似的词通常具有相同的声旁，

and their radicals help shed light on their meanings.

它们的形旁有助于阐明其含义。

Take fēng (峰) and fēng (蜂).

以“峰”和“蜂”为例。

The radical shān (山) means mountain,

形旁“山”的意思是山，

which hints at the first character’s definition: summit.

暗示了第一个字的定义：顶峰。

The radical in the second character, chóng (虫), means insect,

第二个字中的形旁“虫”是昆虫的意思，

and together with the sound component means bee.

加上声旁就是蜜蜂的意思。

While many words in Chinese sound similar, just like in other languages,

虽然汉语中的许多单词听起来相似， 就像在其他语言中一样，

context or tonality helps clarify their meaning.

语境或音调有助于阐明其含义。

Yet how each character is pronounced depends on dialect,

不过，每个字的发音方式取决于方言，

which varies across the country.

而全国各地的方言各不相同。

So conversations in Chengdu may sound vastly different than in Nanjing,

因此，在成都的对话听起来可能 与在南京的对话有很大不同，

but in both places, the written language is the same.

但在两个地方，书面语言是相同的。

And unlike the romance languages,

而且与罗曼语系不同的是，

Chinese has no gendered nouns or verb conjugations.

中文没有性别名词或动词变位。

So the character chī (吃), meaning to eat, remains unchanged

因此，对于“吃”这个字，

whether the subject is yourself, a coworker, or a lesion of fearful ghosts.

无论对象是自己、同事 还是可怕的鬼魂，都不会有变化。

To indicate the past, a marker like le (了) can be added.

为了表示过去时， 可以加上像“了”这样的标记。

So “I eat bread” becomes “I ate bread.”

于是“我吃面包” 变成了“我吃了面包”。

Over the years, the Chinese writing system has undergone many changes.

多年来，中文书写系统发生了许多变化。

As characters went from being etched in bone, to cast in bronze,

文字从蚀刻在骨头上， 变成了铸在青铜上，

to brushed on paper,

再到印刷在纸上，

their script has evolved along the way.

他们的字体也在不断演变。

In the 1950s and 60s, the Chinese Communist Party introduced

在 1950 和 60 年代， 中国共产党推出了

new simplified versions of the traditional characters,

繁体字的新简化版本，

which are now standard in China,

这现在已成为中国的标准字，

though traditional characters remain in use in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

尽管香港和台湾仍在使用繁体字。

And while the Chinese character system may seem unique,

虽然汉字系统看起来很独特，

its development greatly influenced the spoken languages

其发展却极大地影响了

and writing systems of its neighbors.

一些邻国的语言和文字系统。

For example, around 60% of Japanese dictionary entries are kanji—

例如，约 60% 的 日语词典条目都是kanji——

characters that originated in Chinese or were created from its elements.

源于中文的或由汉字元素创造的字。

With a 3,000 year history,

有着 3000 年的历史，

Chinese characters have and will continue to leave their mark.

汉字已经并将继续留下自己的印记。