Re: Branch of English or a Separate Language?

From: Jacques Guy (jguy_at_alphalink.com.au)
Date: 09/11/04 

Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:05:15 -0700

Spehro Pefhany wrote:
 
> The traditional Chinese character for "nation" ("guo") contains a
> pictograph of a lance (for an army), a mouth (for a language), and
> what was originally earth, surrounded by borders.

This pictograph for a lance and a mouth is a separate
character, which mean "or, probable, maybe" and
is pronounced huo4. Its function in the character for "nation"
is that of a phonogram, i.e. a phonetic complement. It
is also found functioning as a phonetic complement in the
character (also pronounced huo4) which means "to be
puzzled, to wonder), this time associated with xin "heart".

There is, however a character for "nation" which is
probably pictographic: wang2 "king" in a square, but
nowadays you'll see it with an added dot, which turns
"king" into "jade" (it didn't do to spell "republic" with
a "king" in it!). All three are interchangeable. They
different "spellings" of the same word.

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