Questions tagged [orthography]

Orthography regulates how to correctly write Chinese characters. For example, Chinese characters mandate precise number, order and type of strokes. Use this tag for questions about how to write Chinese characters.

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Is it allowable in Mainland China to use Traditional Characters?

I study Mandarin as I enjoy the language and especially characters themselves and I've considered pursuing a future in China but I'm really a steadfast supporter of Traditional Characters. While I don'...
率龜_'s user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
213 views

Is the 撇 in 左 longer than the 撇 in 右?

I just noticed than the 撇 (piě, left-downward stroke, also called "throw") in 左 looks longer than the 撇 in 右 when you type it. Is this true? Is it an important distinction? If so, why? Is ...
Kantura's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
281 views

How are new Chinese characters created?

What is the process for introducing a new Chinese character with custom meaning? What are the rules, what is not allowed, what is allowed? Who is allowed to create one? How do you associate a sound ...
Lance's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
833 views

Chinese stroke order diagram styles resources

I'm looking for a resource online that shows the stroke orders of a character in just one box for my Anki flashcards on my phone. The format should look something like this (unfortunately it's Kanji ...
AngryWeeb's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
329 views

What about the orthography of 苹 (like in 苹果)? It seems consensus is missing

I recently came across an anomaly in Chinese orthography which I can't explain myself. Please take a look at the following picture (screenshot from the Duolingo course on Chinese, I guess in lecture &...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
96 views

Example of stress or tone on a consonant

Wondering if there is such thing as stress on a consonant, e.g. t́, ĺ, ḿ, ś, ʃ́... If so, what the example language would be. I haven't seen any on Wikipedia. Same thing for tone, I haven't seen ...
Lance's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
866 views

Hesitation noise and how to write it?

In English when thinking (and sometimes when unsure) we use the filler word "uhh" (sometime written as the variant "er"), pronounced as a prolonged /əː/. What sound is used in Mandarin, and how is it ...
mattp's user avatar
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3 votes
4 answers
498 views

Did 劵 and 券 become variants in PRC/simplified in 1995?

The topic of 劵 vs 券 came up a couple of months ago and I did some Internet research at the time. I turned up a document about an orthographic reform in China in 1995 which included, among many other ...
hippietrail's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the difference between 們 and 们 for marking plurals?

I've seen native speakers refer to "we" as both 我们 and 我們, so I was wondering if there's any difference in meaning or when to use one plural marker or the other.
msb's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
271 views

'Simplification' of 夠

Why did 夠 get 'simplified' into 够? I'd like to know whether these existed as orthographic variants before simplification (such that the first round simplifications just standardised on one variant) ...
jogloran's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
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What is the character with the greatest number of strokes?

I have seen an old and very rarely used character that consisted of four traditional dragons (龍). As I remember it meant "talkative." That makes a total of 64 strokes, are there any other characters ...
Lars Andren's user avatar
  • 1,438