Why can't Chinese be written in an alphabet?(Unilang)

Here I use a Chinese story with only homophones to illustrate why Chinese cannot be written with an alphabet.
The short story was read twice in the video, with the first time slower, and the second time in normal conversational speed.
For transcript, pinyin and more information about this recording, please visit: http://home.unilang.org/main/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21775

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Unilang
• Mandarin
• Chinese
• character
• tone
• twister
• homophon

[TakWahli]

Man, I wish Cantonese was picked as the official language of China. Plus, it only lost to Mandarin by 1 vote!! How can we face our ancesters for giving up our ancient language over to mandarin (not to mention it was screwed up by the manchurians). This exactly stresses my point that Cantonese need to be put at a higher place in China. Whos with me!?! :D

[Yperanthropoidsx]

haha i totally agree! I was shocked to learn that mandarin was actually the result of manchurians not speaking Ming Chinese properly. what a shame.

[qelery]

Holy crud! Can a Chinese person actually understand this??

[Yperanthropoidsx]

No, not if we are listening to it.

But we understand it if we read the text. :)

[Yperanthropoidsx]

And that explains precisely why can't Chinese be written in an alphabet, but only characters that has individual meanings. :)

[aristeinwoo]

Great, Liu!

Hunxue (Aristein Woo)

[Yperanthropoidsx]

Thank you Aristein.

I'm really glad that you like it.

[MrMuramaru]

@TakWahli I too agree! Cantonese is nicer than Mandarin! ^^

[kongsinchi1976]

@EmilioPin

(Continue)

Mr.Si's stone chamber was wet, so he told his servants to wipe it. After the chamber was wiped, Mr.Si was ready to taste his lions. However, Mr.Si found out that these ten "lions" are actually ten stone sculpture......can you explain it?

[kongsinchi1976]

@EmilioPin

I would like to try my best to let our non Chinese speaking viewers to know what the story about:

Mr. Si "the Poet in Stone Chamber" like to eat lion, and he sworn to eat ten lions. Mr. Si frequently go to market to look for lion. At 10 o'clock, ten lions were delivered to the market for sale, and Mr Si arrived there. Mr. Si inspected those lions and killed them with his arrows. After that, Mr. Si moved these lions to his stone chamber. (to be continued)

[AquaExecution]

Awesome! This is a further proof that modern Mandarin is a watered down version of what the spoken Chinese language used to be. If you read the text in dialects such as Min-nan (Hokkian), Cantonese, or Hakka it will be a lot more understandable (provided that you speak those dialects).

[guibin]

Because Chinese characters are part of our very culture

[enidream]

if you try to type it in alphabet, it will be numerous "shi"s...

[EmilioPin]

I found this, let me share:

《施氏食狮史》

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮­适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏­拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是­十狮。食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。试释是事。

[EmilioPin]

I found this, let me share:

shīshìshíshīshǐ

shíshìshīshìshīshì，shìshī，shìs­híshíshī。 shīshìshíshíshìshìshìshī。shìsh­í，shìshíshīshìshì。shìshí，shìsh­īshìshìshì。 shìshìshìshíshī，shìshǐshì，shǐs­hìshíshīshìshì。 shìshíshìshíshīshī，shìshíshì。s­híshìshī，shìshǐshìshìshíshì。 shíshìshì，shìshǐshìshíshìshísh­ī。shíshí，shǐshíshìshíshī，shísh­íshíshīshī。 shìshìshìshì。