Questions tagged [history]
Questions related to the history of the Chinese language(s).
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Hong Kong Cantonese variations
I am interested to learn whether the changes in Hong Kong pronunciation of Cantonese came about, was it because the English in Hong Kong had difficulty understanding the Cantonese?
For instance, I ...
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What are these "riddle jokes"?
In Chinese there are these jokes which are delivered as a small riddle followed by the answer. They are often used humorously, with the answer used as an insult. Here are some examples:
哑巴吃黄莲/有苦说不出
...
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Do 之 and 的 come from the same word?
In modern Chinese 之 is thought of as the literary genitive particle and 的 as the colloquial. In most reconstructions of Old Chinese 之 looks very similar to the way 的 is pronounced now. For example in ...
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what kind of gematria systems are there in chinese?
Since in Chinese culture there is a lot of materials about astronomy and supernatural methods so I'm interested to know about Gematria as it exists in most languages...
Like this:
Gematria Calculator
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Are there some free fonts for the small seal, large seal, and even oracle bone script styles?
I'm very interested in the old forms of Chinese characters that you still see in many contexts including historical, artistic, and design contexts.
So I'm wondering if there are free fonts for these ...
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Origin of -的干活?
There is a facetious phrase for asking someone what they do, using "的干活", most commonly in the fragment "什么的干活", or in this example exchange:
A: 你的，什么的干活? (Who are you?)
B: 我的，...
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What's the significance of 家 in 国家?
国家 and 国 both mean "country" or "nation". However, what's the significance of the character 家 in the word? Does it really add the meaning of "home" or "family"? Is there a cultural or historical basis ...
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Etymology of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千)
Main Question: What is the glyph origin of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千)?
Related question: Why isn't 四 four lines? (the origin of 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九)
I decide to write a Q&A-style ...
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Why isn't 四 four lines? (the origin of 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九)
A common experience of beginner hanzi students is their raised hopes and expectations when they learn 一 二 三 - "what a wonderfully elegant language!" - which are promptly crushed when they ...
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Which period in Chinese history produced the most chengyu?
There are tens of thousands of chengyu, many of them are historical in nature, whilst others are loaned from foreign sources such as Buddhism. Which period or dynasty in Chinese history produced the ...
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Reasons for Chinese changing from monosyllabic to disyllabic?
Classical and Middle Chinese are often considered monosyllabic languages - most words are single syllables. Modern Chinese however is considered disyllabic - most words are two syllables.
For example,...
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How come 驚 evolves to 惊 in mainland China
Isn't it more intuitive to just replace 馬 with 马 at the base of 驚 to get a well inductive simplified one?
Quite weird, uh? Any historical, geopolitical, or other reason for the simplification of 驚 -&...
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What does it say on the stamp?
I was requested by a friend to find out what this stamp is. Do you know what it says on the stamp?
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Dog radical (犭) for non-Han ethnic groups
As far as I understand, the dog radical (犭) was used for all non-Han ethnic groups before the Chinese Communist Party took power on the mainland. Is there truth to that? If so:
Why did the CCP stop ...
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How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?
Before schools started to use pinyin for teaching characters to Chinese children, how and/or what was used to teach it instead? And what about how dictionaries showed the pronunciation of characters?
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Why is 德国 the “virtue country”?
Here is what I think and how it is named: In Google translate it says it means "virtue country".
My guess is probably wrong but here it is:
China is an alliy of America, and America boosted up the ...
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询问奸雄所见略同的由来 and how does it relate to chinese
The quote"我很想询问奸雄所见略同的由来" seems very interesting to me. And in Google Translate, it translates to "I would like to ask the king's men great minds think alike the origin of." It doesn't seem to make ...
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What is the significance of the phrase “二十五，糊窗户”？
The phrase “糊窗户” refers to the practice of pasting paper cutouts (similar to the one seen here) on one's windows. There's a common larger saying, “二十五，糊窗户”, which I assume means that this is usually ...
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Did phonological systems (namely bopomofo) standardize Chinese phonemes?
As far as I know, Zhuyin fuhao, or Bopomofo, is the first system of phonetic symbols devised to aid to write Chinese phonology.
That was in 1910, so we could say very recent in the history of Chinese.
...
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Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?
I often see people having a big focus on correct stroke order for writing Chinese characters.
My question is, for most learners, is it important to know the stroke order, and if so, why is it ...
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Why does Chinese lack some level of abstraction in some idioms? (e.g. 兄弟姐妹)
Example: in Chinese, you can't* speak of siblings in a general term, and in turn you have to enumerate all 4 combinations of sex and age: 兄弟姐妹 ( older brother, younger brother, older sister, younger ...
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When was punctuation introduced into Chinese?
I have seen some old Chinese books. The words flowed from top to bottom on the page and there was no punctuation.
How did readers know when the sentences began and ended?
Were any older forms of ...
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Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?
For those who speak both Chinese and Japanese, would first learning Chinese make it easier to learn Japanese?
Knowing that Japanese Kanji are derived from Chinese characters, how hard is it to do the ...
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Geopolitical History of Simplified Chinese
I've always been fascinated about the etymology of languages and believe that we are seeing a significant series of changes within chinese.
There are some fairly good technical references for the ...
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