Language

The History & Development of Chinese Characters & Spoken Chinese By Sam

Have you ever wondered when Chinese characters were invented? Probably not but that’s what I’m about to tell you about. Chinese characters were invented during the Shang Dynasty, but they looked a lot different back then. Until recently, spoken Chinese was a lot different from the grammar and pronunciation of written Chinese. I will tell you about the history and development of both written and spoken Chinese during this article. Bored yet?

China has the oldest surviving writing system in the world. WOW! Chinese characters first appeared on oracle bones and bronze wear during the Shang dynasty around 1200 B.C. Only 4 percent of modern Chinese characters come exactly from the oracle bone script called pictograms. Ancient pictograms each signified one word but modern Chinese characters traditionally each stand for a single syllable. Mainland China uses a simplified version of traditional Chinese characters, but Hong Kong and Taiwan still use the traditional characters. Mandarin Chinese is now one of the most widely used languages in the world.

Spoken Chinese has changed a lot since the age of the Han dynasty (202 B.C- 220 A.D.). A lot more than written Chinese in fact. Since regions of China are so separated from each other many different dialects sprung up. Until 1919 Classic Written Chinese did not relate very much to spoken Chinese grammar. In 1919 the Chinese changed to Vernacular Chinese, which is referred to now as “standard written Chinese”. The oldest form of spoken Chinese called Archaic Chinese was first used during the Zhou Dynasty (1122 B.C.- 256 B.C.). Back then the Chinese language was a lot different from what it sounds like today.

Chinese characters and spoken Chinese have come a long way from the pictograms of the Shang dynasty to become the complicated language they are now. Archaic Chinese developed into Middle Chinese used during the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties. Mandarin Chinese was used only in North China before the 12th Century when the Chinese only controlled Southern and Central China. When a plague swept through Southern China in the 12th Century it lost much of its population and Mandarin speakers from the North moved into Southern China making most of China Mandarin speaking. There were different forms of Mandarin. Nanjing Mandarin was spoken during the Qin Dynasty during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. In the late 19th century China changed to speaking Beijing Mandarin. Mandarin is now the most widely spoken Chinese dialect.

Now you know the history of Chinese characters and spoken Chinese. Chinese characters have developed a lot from the early Chinese pictograms to become a very advanced language. That is why Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. See learning about Chinese isn’t that bad is it?

Here are a few questions to make sure you really read this:

1. During what dynasty did Chinese writing first appear?

2. When did the Chinese change to Vernacular Chinese? Why do you think they made that change?

3. What caused southern China to begin to speak Mandarin in the 12th century?