Subject: [ecovingt: Re: Spelling revisions]

From: H u a n g Yolin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1992 17:48:35 EDT

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From: [email-masked] (Maiko Covington)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Spelling revisions
Date: 4 May 92 18:45:57 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <[email-masked]>
 [email-masked] (cameron shelley) writes:
>[email-masked] (Craig Cockburn) writes:
>>
>> Hi,
>> 	Does anyone have a list of which (preferably major) languages
>> regularly undergo spelling revisions ? I believe that Irish was reformed
>> in the 1950's, Scottish Gaelic in the 1980's, and that Dutch has spelling
>> revisions too. Does anyone know of any languages spoken in Europe
>> which have undergone major spelling revisions and when they took place?
>> Is it true that some languages which are phonetically spelt (ie Welsh)
>> do not undergo formal spelling revisions at all, but that all new words
>> are adapted to the phonetics of the language as the words arise?

	Japanese and Chinese have undergone writing reform too.
Japanese had major writing reform after WW2. This consisted of 3
things: (1) the spelling of words in kana was reformed, (2) the
number of kanji in "common use" was decreased, and (3) some of the
kanji were simplified.

JAPANESE:
	(1) Before the war, it was not true that when writing in kana
you just write down phonetically what you hear. Some sounds had
several written "spellings". For example, the sound "syou" (sounds
like "show" in English) could be written "syou (si + small yo + u)"
like it is now, or it could be written "se + u". The word for
"butterfly", which is pronounced "chou chou", was written "tefu
tefu". So, you had to basically memorize which spelling to use for
lots of words. This is confusing. After the war, the system we use
nowadays, or "gendai kana-dukai" (present kana usage) was made. In
the present day system, almost all words are spelled exactly as they
are pronounced. So, the syllable "syou" can ONLY be written "si +
small yo + u". There are a few exceptions, however. Most notably,
the particle pronounced "wa" which comes after a noun is written
with the kana for "ha", and the the particle sounds like "e" which
means roughly "to" is written with the kana for "he", and the "o"
particle which marks objects is written with the kana for "wo". We
are required to learn these 3 rules in first grade. Aside from
these, there are a few exceptions like "big", which is written
"ookii" and not "oukii", and similarly "far" is written "tooi" and
not "toui". But, over 99% of everything is written (in kana) exactly
how it is pronounced.
	When studying ancient literature though, we must read it in
the old spelling. The old spelling is now called "kyuu kana-dukai"
(old kana usage) or "rekisi-teki kana-dukai" (historical kana
usage). We are required to be able to READ it starting in 7th grade,
when we start reading ancient texts, but we are not required to be
able to WRITE in it.

(2) A group of about 2000 kanji (1945, I think) were reserved as
"jyouyou kanji" (common use kanji) and these are the kanji that are
now taught in schools up to the 9th grade (note: required education
in Japan goes up to 9th grade). If you know these, you are well set
to survive. You can read the newspaper, and signs on the street,
etc. BUT! These characters were reserved by the government, and so
stuff put out by the government will only use these, but there are
no restrictions on private publication at all. So, there are many
more characters than these used in magazines, books, signs, etc. I
know many more than 2000 characters just because I like to read a
lot, and the publisher of the novels I like to read happens to use
lots of characters. One interesting thing is, in Japan if there is
something that is not intended for children to read, they will not
put any pronunciation hints on the characters and they will use
obscure characters. It's pretty effective.

(3) Some of the characters were simplified. Most of these
simplifications are either a stylized form of the fast brush writing
style of the more complex character (for those in the know, these
are things like "gaku" (xue2 in Chinese)), or a part of the more
complex character made into an independent character (for those in
the know, these are things like "koe" (sheng1 in Chinese)). Some of
the characters were taken from slang forms of the character that
were just made official, and a few of them seem to have been dreamed
up by somebody, it shows NO relation to the original character at
all! But, in Japanese, most of the characters are in their original
forms.

CHINESE:
	I'm sure those more familiar with Chinese language can be
more helpful, but... As far as I know, many of the Chinese
characters were simplified in Mainland China (PRC) in 1949 with the
revolution. Actually I suspect it would take a few years for it to
become standardized, but I am not sure. Many more of the characters
were simplified than in Japan. When I read a Chinese book, it seems
to me that most of the characters are simplified, but maybe I am
just used to unsimplified characters. The characters were simplified
by the same methods used in Japan more or less, but... The Chinese
simplified characters and the Japanese simplified characters are not
necessarily the same. So, for some characters there are now three
forms - original, Japanese simplified, and PRC simplified. Do I feel
a headache coming on? ^_^
	The original forms of the characters are still used in
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and in most overseas Chinese newspapers I've
seen. The simplified ones are used in the PRC and in Malaysia (well,
I think so. Pirate Chinese music that was copied in Malaysia comes
with simplified characters in the lyrics). I do not know if the
characters you are required to know before graduating Chinese high
schools was standardized/reduced though. Anyone know?

	Well, this is just my input. I hope this was helpful.

	Maiko Covington		[email-masked]

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