Editing Chinese characters (section)

== Vocabulary and adaptation ==
{{Further|Chinese family of scripts|Adoption of Chinese literary culture}}
Writing first emerged during the historical stage of the Chinese language known as ''[[Old Chinese]]''. Most characters correspond to morphemes that originally functioned as stand-alone Old Chinese words.{{sfn|Norman|1988|pp=74–75}} [[Classical Chinese]] is the form of written Chinese used in the [[Chinese classics|classic works]] of Chinese literature from roughly the 5th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BCE until the 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;CE.{{sfn|Vogelsang|2021|pp=xvii–xix}} This form of the language was imitated by later authors, even as it began to diverge from the language they spoke. This later form, referred to as ''Literary Chinese'', remained the predominant written language in China until the 20th&nbsp;century. Its use in the [[Sinosphere]] was loosely analogous to that of [[Latin]] in pre-modern Europe.{{sfnm|Handel|2019|1p=34|Norman|1988|2p=83}} While it was not static over time, Literary Chinese retained many properties of spoken Old Chinese. Informed by the local spoken [[vernacular]]s, texts were read aloud using [[literary and colloquial readings]] that varied by region.{{sfn|Norman|1988|pp=41–42}} Over time, sound mergers created ambiguities in vernacular speech as more words became homophonic. This ambiguity was often reduced through the introduction of multi-syllable [[compound (linguistics)|compound words]],{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=22}} which comprise much of the vocabulary in modern varieties of Chinese.{{sfn|Tong|Liu|McBride-Chang|2009|p=203}}{{sfn|Yip|2000|p=18}}

Over time, use of Literary Chinese spread to neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. Alongside other aspects of Chinese culture, local elites adopted writing for record-keeping, histories, and official communications.{{sfnm|Handel|2019|1pp=11–12|Kornicki|2018|2pp=15–16}} Excepting hypotheses by some linguists of the latter two sharing a common ancestor, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese each belong to different [[language families]],{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=28, 69, 126, 169}} and tend to function differently from one another. Reading systems were devised to enable non-Chinese speakers to interpret Literary Chinese texts in terms of their native language, a phenomenon that has been variously described as either a form of diglossia, as ''reading by gloss'',{{sfn|Kin|2021|p=XII}} or as a process of translation into and out of Chinese. Compared to other traditions that wrote using alphabets or syllabaries, the literary culture that developed in this context was less directly tied to a specific spoken language. This is exemplified by the cross-linguistic phenomenon of [[brushtalk]], where mutual literacy allowed speakers of different languages to engage in face-to-face conversations.{{sfn|Denecke|2014|pp=204–216}}{{sfn|Kornicki|2018|pp=72–73}}

Following the introduction of Literary Chinese, characters were later adapted to write many non-Chinese languages spoken throughout the Sinosphere. These new writing systems used characters to write both native vocabulary and the numerous [[loanword]]s each language had borrowed from Chinese, collectively termed ''[[Sino-Xenic vocabulary]]''. Characters may have native readings, Sino-Xenic readings, or both.{{sfn|Handel|2019|p=212}} Comparison of Sino-Xenic vocabulary across the Sinosphere has been useful in the reconstruction of [[Middle Chinese phonology]].{{sfn|Kornicki|2018|p=168}} Literary Chinese was used in Vietnam during the [[Vietnam under Chinese rule|millennium of Chinese rule]] that began in 111&nbsp;BCE. By the 15th&nbsp;century, a system that adapted characters to write Vietnamese called ''{{langr|vi|[[chữ Nôm]]}}'' had fully matured.{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=124–125, 133}} The 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;BCE is the earliest possible period for the introduction of writing to Korea; the oldest surviving manuscripts in the country date to the early 5th&nbsp;century&nbsp;CE. Also during the 5th&nbsp;century, writing spread from Korea to Japan.{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=64–65}} Characters were being used to write both Korean and Japanese by the 6th&nbsp;century.{{sfn|Kornicki|2018|p=57}} By the late 20th&nbsp;century, characters had largely been replaced with alphabets designed to write Vietnamese and Korean. This leaves Japanese as the only major non-Sinitic language typically written using Chinese characters.{{sfn|Hannas|1997|pp=136–138}}

=== Literary and vernacular Chinese ===
{{See also|Reconstructions of Old Chinese|Middle Chinese|Varieties of Chinese}}
[[File:chineseprimer3.png|upright=0.8|thumb|Excerpt from a 1436 primer on Chinese characters{{sfn|Ebrey|1996|p=205}}|alt=Line drawings of various ordinary objects such as books, baskets, buildings, and musical instruments are displayed beside their corresponding Chinese characters]]
Words in Classical Chinese were generally a single character in length.{{sfn|Norman|1988|p=58}} An estimated 25–30% of the vocabulary used in Classical Chinese texts consists of two-character words.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|pp=22–23}} Over time, the introduction of multi-syllable vocabulary into vernacular varieties of Chinese was encouraged by [[phonetic shift]]s that increased the number of homophones.{{sfn|Norman|1988|pp=86–87}} The most common process of Chinese word formation after the Classical period has been to create compounds of existing words. Words have also been created by appending [[affix]]es to words, by [[reduplication]], and by borrowing words from other languages.{{sfn|Norman|1988|pp=155–156}} While multi-syllable words are generally written with one character per syllable, abbreviations are occasionally used.{{sfn|Norman|1988|p=74}} For example, {{zhc|c=二十|p=èrshí|l=twenty}} may be written as the contracted form {{zhc|c=廿}}.{{sfn|Handel|2019|p=34}}

Sometimes, different morphemes come to be represented by characters with identical shapes. For example, {{hani|行}} may represent either {{zhl|p=xíng|l=road}} or the extended sense of {{zhl|p=háng|l=row}}—these morphemes are ultimately [[cognate]]s that diverged in pronunciation but remained written with the same character. However, Qiu reserves the term ''homograph'' to describe identically shaped characters with different meanings that emerge via processes other than semantic extension. An example homograph is {{hani|铊}}; {{hani|鉈}}, which originally meant {{zhl|l=weight used at a steelyard|p=tuó}}. In the 20th century, this character was created again with the meaning {{zhl|l=[[thallium]]|p=tā}}. Both of these characters are phono-semantic compounds with {{lang|zh|⾦}} ('gold') as the semantic component and {{hani|它}} as the phonetic component, but the words represented by each are not related.{{sfn|Qiu|2000|pp=301–302}}

There are a number of {{zhl|c=方言字|l=dialect characters|p=fāngyánzì}} that are not used in standard [[written vernacular Chinese]], but reflect the vocabulary of other spoken varieties. The most complete example of an orthography based on a variety other than [[Standard Chinese]] is [[Written Cantonese]]. A common Cantonese character is {{zhc|c=冇|l=to not have|j=mou5}}, derived by removing two strokes from {{zhc|c=有|j=jau5|l=to have}}.{{sfn|Handel|2019|p=59}} It is common to use standard characters to transcribe previously unwritten words in Chinese dialects when obvious cognates exist. When no obvious cognate exists due to factors like irregular sound changes, semantic drift, or an origin in a non-Chinese language, characters are often borrowed or invented to transcribe the word—either ad hoc, or according to existing principles.{{sfn|Cheung|Bauer|2002|pp=12–20}} These new characters are generally phono-semantic compounds.{{sfn|Norman|1988|pp=75–77}}

=== Japanese ===
{{Main|Kanji}}
{{Japanese writing}}
In Japanese, Chinese characters are referred to as {{tlit|ja|kanji}}. During the [[Nara period]] (710–794), readers and writers of {{tlit|ja|[[kanbun]]}}—the Japanese term for Literary Chinese writing—began utilizing a system of reading techniques and annotations called {{tlit|ja|kundoku}}. When reading, Japanese speakers would adapt the syntax and vocabulary of Literary Chinese texts to reflect their Japanese-language equivalents. Writing essentially involved the inverse of this process, and resulted in ordinary Literary Chinese.{{sfn|Li|2020|p=88}} When adapted to write Japanese, characters were used to represent both [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary]] loaned from Chinese, as well as the corresponding native synonyms. Most kanji were subject to both borrowing processes, and as a result have both Sino-Japanese and native readings, known as {{tlit|ja|[[on'yomi]]}} and {{tlit|ja|[[kun'yomi]]}} respectively. Moreover, kanji may have multiple readings of either kind. Distinct classes of {{tlit|ja|on'yomi}} were borrowed into Japanese at different points in time from different varieties of Chinese.{{sfn|Coulmas|1991|pp=122–129}}

The [[Japanese writing system]] is a mixed script, and has also incorporated syllabaries called {{tlit|ja|[[kana]]}} to represent phonetic units called ''[[mora (linguistics)|mora]]s'', rather than morphemes. Prior to the [[Meiji era]] (1868–1912), writers used certain kanji to represent their sound values instead, in a system known as {{tlit|ja|[[man'yōgana]]}}. Starting in the 9th century, specific {{tlit|ja|man'yōgana}} were graphically simplified to create two distinct syllabaries called {{tlit|ja|[[hiragana]]}} and {{tlit|ja|[[katakana]]}}, which slowly replaced the earlier convention. Modern Japanese retains the use of kanji to represent most [[word stem]]s, while {{tlit|ja|kana}} syllabograms are generally used for grammatical affixes, particles, and loanwords. The forms of {{tlit|ja|hiragana}} and {{tlit|ja|katakana}} are visually distinct from one another, owing in large part to different methods of simplification—{{tlit|ja|katakana}} were derived from smaller components of each {{tlit|ja|man'yōgana}}, while {{tlit|ja|hiragana}} were derived from the cursive forms of {{tlit|ja|man'yōgana}} in their entirety. In addition, the {{tlit|ja|hiragana}} and {{tlit|ja|katakana}} for some moras were derived from different {{tlit|ja|man'yōgana}}.{{sfn|Coulmas|1991|pp=129–132}} Characters invented for Japanese-language use are called {{tlit|ja|[[kokuji]]}}. The methods employed to create {{tlit|ja|kokuji}} are equivalent to those used by Chinese-original characters, though most are ideographic compounds. For example, {{lang|ja|峠}} ({{tlit|ja|tōge}}; 'mountain pass') is a compound {{tlit|ja|kokuji}} composed of {{lang|ja|山}} ('mountain'), {{lang|ja|上}} ('above'), and {{lang|ja|下}} ('below').{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=192–196}}

While characters used to write Chinese are monosyllabic, many kanji have multi-syllable readings. For example, the kanji {{lang|ja|刀}} has a native {{tlit|ja|kun'yomi}} reading of {{tlit|ja|katana}}. In different contexts, it can also be read with the {{tlit|ja|on'yomi}} reading {{tlit|ja|tō}}, such as in the Chinese loanword {{nwr|{{lang|ja|日本刀}}}} ({{tlit|ja|nihontō}}; 'Japanese sword'), with a pronunciation corresponding to that in Chinese at the time of borrowing. Prior to the universal adoption of {{tlit|ja|katakana}}, loanwords were typically written with unrelated kanji with {{tlit|ja|on'yomi}} readings matching the syllables in the loanword. These spellings are called {{tlit|ja|[[ateji]]}}—for example, {{nwr|{{lang|ja|亜米利加}} ({{tlit|ja|Amerika}})}} was the {{tlit|ja|ateji}} spelling of 'America', now rendered as {{lang|ja|アメリカ}}. As opposed to {{tlit|ja|man'yōgana}} used solely for their pronunciation, {{tlit|ja|ateji}} still corresponded to specific Japanese words. Some are still in use, with the official list of [[Jōyō kanji|{{tlit|ja|jōyō}} kanji]] including 106 {{tlit|ja|ateji}} readings.{{sfn|Taylor|Taylor|2014|pp=275–279}}

=== Korean ===
{{Main|Hanja}}
In Korean, Chinese characters are referred to as ''hanja''. Literary Chinese may have been written in Korea as early as the 2nd century&nbsp;BCE. During Korea's [[Three Kingdoms of Korea|Three Kingdoms]] period (57&nbsp;BCE{{snd}}668&nbsp;CE), characters were also used to write {{tlit|ko|[[idu script|idu]]}}, a form of Korean-language literature that mostly made use of [[Sino-Korean vocabulary]]. During the [[Goryeo]] period (918–1392), Korean writers developed a system of phonetic annotations for Literary Chinese called {{tlit|ko|[[gugyeol]]}}, comparable to {{tlit|ja|kundoku}} in Japan, though it only entered widespread use during the later [[Joseon]] period (1392–1897).{{sfn|Li|2020|pp=78–80}} While the [[hangul]] alphabet was invented by the Joseon king [[Sejong]] in 1443, it was not adopted by the Korean literati and was relegated to use in glosses for Literary Chinese texts until the late 19th century.{{sfn|Fischer|2004|pp=189–194}}

Much of the Korean lexicon consists of Chinese loanwords, especially technical and academic vocabulary.{{sfnm|1a1=Hannas|1y=1997|1p=49|2a1=Taylor|2a2=Taylor|2y=2014|2p=435}} While hanja were usually only used to write this Sino-Korean vocabulary, there is evidence that vernacular readings were sometimes used.{{sfn|Kornicki|2018|p=168}} Compared to the other written vernaculars, very few characters were invented to write Korean words; these are called ''[[gukja]]''.{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=88, 102}} During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Korean was written either using a mixed script of hangul and hanja, or only using hangul.{{sfnm|Handel|2019|1pp=112–113|Hannas|1997|2pp=60–61}} Following the end of the [[Empire of Japan]]'s occupation of Korea in 1945, the total replacement of hanja with hangul was advocated throughout the country as part of a broader "purification movement" of the national language and culture.{{sfn|Hannas|1997|pp=64–66}} However, due to the lack of tones in spoken Korean, there are many Sino-Korean words that are homophones with identical hangul spellings. For example, the phonetic dictionary entry for {{lang|ko|기사}} ({{tlit|ko|rr|gisa}}) yields more than 30 different entries. This ambiguity had historically been resolved by also including the associated hanja. While still sometimes used for Sino-Korean vocabulary, it is much rarer for native Korean words to be written using hanja.{{sfn|Norman|1988|p=79}} When learning new characters, Korean students are instructed to associate each one with both its Sino-Korean pronunciation, as well as a native Korean synonym.{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=75–82}} Examples include:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{sronly|Example Korean dictionary listings}}
! rowspan="2" scope="col"      | Hanja
! colspan="2" scope="colgroup" | Hangul
! rowspan="2" scope="col"      | Gloss
|-
! scope="col" | Native translation !! scope="col" | Sino-Korean
|-
! scope="row" | {{normal|{{linktext|lang=ko|水}}}}
| {{lang|ko|물}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|mul}}|| {{lang|ko|수}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|su}}|| 'water'
|-
! scope="row" | {{normal|{{linktext|lang=ko|人}}}}
| {{lang|ko|사람}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|saram}}|| {{lang|ko|인}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|in}}|| 'person'
|-
! scope="row" | {{normal|{{linktext|lang=ko|大}}}}
| {{lang|ko|큰}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|keun}}|| {{lang|ko|대}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|dae}}|| 'big'
|-
! scope="row" | {{normal|{{linktext|lang=ko|小}}}}
| {{lang|ko|작을}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|jakeul}}|| {{lang|ko|소}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|so}}|| 'small'
|-
! scope="row" | {{normal|{{linktext|lang=ko|下}}}}
| {{lang|ko|아래}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|arae}}|| {{lang|ko|하}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|ha}}|| 'down'
|-
! scope="row" | {{normal|{{linktext|lang=ko|父}}}}
| {{lang|ko|아비}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|abi}}|| {{lang|ko|부}}; {{tlit|ko|rr|bu}}|| 'father'
|}

=== Vietnamese ===
{{Main|Chữ Hán}}
{{See also|Literary Chinese in Vietnam}}
[[File:Tale of Kieu parallel text.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|The first two lines of the 19th-century Vietnamese epic poem ''[[The Tale of Kieu]]'', written in both {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} and the Vietnamese alphabet
{{legend|#149f78|Borrowed characters representing Sino-Vietnamese words}}
{{legend|#7671b4|Borrowed characters representing native Vietnamese words}}
{{legend|#da5f00|Invented {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} representing native Vietnamese words}}|alt=The characters ｢𤾓𢆥𥪞𡎝𠊛些．𡨸才𡨸命窖𱺵恄𠑬𠑬．｣ corresponding to "Trăm năm trong cõi người ta. Chữ Tài chữ Mệnh khéo là ghét nhau." in the Vietnamese alphabet]]
In Vietnamese, Chinese characters are referred to as ''{{langr|vi|[[chữ Hán]]}}'' ({{lang|vi-Hani|𡨸漢}}), ''{{langr|vi|chữ Nho}}'' ({{lang|vi-Hani|𡨸儒}}; '[[Confucian]] characters'), or ''{{langr|vi|Hán tự}}'' ({{lang|vi-Hani|漢字}}). Literary Chinese was used for all formal writing in Vietnam until the modern era,{{sfnm|Handel|2019|1pp=124–126|Kin|2021|2p=XI}} having first acquired official status in 1010. Literary Chinese written by Vietnamese authors is first attested in the late 10th century, though the local practice of writing is likely several centuries older.{{sfn|Hannas|1997|p=73}} Characters used to write Vietnamese called ''{{langr|vi|[[chữ Nôm]]}}'' ({{lang|vi-Hani|𡨸喃}}) are first attested in an inscription dated to 1209 made at the site of a pagoda.{{sfn|DeFrancis|1977|pp=23–24}} A mature {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} script had likely emerged by the 13th century, and was initially used to record Vietnamese folk literature. Some {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} characters are phono-semantic compounds corresponding to spoken Vietnamese syllables.{{sfn|Kornicki|2018|p=63}} Another technique with no equivalent in China created {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} compounds using two phonetic components. This was done because Vietnamese phonology included consonant clusters not found in Chinese, and were thus poorly approximated by the sound values of borrowed characters. Compounds used components with two distinct consonant sounds to specify the cluster, e.g. {{lang|vi-Hani|𢁋}} ({{lang|vi|blăng}};{{efn|This is the [[Middle Vietnamese]] pronunciation; the word is pronounced in modern Vietnamese as {{lang|vi|trăng}}.}} 'Moon') was created as a compound of {{lang|vi-Hani|巴}} ({{lang|vi|ba}}) and {{lang|vi-Hani|陵}} ({{lang|vi|lăng}}).{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=145, 150}} As a system, {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} was highly complex, and the literacy rate among the Vietnamese population never exceeded 5%.{{sfn|DeFrancis|1977|p=19}} Both Literary Chinese and {{langr|vi|chữ Nôm}} fell out of use during the French colonial period, and were gradually replaced by the Latin-based [[Vietnamese alphabet]]. Following the end of colonial rule in 1954, the Vietnamese alphabet has been sole official writing system in Vietnam, and is used exclusively in Vietnamese-language media.{{sfnm|Coulmas|1991|1pp=113–115|Hannas|1997|2pp=73, 84–87}}

=== Other languages ===
Several minority languages of [[South China|South]] and [[Southwestern China]] have been written with scripts using both borrowed and locally created characters. The most well-documented of these is the {{langr|za|[[sawndip]]}} script for the [[Zhuang languages]] of [[Guangxi]]. While little is known about its early development, a tradition of vernacular Zhuang writing likely first emerged during the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907). Modern scholarship characterizes {{langr|za|sawndip}} writing as a network of regional traditions that have mutually influenced one another while maintaining their local characteristics.{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=239–240}} Like Vietnamese, some invented Zhuang characters are phonetic–phonetic compounds, though not primarily ones intended to describe consonant clusters.{{sfn|Handel|2019|pp=251–252}} Despite the Chinese government encouraging its replacement with a Latin-based [[Zhuang alphabet]], {{langr|za|sawndip}} remains in use.{{sfnm|Handel|2019|1pp=231, 234–235|Zhou|2003|2pp=140–142, 151}} Other non-Sinitic [[languages of China]] historically written with Chinese characters include [[Hmongic languages|Miao]], [[Mienic languages|Yao]], [[Bouyei language#Ancient Bouyei script|Bouyei]], [[Bai language|Bai]], and [[Hani language|Hani]]; each of these are now written with Latin-based alphabets designed for use with each language.{{sfnm|Zhou|1991|Zhou|2003|2p=139}}

=== Graphically derived scripts ===
{{See also|Transcription into Chinese characters}}
[[File:SecretHistoryMongols1908.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Title page for a 1908 edition of the 13th-century ''[[Secret History of the Mongols]]'', which uses Chinese characters to transcribe Mongolian and provides glosses to the right of each column]]
Between the 10th and 13th centuries, dynasties founded by non-Han peoples in northern China also created scripts for their languages that were inspired by Chinese characters, but did not use them directly—these included the [[Khitan large script]], [[Khitan small script]], [[Tangut script]], and [[Jurchen script]].{{sfn|Zhou|1991}} This has occurred in other contexts as well: [[Nüshu]] was a script used by [[Yao people|Yao]] women to write the [[Xiangnan Tuhua]] language,{{sfn|Zhao|1998}} and [[bopomofo]] ({{zhi|t=注音符號|s=注音符号|p=zhùyīn fúhào<!-- exception to [[MOS:ZH]] -->}}) is a [[semi-syllabary]] first invented in 1907{{sfn|Kuzuoğlu|2023|p=71}} to represent the sounds of Standard Chinese;{{sfnm|1a1=DeFrancis|1y=1984|1p=242|2a1=Taylor|2a2=Taylor|2y=2014|2p=14|3a1=Li|3y=2020|3p=123}} both use forms graphically derived from Chinese characters. Other scripts within China that have adapted some characters but are otherwise distinct include the [[Geba syllabary]] used to write the [[Naxi language]], [[Sui script|the script]] for the [[Sui language]], [[Yi script|the script]] for the [[Yi languages]], and the syllabary for the [[Lisu language]].{{sfn|Zhou|1991}}

Chinese characters have also been repurposed phonetically to transcribe the sounds of non-Chinese languages. For example, the only manuscripts of the 13th-century ''[[Secret History of the Mongols]]'' that have survived from the medieval era use characters in this manner to write the [[Mongolian language]].{{sfn|Hung|1951|p=481}}