The origins of Chinese Characters
Chinese character is a form of pictogram. Its origin was first discovered on turtle-shells and bones of livestock. According to the research, most of the civilization had gone through this pictograph period when ancient people transmitted their ideas by drawing. As time goes by, the development of these civilization has transformed their writing from pictogram into phonetic letters.
However, among these ancient civilization, only the Chinese based their character development on hieroglyph and other six principles of character formation. These six principles of character formation are:
pictograms (in Mandarin Chinese, 象形 xiàngxíng )
simple indicatives (in Mandarin Chinese, 指事 zhǐshì)
compound indicatives (in Mandarin Chinese會意 huìyì)
phono-semantic compounds (in Mandarin Chinese 形聲 xíngshēng)
borrowed characters (in Mandarin Chinese 假借 jiǎjiè)
derived characters ( in Mandarin Chinese 轉注 zhuǎnzhù).
Although the Chinese character has gone through several transformation, it was still able to maintain its pictographic forms, pronunciation and meanings.
However, among these ancient civilization, only the Chinese based their character development on hieroglyph and other six principles of character formation. These six principles of character formation are:
pictograms (in Mandarin Chinese, 象形 xiàngxíng )
simple indicatives (in Mandarin Chinese, 指事 zhǐshì)
compound indicatives (in Mandarin Chinese會意 huìyì)
phono-semantic compounds (in Mandarin Chinese 形聲 xíngshēng)
borrowed characters (in Mandarin Chinese 假借 jiǎjiè)
derived characters ( in Mandarin Chinese 轉注 zhuǎnzhù).
Although the Chinese character has gone through several transformation, it was still able to maintain its pictographic forms, pronunciation and meanings.