Modeling the Distribution and Modification of Writing in Proto-Chinese Language Communities

Brief information about the Chinese language and Chinese linguistic communities is given and the history of its formation is shown. The possibility of creating one national language in China, that is, Putonghua (sic) is considered. Some results of theoretical analysis and computer modeling are presented, demonstrating that the formation of a single language is gradually happening, but unification will most likely be achieved no earlier than 3500. An estimate is given of the number of possible elementary "characters" ("base units" or radicals (bushou/(sic))) of a hypothetical proto-Chinese script. Some typical hieroglyphs and radicals from modern common SMS messages are compared with hieroglyphs and radicals in typical Jiaguwen images ((sic): writing on tortoise shells and fortune telling bones dating back to the 14th-11th centuries BC). Matching characters and radicals were found, which demonstrates the validity of the proposed approach and the validity of the calculations.

Authors
Egorova M.A. , Egorov A.A. , Solovieva T.M.
Publisher
ALLERTON PRESS INC
Number of issue
2
Language
English
Pages
92-104
Status
Published
Volume
54
Year
2020
Keywords
mathematical linguistics; languages dispersal; Indo-European languages; Asian languages; Chinese language; Proto-Chinese language; Chinese radicals ((sic)); computer modeling
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