The English language has many different dialects: English spoken in the southern United States is different than the English spoken in Brooklyn, or even the western United States. The English dialect spoken in Britain is different than the Australian or U.S. dialects also. So it is with the Chinese language, which has eight major dialects. The most widely used is Mandarin. Mandarin is spoken by about 70% of all Chinese. Unlike the English language, most Chinese cannot be understood by speakers of different dialects. Similar to the English language, there are many dialects spoken, and the written language remains the same for all speakers of Chinese.

Simplification of Characters*
The Chinese writing system, known as calligraphy is drafted using a brush rather than a pen or pencil, and is considered to be a form of art. The brush, inkstick, inkslab, and paper have been called the "four treasures of study" throughout China. Although Hanzi (Chinese characters) have remained the same since the beginning of the written language, simplification has occurred in the writing system. Notice the chart to the right and how the characters have been simplified over long periods of time to ease the strain of writing and to lighten the learning curve for the characters.

There are many different strokes that can be used when writing Chinese, all of which must be done in the correct direction for the calligraphy to be correct. Please see the table and note the 17 strokes presented here.


NAME OF STROKE**

HOW TO COMPLETE THE STROKE

STROKE

 

NAME OF STROKE**

HOW TO COMPLETE THE STROKE

STROKE

pie

a stroke starting at the top and falling to the left

 

shu

a stroke starting at the top and falling vertically

hengou

a stroke starting at the left, moving right, then a quick hook back towards the left and down

 

shugou

a stroke starting at the top and falling vertically, then a quick hook back up and to the left

zoudian

a dot stroke starting at the top and falling to the left

 

youdian

a dot stroke starting at the top and falling to the right

piedian

a stroke starting at the top and falling to the left, then switching back to the right

 

heng

a stroke starting at the left then to the right

wangou

a stroke starting at the top and curving right and down, then hooking back to the left

 

shuzhezhegou

a stroke starting at the top, moving down vertically, then moving left to right, then switching back down for a hook stroke

shuti

a stroke starting at the top moving down vertically, then a quick hook up to the right

 

hengzhezhegou

a stroke starting at the left then to the right, then down and back left,then another curving hook down (similar to a 3)

hengzhegou

a stroke starting at the left then to the right, then moving vertically downward and a quick hook up to the left

 

hengzhe

a stroke starting at the left then to the right, then moving vertically downward

shuzhe

a stroke starting at the top, then down vertically, then switching to the right

 

na

a stroke starting at the top then falling to the right

ti

a dot stroke starting at the bottom then upwards and to the right

 

 

 

 


Most Hanzi are a combination of two or more of these strokes, although some words, such as yi, the word for 'one', is represented by a single heng. Chinese can be written from left to right, as English is, or top to bottom, but each Hanzi has a specific order for each stroke to be completed. Take the character hao for example.

Hao means 'good'. The first stroke is a piedian , then a heng , followed by a pie . This completes the first half of the character. Notice that we went from top to bottom and left to right. We will continue moving right as we start the right half of the character. The first stroke on the right half is a hengou , followed by a wangou and we finish up with a heng .

The word ni, the word for 'you', starts with a pie , then a shu underneath it. This completes the first and left half of this character. Notice again: left to right, top to bottom. The right half of the character also starts with a pie , but is followed by a hengou . A shugou is placed underneath this and a zoudian is placed on the left of the shugou and a youdian on the right.



Now we can place those two words together ni and hao . This means literally, 'you good' or a more accurate translation 'Hello'. That's the end of lesson !


Below are some links to other Chinese language orientated web sites including programs for writing Chinese on your computer:

This page was designed and created by Kris Melleby, a student at California State University at Chico
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© 1998   Kris Melleby
(Please use the images, but please let me know)

* "Simplification of images from" Practical Chinese Reader I, © 1995, Commercial Press, Beijing, China
** "Names of Strokes", Chinese Character Exercise Book for Pactical Chinese Reader I, © 1995, Commercial Press, Beijing, China