Menu Close

When Did Chinese language start?

Admin

When Did Chinese language start?

Written Language. The Chinese language is the oldest written language in the world with at least six thousand years of history. Chinese character inscriptions have been found in turtle shells dating back to the Shang dynasty1 (1766-1123 BC) proving the written language has existed for more than 3,000 years.

How did the Chinese language start?

Chinese is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, a group of languages that all descend from Proto-Sino-Tibetan. Categorization of the development of Chinese is a subject of scholarly debate. One of the first systems was devised by the Swedish linguist Bernhard Karlgren in the early 1900s.

Is Chinese a real language?

Chinese is a group of related language varieties, several of which are not mutually intelligible, and is variously described as a language or language family. Originally the indigenous speech of the Han majority in China, Chinese forms one of the branches of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

What are the characteristics of the Chinese language?

Chinese is a tonal language The meaning of a word changes according to its tone. There are 4 tones in Mandarin Chinese: flat,rising,falling then rising and falling.

  • All words have only one grammatical form only There is no grammatical distinction between singular or plural,no declination of verbs according to tense,mood and aspect.
  • Questions are formed by usage of particles,the word order (mostly Subject,Verb,Object) remains unchanged

    • What are the different types of Chinese language?

    The spoken Chinese and the written Chinese are different. Though there are many regional Chinese varieties, they are all considered to be a single Chinese language for political and social reasons. Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, Min Xiang, Hakka and Gan are some of the widely used Chinese languages.

    Is Chinese the only pictographic language left?

    Reminiscent of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt, Chinese is the only extant pictographic language. The Chinese language was developed using images, which means in its simplest form it resembles a game of Pictionary.