# Why did the Chinese never change over to a phonetic script? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170 "2007-08-02T19:24:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170/21 "2007-08-03T15:26:43Z")
I always thought it was pretty cool that although many Chinese can’t speak each others dialect or even language they can all read the same newspaper, and they can all read _Analects_ in it’s original script. The English language in contrast is difficult to read after 600 years, and if you’re not a scholar _Beowulf_ is gibberish. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170/22 "2007-08-03T19:20:06Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] On cellphones and computers, Japanese and Chinese basically_are_ tapped out using an alphabetic system. You type in the pronunciation of the word, then type in a single extra keystroke (when necessary) to pick out the right word from a list of choices. [/QUOTE] Yes, I’m quite aware of the fact that Romaji is used to enter Japanese characters. I’ve been doing it for some years now. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170/23 "2007-08-03T19:23:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ravenman] Further nitpick: And the order of radicals is determined by stroke count, at least in all the dictionaries I’ve used. [/QUOTE] Yes, I should have mentioned that the traditional orders are arranged by stroke count. Of course, there are lots of radicals at each stroke count, so that’s why a deeper level of organization is needed. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2007, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170/24 "2007-08-04T11:30:43Z")
I asked my Taiwanese wife, who teaches Chinese at universities (in addition to her research work on social medical issues) and she asked why would they want to abandon their characters. She said they’ve got a lot of pride in them. > [@Askance](#): > > . . . in Japanese, anyway, which if anything is even harder to learn as there are three separate alphabets, for a start . . . Japanese is easier because of the two syllabry in addition to the kanji. They tremendously reduce the number of obscure kanji which would be required to learn. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2007, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170/25 "2007-08-04T12:11:55Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] During the course of the 20th Century, Chinese writing was greatly simplified (discussed in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=372901) thread), but it remains a system of hard-to-learn ideograms. I just read in [_Modern China: An Illustrated History,_](http://www.amazon.com/Modern-China-J-G-Roberts/dp/0750925701/ref=sr_1_1/102-0323301-0796122?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186082546&sr=8-1) by J.A.G. Roberts, that in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, there were several attempts by reformers to change over to a phonetic alphabet, include one plan decreed by Yuan Shikai when he was in power. Why did the idea never take off? [/QUOTE] One purpose the complexity of a written language serves is to separate the educated from the uneducated. Efforts at simplification of any language–including English–are undermined by pedants who use the complexity to advantage… 😉 In any case, the failure to simplify Chinese has been good for promoting the broader distribution of English as the universal de facto standard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-chinese-never-change-over-to-a-phonetic-script/414170.md?page=1)