Knowledge Bank

The Chinese writing system, spanning over three millennia, has enjoyed the longest, uninterrupted literary tradition in world history. At the same time, it had also impacted neighboring countries such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. However, the script is not static; time moves on. Some complex characters were later replaced by simpler forms or by forms that add phonetic cues. Some characters became obsolete and new ones were created, reflecting the standard, or national, language, and are entered into authoritative dictionaries for nation-wide distribution and consultation. Orthographic forms that are of regional origin may occasionally be included in such dictionaries but are explicitly marked as dialectal forms. This study analyzes the Sinitic graphs that were created by Cantonese and Korean speakers, focusing on the methods of creating the vernacular graphs in Cantonese and the Goyuhanja (固有漢字) graphs in Korean. Other related issues are also addressed.