[Click on image to enlarge, for better sense of what I mean]
RH:
1. First, I would like to use the word "sinogram" to mean the Chinese "word" instead of the usual "ideogram". The reasons, as given in this Wikipedia article :
Chinese characters have often been called "ideograms", but since many Chinese characters also have morphemic and often phonetic significance, there were many attempts to abandon the name "ideogram" in favour of a term that more accurately represents their nature. One alternative is logogram, from the Greek roots logos ("word") and grapho ("to write"). Others include Sinogram, emphasising the Chinese origin of the characters, and Han character, a literal translation of the native term. These terms have gained some currency among scholars, but have failed to spread into common usage. The native terms (Chinese hanzi, Japanese kanji, Korean hanja) are also fairly widespread in the contexts of the individual languages, but they are not generally considered suitable for discussion of the script as a whole.
2. Like most, I found Chinese very difficult to learn. Each word or sinogram is a little graphic in itself, and although there is sometimes a similar sound whenever a certain root or radical is used within the sinogram, mostly you cannot tell how a sinogram is pronounced just by looking at the sinogram. This means you must memorise each sinogram graphic, not only how it looks and is written, but also its sound -- purely by memory. Compare this to the Latin-derived languages such as English, where just by looking at how a word is spelt and written, you can almost always guess how it sounds, thereby making the link between spoken English and written English very intuitive and easy and the language therefore easy to learn.
3. Since there are some 3,000 to 4,000 words to be fully literate in Chinese, this requires memorising some 4,000 individual sinograms, with their strokes and pronunciation. Source : Wikipedia --
The number of Chinese characters contained in the Kangxi dictionary is approximately 47,035, although a large number of these are rarely used variants accumulated throughout history. Studies carried out in China have shown that full literacy in the Chinese language requires a knowledge of only between three and four thousand characters.[1]
4. We all know what Chinese sinograms look and sound like. We also know that there is a romanised version of sinograms that try to give the pronunciation of each sinogram -- the hanyu pinyin system. But if there ever was any intention to use only pinyin to write Chinese, it is doomed from the start. No matter how good you are in pinyin, nobody can read a sentence of pinyin and know what the Chinese sentence is. For an interesting exercise to try exactly this, try reading this pinyin-only text and see if you understand it :
http://www.pinyin.info/chinese_characters/simplified_traditional/zhang_liqing/pinyin.html
I reproduce the first para for your convenience : Jiǎntǐzì hé fántǐzì shì shǔyú wénzì fànchóu de wèntí. Dànshi xiànzài wǎng shàng guānyú zhè gè wèntí de yǒuxiē shuōfa chángcháng bǎ yǔyán hé wénzì hùn zài yīqǐ, yě yǒu rén bǎ wénhuà, chuántǒng děngděng dà màozi kòu zài zhè gè wèntí shàng, jiéguǒ líkāi tímù hěn yuǎn, yě déchū yīxiē bù zhèngquè de jiélùn.
5. Clearly, pinyin-only does not work. Memorising by rote some 4,000 sinograms is not something we want to inflict on children, since they have much better things to do, even though it trains the memory and the character wonderfully. This is an example text on some of the 4,000 sinograms : http://www.pinyin.info/chinese_characters/simplified_traditional/zhang_liqing/simplified_chinese.html
I reproduce the first para for your convenience : 简体字和繁体字是属于文字范畴的问题。但是现在网上关于这个问题的有些说法，常常把语言和文字混在一起，也有人把文化，传统等等大帽子扣在这个问题上，结果离开题目很远，也得出一些不正确的结论。
6. The teaching approach, especially for those who know English, is to teach each sinogram together with its pinyin equivalent -- the pinyin mostly to help with the pronunciation. Once the sinogram is mastered, both in written form and pronunciation, the pinyin is no longer used as a crutch, and dropped, leaving the pure written sinogram alone to represent the word, the sound and the concept of the word. This has largely worked for millennia, especially for the Chinese in China, who have no alternative. But its difficulty has daunted foreigners and quite a few overseas Chinese, from learning Chinese. But this dual versions of the language is unwieldy and cumbersome in print, and unless you have 2 brains or a split personality, reading 2 very different systems at once is impossible. Here is an example : http://www.pinyinannotator.com/index.php [You may have to click on Add Sample Text, then Annotate, buttons].
7. What if we incorporate BOTH the sinogram AND its pinyin equivalent into ONE sinogram? For example, I have done a few sentences of this idea in the Attachment. I have roughly used gray sinogram overlaid with a small black pinyin [ideally, a tall and thin font] to create the new sinogram. This is a very crude example since I am not a language expert or graphic designer and worse, I do not know GIMP2 photo editing software well enough to do a good job, even if I spend far more time than I did for this rough example. The idea is to EMBED the pinyin into the sinogram to form a new word-sinogram that those who know the standard Mandarin will be able to read as per normal, while giving those not so proficient, a romanised pinyin to help with the reading. At first, it would appear weird to the standard Mandarin reader but will be as quickly mastered as when Simplified Chinese was introduced. For those who know English, which is increasingly the whole world, especially the younger people in all the important countries and in international orgs like the UN and trade and tourism industries, this new sinogram system can make learning Chinese much easier. At one stroke, you can look at each sinogram and know how it is pronounced, just like with English. Yet you also learn how the original sinogram is written. At last, Chinese can become as easy and intuitive as English or any of the Latin-based languages.
8. Do not be put off by my bad graphics. There are dozens of ways this EMBEDDING of pinyin into sinograms can be beautifully done. I have used a pinyin equivalent about 2/3rds down from the top of the sinogram but obviously, some study and experimentation are needed to achieve the most elegant results. I have used gray sinograms with black pinyin since most documents are read and printed in black & white, seldom in colour. A good designer will also consider 'airbrushing' a soft-edge white 'hole' in the centre of the sinogram so that the pinyin can sit nicely and legibly inside the airbrushed hole. Thus, there are many design options even for black and white, let alone colour combinations for the sinogram and embedded pinyin. Do hire some experts to try out various possibilities.
9. You will need experts like this TSAI Chih Hao, whose combination of talents seem exactly what is needed:
Chih-hao Tsai
His research page covers romanization, psycholinguistics, the psychology of reading, and cognitive science, while his technology page covers his computing and programming work, which is primarily related to the processing of Chinese.
10. The reason why this idea is feasible now and not earlier has much to do with computers. For millennia, the Chinese language developed according to its tools -- the ink brush. So Chinese sinograms are calligraphy and each word almost a brush art, which today is still practised as such. Meanwhile, the pinyin system is English-based, using the same English alphabet. There was no combination possible. Even when computers were developed, the 2 languages, as composed on computers, developed totally separately, although some use pinyin to type Chinese on a computer. Today, because pinyin is often used to type Chinese on a Qwerty computer keyboard, pinyin became more important, and not just for pronunciation, as before. So the computer led to a closer link between sinogram and its pinyin equivalent. If you don't know the pinyin of a sinogram, you usually cannot type that Chinese word on a Qwerty keyboard. Thus, it is time for this idea to be born.
11. Because we now do almost all our writing on a computer, and most of our reading too, the idea is now possible when it was not feasible before. For example, creating this new script will take no more work than designing a new font for Chinese. Part of it can be automated by a good software program. It only needs to work in black & white as well as colour and to look good when printed on paper. On computer screens, there is no problem at all, since everything is possible.
12. However, for schoolchildren, who still do a lot of hand writing, both sinogram and its pinyin equivalent must necessarily be written separately. But in their books, and worksheets printed by their schools and teachers, the new script can be used.
13. Quickly, all users of Chinese would get used to the new script and regard it as normal in just a short time, like the introduction of Simplified Chinese. Foreigners would find learning Chinese much easier. Each new sinogram is no more than a few extra strokes more than the original sinogram, so not much is new. Each sinogram would look exactly like the original sinogram, so no new learning curve for old users. While the addition of the embedded pinyin will quickly be assimilated into the new character and after a while, look perfectly 'normal'. Just like adding a few extra strokes -- but that doesn't change the character at all out of recognition.
14. Users of the Chinese language do not often invent a new sinogram for the simple reason that no one would know how to write it or pronounce it, unlike the inventive users of the better English writers. When Chinese users want to invent, they have to use existing sinograms but in new combinations. Inventing a totally new sinogram means that nobody else knows how to write or read it. With this new script, you can actually invent a totally new sinogram, with you defining how to pronounce using the embedded pinyin. This may be useful for new inventions and new technical terms. In the English language, all the words are composed of the same 26 letters of the alphabet and so inventing a new word is easy -- just reshuffle some of the 26 letters into a new combination. Since language is the basis of thought, as I theorised, this may explain why the Westerners are so much more creative than the Chinese. I have also theorised that language is to the brain what the OS is to a computer. So, adopting this new script not only makes the Chinese language easier to learn and use, but may also help to make Chinese more creative. This could be important for survival and progress in the 21st Century. It is an idea for all the Chinese, and foreigners learning Chinese, in the world, from China, Taiwan, Hongkong to states with significant Chinese populations. An idea whose time has come?
Related somewhat:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2010/05/idea-alphabetising-chinese-language.html
Idea: Alphabetising the Chinese language
--
RH: ME ON VIDEO DESCRIBING lky lhl wks NUMEROUS ELECTION RIGGINGS:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/%22A%20Video%20RH%20on%20LKY%20LHL%20WKS%20cheating%20elections%22
MY ACQUAINTANCE, MR DAVID DUCLOS, A FORMER POLICE INSPECTOR, AND HIS LAWYER FRIEND, EYEWITNESSED LEE KUAN YEW RIGGING THE 1997 CHENG SAN GRC ELECTION. READ MORE AT MY BLOG ENTITLED "I CAME, I SAW, I SOLVED IT" :
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/
MY ONLINE POLICE REPORT ON LKY LHL WKS CHEATING ELECTIONS:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/06/police-report-lee-ky-lhl-wks-cheating_02.html
THE MOST COMPLETE RUBBISHING OF LEEconomics EVER:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2009/06/most-complete-rubbishing-of-leeconomics.html
[ALSO AT THE ABOVE BLOG, LIE KUAN YEW's LIES, CORRUPTION, WRONGFUL JAILING, TORTURE AND BEATING TO DEATH OF INNOCENT POLITICAL PRISONERS LIKE MR CHAN HOCK HUA]
READ ALSO MARTYN SEE's INTERVIEW WITH ME AT:
http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/
ALSO AT:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2007/03/filmmaker-martyn-see-interviews-robert.html
FOR QUICK, IRREVERENT REASONS WHY LIE KY DESERVES A NOBEL:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/Not%20nominated%20for%20a%20Nobel%20so%20LIE%20KY%20gives%20himself%20many%20others
MY ARCHIVE OF WORKS AT:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/
PHOTOS OF LIE KY SCRATCHING MY WIFE's NEW CAR:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/LIE%20KY%20scratched%20my%20car%20S%242800%20to%20repair
NOT GUILTY BUT TORTURED, DEGRADED 15 YEARS FOR PUBLICITY, FUN
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/05/not-guilty-but-tortured-degraded-15.html
WHY SINGAPORE HAS NO ECONOMY
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-singapore-has-no-economy.html
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