The secret behind how Chinese characters work - Gina Marie Elia

譯者: 穎君 紀 審譯者: 麗玲 辛

According to legend, in the 27th century BCE,

根據傳說， 在公元前 27 世紀，

the Yellow Emperor of China charged his historian, Cangjie,

統治中國的黃帝命令史官倉頡

to develop a system of writing.

開發書寫系統。

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

倉頡坐在河岸邊，發現 他周遭有各式各樣的圖像。

From this, he created the first Chinese characters.

他從這些圖像創造出第一個中文字。

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

那天晚上，天降小米雨，鬼魂哭泣，

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

擔心自己的行為可能被記錄、被譴責。

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

這故事的真實性無法確定，

But the earliest artifacts containing Chinese characters

但，包含中文字的最古老的文物

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

可追溯到商朝，也就是公元前 1250 年到 1050 年左右，

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

仍然證明了中文字是 最早出現的文字系統之一。

Characters etched on ox bones and turtle shells

被刻在牛骨和烏龜殼上的文字

show Shang kings’ writings to their ancestors,

是商朝皇帝寫給他們祖先的作品，

discussing everything from agriculture to the origins of a toothache.

從農業到牙痛的起源，主題包山包海。

And as the legend suggests,

正如傳說所述，

these ancient characters were mainly pictograms,

這些古老文字主要是象形符號，

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

也就是長得像它們代表的意思的符號。

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

到了現代，一些最基本的 中文字仍然是象形字，

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

例如「人」的意思是人、 「木」的意思是木頭或樹。

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

有些字是指事字， 也就是指涉抽象概念的符號，

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

例如數字「一」、 「二」和「三」。

Others are compound ideograms,

有些則是會意字，

which combine two or more pictograms or ideograms.

結合兩個或多個表意或象形符號。

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

例如「休」這個字，把「人」

next to the character for tree and means to rest.

放在「木」旁邊，意思是休息。

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

然而，現代大多數文字都是形聲字，

and are constructed of two components: a radical component,

由兩個部分構成：一個部首，

which gestures at the meaning of the character,

指出該字的意義，

and a sound component, which hints at its pronunciation.

和一個聲符，暗示該字的發音。

And all characters are built from a variety of strokes,

每個字都由多種不同的筆劃構成，

which are often simplified to eight basic types.

通常簡化為八種基本筆劃：永字八法。

There are 214 radicals, each with its own definition.

部首有 214 個， 每個部首都有意義。

Some can stand alone, while others cannot.

有些可以獨立使用，有些不能。

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

例如，「日」這個部首 獨立使用時是指太陽。

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

它也出現在跟太陽相關的字裡，

such as xiǎo (晓) meaning dawn.

例如「曉」，意思是黎明。

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

草部「艹」則不能獨立使用，

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

但會出現在跟草和植物相關的字中，

like huā (花) meaning flower.

例如「花」，意思是花。

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

水部「水」指水，總是獨立使用，

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

但有一個變體「氵」， 出現在更複雜的字裡，

like hé (河), meaning river.

如「河」，意思是河流。

Radicals can appear in different positions:

部首可以放在不同的位置：

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

左側、右側、上方、下方，

or even surrounding the rest of the character.

甚至包住其他字。

There are many more sound components than radicals,

聲符比部首多很多，

with estimates ranging in the thousands.

估計約有數千個。

Similar sounding words often share the same sound component,

發音類似的字通常聲符相同，

and their radicals help shed light on their meanings.

部首負責提示該字的意思。

Take fēng (峰) and fēng (蜂).

例如「峰」和「蜂」，

The radical shān (山) means mountain,

部首「山」的意思是山，

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

這暗示了第一個字的字義：山頂。

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

第二個字的部首「虫」指昆蟲，

and together with the sound component means bee.

與聲符「夆」組合起來後，指蜜蜂。

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

中文有許多字發音相似， 但跟其他語言一樣，

context or tonality helps clarify their meaning.

上下文或聲調有助於釐清它們的字義。

Yet how each character is pronounced depends on dialect,

然而每個字的發音方式取決於方言，

which varies across the country.

各國各地都有不同念法。

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

因此，成都的對話聽起來 可能跟南京的對話不一樣，

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

但兩地的書面語都一樣。

And unlike the romance languages,

與拉丁語系語言不同，

Chinese has no gendered nouns or verb conjugations.

中文的名詞沒有性別，動詞沒有變位。

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

因此，表達進食的動詞「吃」保持不變，

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

不論主詞是自己、同事， 或一群膽小的鬼魂，

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

要指過去式時態的話， 可以加上「了」等標記，

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

「我吃麵包」變成「我吃了麵包」。

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

隨著時代流轉，中文書寫系統 經歷了許多改變。

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

字從骨頭上的雕刻 變成青銅上的鑄刻，

to brushed on paper,

再被畫在紙上，

their script has evolved along the way.

寫法也隨著這個過程演化。

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

一九五、六零年代 ，中國共產黨推出

new simplified versions of the traditional characters,

簡化版的中文字，

which are now standard in China,

它是現在中國的標準書寫系統，

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

香港和台灣則繼續使用傳統的繁體字。

And while the Chinese character system may seem unique,

雖然中文字系統看起來很獨特，

its development greatly influenced the spoken languages

但中文字的發展大大影響了

and writing systems of its neighbors.

鄰國的口語和書寫系統。

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

舉例來說，日語辭典的條目中 約有六成是「漢字」，也就是

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

源自中文或基於其元素創造出來的字。

With a 3,000 year history,

承載著三千年的歷史，

Chinese characters have and will continue to leave their mark.

中文字將繼續留下自己的印記。