Mandarin Chinese doesn't have an alphabet
April 20 - UN Chinese Language Day
Mandarin Chinese doesn't have an alphabet. It is written with symbols. These symbols are called Chinese characters. Chinese characters represent the oldest writing system in the world. There are two different kinds of Chinese characters: traditional and simplified. Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese communities use traditional characters. China uses simplified characters. Source
What are your thoughts on this subject?
73 Comments
Carolyn Alexander
That is an alphabet.
Ronelle Chaverst
No they aren't because the hanyu represents full length words.
Skarlett Skorsgaard
No it's not. It's easy to say that their characters are their alphabet, because the alphabet is what we understand. But you'd have to understand the Chinese writing form to know that you can't equate this what we understand, contextually, as an alphabet.
Paul Castagnetta
those chinese.wat a bunch of characters.
Dean Souder
if you think about it, if they had an alphabet they would not have asked the question in the first place.
Many correct answers may be gotten with this deductive reasoning. However, I go along with Danny on this one. The characters are, in fact, their alphabet!
Jennifer Lynn Engelken
But, the characters are actually words or phrases, right? Not 'letters' that make up words? Thus, not an alphabet. Like native American Indians, etc.
Mike Higgins
I usually order Word soup at a Chinese restaurant.
Carlos Cruz
Characters that define things and words. Therefore it is an alphabet. Their alphabet.
Allen Linson
Language. Is not the same as ours
Allen Linson
Because. Language. Is different. From are
Leticia Ramos
get it
LarryLane0415
So Mr know it all set this one out
Jeff D Marquis
I learned karate from a Chinese guy. He owned a monkey. I paid him for lessons with bananas.
Albert Aponte
Now that was a lucky guess.
Cindy Clark
I knew it was a trick question.
Kathleen Schrader
This is misleading! The Mandarin alphabet is characters or symbols.
Clark Alexander Shattuck
In the time it has taken for these "alphabet" exchanges, another brilliant American educated Chinese student has been denied immigration papers because of stupid Republicans. Maybe your energies would be best served elsewhere.
Ronelle Chaverst
Will C Barker evidently not when you live in the US and a person can get paid more money by speaking another language in the good old US and also companies who prefer someone to be bilingual whether they speak with a full grasp of the english language.
Ronelle Chaverst
我说中国
Wǒ shuō zhōngguó...( I speak Chinese) THE HANYU IS NOT AN ALPHABET THEY ARE WORDS...
Ronelle Chaverst
Ruben Pages Not in Mandarin. They aren't referred to as symbols either they are referred to as words. Laoshi means teacher and my Laoshi said Mandarin doesn't have an alphabet. Also, if you knew anything about it you would know that Mandarin is tonal and regardless of the "hanyu" one WORD can mean five different things depending on the tone.
Daniel William Marvin
Not an alphabet because the symbols represent complete words, you don't compile them into words...