An recent article in the USA Today newspaper
talks about how the use of cell phones and computers with predictive text
technology is causing a degradation in the ability of Chinese users to write
the traditional Chinese language ideographic symbols. Many say that the technology causes the user to become fast but inaccurate.
Modern cell phones and word processors use
predictive text technology in which one key or button represents many letters
or characters. When the user enters a key or button, the program chooses the
most likely next letter or character (a “prediction”). The next entry results
in a smaller set of possible letters or characters based on the first two
entries. As more keys or buttons are entered, the predicted text becomes
increasingly likely. (Google and other search engines use predictive algorithms
of words instead of letters to hone in on your desired search subject as you
type in your request).
Predictive text technology as applied to the
Chinese language makes use of the pinyin writing system. Written Chinese is an
ideographic system rather than an alphabetic system. Alphabetic writing systems
represent sounds by using a set of
distinct letter symbols. Ideographic writing systems use symbols to represent
ideas or concepts. Alphabetic writing systems are much more compact
and flexible than ideographic systems and are able to incorporate foreign or
“loan” words much more easily.
Alphabetic writing systems (and the number of
letters used by each) include English (26), German (26), French (26), Italian
(21), Arabic (28), Urdu (38), Korean (24), Spanish (29), Russian (33), Greek
(24), Vietnamese (30), and Hindi (46). In contrast, knowledge of 4000
characters is necessary to achieve functional literacy in written Chinese.
Chinese predictive text programs used in cell
phones and word processors make use of the pinyin system which they “translate”
into Chinese characters. Pinyin is the official phonetic
system for transcribing the
sound of Chinese characters into Latin script in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. An example: 北京 is
represented in pinyin as Běijīng, which, in English is rendered as
Beijing. In the older Wade-Giles system this was presented as Peking.
Some Chinese have become concerned that as the
digital predictive text technology proliferates, traditional Chinese
calligraphic script will fade away. That process has probably already begun
with pinyin eventually being the victor. This is a sad phenomenon because
written Chinese is visually beautiful, but it is probably inevitable at some
time in the future
To demonstrate the beauty and the complexity of
the written Chinese, see the following quotation from Acts 28:31, the verse
from which this blog takes its theme.
“Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man
forbidding him.”
In the Greek, the final word of this verse is ἀκωλύτως, “unhindered,” hence, “Saints On the Loose!”
Acts
28:31 in the Simplified Chinese characters:
宣布神的国度，并教导有关主耶稣基督 - 所有的他勇气和！不受阻碍
Acts
28:31 in the Traditional Chinese characters:
他宣布神的國度，並教導有關主耶穌基督 - 所有的勇氣和不受阻礙
fang4dan3 chuan2/zhuan4 jiang3 shen2 guo2 de* dao4 , jiang1/4/qiang1
ye1su1 ji1du1 de* shi4 jiao4dao3 ren2 , bing1/4 mei2you3 ren2 jin4zhi3
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