How many writing systems are used in China?
How many are there in Europe ?
-Let's see... Latin alphabet, Greek, Cyrillic, according to the area... and, if you have a wide continental view of Europe, you can add Georgian and Armenian. If you also want to take into account writing systems which were employed in the past but are no longer in use, add Oghams and Runes in the north, various pre-Roman and pre-Greek scripts in the south, and several others in the East, like Gothic, Syriac, etc. Besides, Arabic script used to be used in the Iberian Peninsule for some 7 centuries, for arabic and also mozarabic or Andalusi Romance. The website evertype.com is quite exhaustive for the current synchronic account.
But what about China? As we have seen about Europe, this question deserves some specifications: first, you have to distinguish systems currently employed from systmes that are no longer in use. Second, take into account that most systems are restricted to a specific area, and often represent a language different from mandarin chinese . Notice I am not talking about simplified or traditional Chinese, which I have already treated in this post.
So, what writing systems do we find in China? Evidently, we find hanzi, or sinogrammes, that is, chinese caracters. But several other writing systems are used and receive state recognition, as you can see in the top right corner of yuan notes, where "People's Bank of China" is written in Pinyin, Tibetan, Zuang, Uighur and Mongolian:
People's Bank of China:
This detail shows you how plural China is: wikipedia lists the officially recognised 55 ethnic groups, most of which are Han (91,64%), followed by Zhuang (1,27%). Each of the remaining groups account for less than 0,8%, but take into account that 0,8% of the poulation of China means 11,5 million inhabitants, if you take Website Worldometers' estimation that China's population in 2020 amounts to 1,439,323,776 people).
Other than Han, the most famous identity groups in China are:
- Tibetan script is an abugida of Indic origin transcribing mainly Tibetic languages.
- Uyghur employ, among others, a version of arabic script.
- Zhuang uses the latin alphabet
- Mongolian script is quite unique, as it is written vertically.
- Manchu script derived in 16th C. from Mongolian script.
Among these, Tibetan and Zhuang belong to the Tibeto-burman branch, that also includes some of the languages spoken in Burma and Thailand. In the other branch, Sinic languages form a continuum where linguists distinguish several sub-families. Some of these became distinct languages in old chinese (c. 1122–256 BC), and are therefore as different from eachother as are German, Italian and Russian:
Another system is Yi script, used from 16th century to represent the various languages of the Yi people in northern Sichuan, where signs are displayed in both hanzi and yi scripts.
Nüshu (women script) is a very particular writing system which has become quite known, partly because it has been used exclusively by women in the Hunan province, and partly because it was made known to the public as recently as 1983.
-Let's see... Latin alphabet, Greek, Cyrillic, according to the area... and, if you have a wide continental view of Europe, you can add Georgian and Armenian. If you also want to take into account writing systems which were employed in the past but are no longer in use, add Oghams and Runes in the north, various pre-Roman and pre-Greek scripts in the south, and several others in the East, like Gothic, Syriac, etc. Besides, Arabic script used to be used in the Iberian Peninsule for some 7 centuries, for arabic and also mozarabic or Andalusi Romance. The website evertype.com is quite exhaustive for the current synchronic account.
But what about China? As we have seen about Europe, this question deserves some specifications: first, you have to distinguish systems currently employed from systmes that are no longer in use. Second, take into account that most systems are restricted to a specific area, and often represent a language different from mandarin chinese . Notice I am not talking about simplified or traditional Chinese, which I have already treated in this post.
Writing systems in China
An attentive visit to the Forbidden city in Beijing will alow you to notice the diversity of scripts in Chinese history: In the early 15th century, the imperial dwelling boasted the cultural diversity of His subjects. From left to right, the inscription is written in Manchurian, Tibetan, Chinese and Mongol: |
| Entrance to a pavillion in th Forbidden City, Beijing |
So, what writing systems do we find in China? Evidently, we find hanzi, or sinogrammes, that is, chinese caracters. But several other writing systems are used and receive state recognition, as you can see in the top right corner of yuan notes, where "People's Bank of China" is written in Pinyin, Tibetan, Zuang, Uighur and Mongolian:
People's Bank of China:
- Hanzi: 中国人民银行
- Pinyin: Zhōngguó Rénmín Yínháng
- Tibetan: ཀྲུང་གོ་མི་དམངས། མི་རྣམས།དངུལ་ཁང་།
- Zhuang: Cunghgoz Yinzminz Yinzhangz
- Uighur: جۇڭگو خەلق بانكا
- Mongolian: ᠳᠤᠮᠳᠠᠳᠤ ᠤᠯᠤᠰ ᠤᠨ ᠠᠷᠠᠳ ᠤᠨ ᠪᠠᠩᠬᠢ
This detail shows you how plural China is: wikipedia lists the officially recognised 55 ethnic groups, most of which are Han (91,64%), followed by Zhuang (1,27%). Each of the remaining groups account for less than 0,8%, but take into account that 0,8% of the poulation of China means 11,5 million inhabitants, if you take Website Worldometers' estimation that China's population in 2020 amounts to 1,439,323,776 people).
Other than Han, the most famous identity groups in China are:
- Zhuang, a multitude of related groups scattered in the southern regions of Guangxi, Yunnan and Guangdong, speking 16 main dialects of the Tai branch of the Kra-dai family, This language is therefore distantly related to mandarin, as a part of the Tibeto-burman branch of Tibeto-sinic languages.
- From this region, and also scattered in Burma, Laos and Thailand are also the Miao people, a heterogenic group including ethnicities such as the Hmong people, speaking languages from another family called Hmong–Mien.
- Manchu, present in inner Manchuria (currently called Dōngběi or Northeast China) and the today Russian adyacent region of Outer Manchuria.
- Uyghur, from the extensive region of Xinjiang (about the size of Iran), previously know as Chinese Turkestan, since it forms an identity group with other Turkic people like Turkish , Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, and Kyrgyz.
- Tibetan, stablished in the Tibetan Plateau, spanning from India, Butan and Nepal to the easternmost regions, including the region of Tibet, which amounts to 25% of Chinese territory.
- Mongol, 5.8 people living in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and around 3 million in the independent country (Outer) Mongolia.
 |
| Territories covered by the Tibetan Plateau |
- Uyghur employ, among others, a version of arabic script.
- Zhuang uses the latin alphabet
- Mongolian script is quite unique, as it is written vertically.
- Manchu script derived in 16th C. from Mongolian script.
What languages do they represent?
The languages represented by these writting systems are not all related: Manchu and Mongol are Altaic languages, Uyghur is a Turkic language, and many minorities like the Miao speak languages that are not related to Chinese (at least according to most non-chinese linguists). Setting this aside, many of the languages spoken in China can be traced to a common reconstructed ancestor, known as the Sino-Tibetan language family, which divides Sinic languages on the one hand, and Tibeto-burman languages in the other side, similar to the division between satem and centum languages in Indoeuropean.Among these, Tibetan and Zhuang belong to the Tibeto-burman branch, that also includes some of the languages spoken in Burma and Thailand. In the other branch, Sinic languages form a continuum where linguists distinguish several sub-families. Some of these became distinct languages in old chinese (c. 1122–256 BC), and are therefore as different from eachother as are German, Italian and Russian:
- Min (In Fujian Province)
- Wu (In Shanghai and surroundings)
- Gan (spoken by th Hakka minoritiy, scattered in the south and south-west)
- Mandarin
- Jin (in the northern province of Shanxi)
- Cantonese (in the Guandong Province and Hong Kong)
Written systems no longer in use
Many other interesting writing systems have been used though Chinese history. Some were derived from Hanzi, and some had a completely different origin. An interesting example is the Dongba pictographic writing, used by Naxi people from Yunnan for religious purposes for the last thousand years. This system can be used in combination with a syllabary whic was derived from it, called geba.
Another system is Yi script, used from 16th century to represent the various languages of the Yi people in northern Sichuan, where signs are displayed in both hanzi and yi scripts.
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| Nüshu script |
Chinese written in other systems
Chinese is today also written in:- The latin alphabet, starting by missionaires in Taiwan. From the many "romanisations", the most famous are:
- Pinyin (Hanyu Pinyin), in use from 1958
- Wade–Giles, created in 1859, generally used today in Taiwan
- Yale, created in 1943 as a closer transcription to English, in use in Hong Kong
- Ongyong pinyin, reciently developped by the Taiwanese government. You can compare them all here.
- The cyrillic alphabet, from 19th C, and still in use, as equivalent to pinyin.
- Bopomofo (AKA Zhuyin), a kind of phonetic alphabet exclusively invented for Chinese
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