Early Cantonese

There have been three main views for the development of the Cantonese language. One view stated that Chinese troops in southern China mixed with the native Yue people and the two languages converged, which explained the reason for similarities between Cantonese and the modern Zhuang and Yao languages, during the Qin and Han Dynasties. A second view placed the dating after the Tang Dynasty when the region was cut off from the rest of China which would have lent to a separate linguistic tradition being formed. And the third view, pushed the time period further, in the Song Dynasty. This view stated that immigrants during the dynasty added to the linguistic differences already present, but argued that most of the features of modern Cantonese stemmed from this immigration. Although there is no way to know for certain which view is correct, by the Qing Dynasty, Cantonese was sufficiently different as to warrant a special program that would instruct candidates looking to be government officials in the ‘correct’ pronunciation of Chinese. Once the language branched off, it was only a matter of time until the script changed as well. In order to understand the origins of the Cantonese vernacular script, it is important to look at the origins of other vernacular scripts in China. Victor Mair argued that many of the languages of China owe their vernacular scripts to Buddhism, which put an emphasis on the oral tradition. The only way to accurately record selections of speech was through the use of a vernacular script. Many of the first Cantonese vernacular script texts are Buddhist in nature, with an emphasis on singing and chanting.[1] Although early attempts were made at using a Cantonese script, nothing remotely standardized. Most of the characters used were known by the creators and few others.

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[1] Snow, Donald Bruce. Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004.

The Link

From the Shang Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese script continued to evolve to eventually produce 楷書 (Kai Shu)—the standard script. The same factors that governed the creation and standardization of earlier scripts is mirrored in the creation of the vernacular Cantonese script. This paper offers to address the differing developmental stages of the script within the historical context, to further shed light on the evolutionary process. This is completed first by explaining the narrative history surrounding the script and second by analyzing sources written in the script. Then, by setting this framework, current Hong Kong vernacular Cantonese script sources are used to show that the script’s characters are created using the same processes. The Cantonese script, like previous Chinese scripts, continues to evolve. This paper will conclude by elucidating the unstandardized nature of the Cantonese vernacular script, and explore, using the ancient Chinese sources, possible outcomes of the script. This will be done by comparing the evolution of early Chinese scripts to the evolution of the Cantonese script and projecting the outcomes of the Chinese script on the vernacular Cantonese script.

Character Simplification

Zhou Youguang. The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2003.
Summary

The character system is inherently difficult. Zhou identifies, what he calls, the "four difficulties:" complicated stroke patterns, large number of characters, chaotic pronunciation, and understanding the meaning is difficult. To counter these he shows how these difficulties have been managed in the past by listing four stabilizing features that have remedied these problems: stabilize the shapes,  stabilize the amount, stabilize pronunciation, and stabilize the sequence.

 Stabilizing the shape deals with the number of strokes that it takes to write a character, many characters have been written in many variant forms, depending on the time period and the script at use during that time. This is often done naturally as the script is written more often by more people. After the Qin reunification the seal script became too inconvenient to be written quickly so the clerical script was created. The clerical script drastically reduced the number of strokes to write characters and also standardized the strokes used. Later as the clerical script was used more and more, it merged with the semi-cursive script to create the standard script. This trend has continued to the present, with many of the common abbreviations of characters have become the official characters in public use. Zhou argues against the popular theory that character scripts get more and more complicated as time progressing by explaining the difference between "compounding" and "complexity." Most characters are compounds of simpler distinguishable features,which to the untrained eye have the appearance of complexity, but in reality go to distinguish important phonetic and semantic qualities. Another way that the shape has been simplified was through "assimilation." Assimilation, if done correctly, can reduce component parts without creating vagueness. An example of this is using the 月 which means "moon" to be the radical to represent 肉 or "meat." Although the 月 character itself is common enough, it is rarely used as a radical meaning "moon" which makes it a great target for assimilation.

Stabilizing the amount of characters not only includes the overall count, but also the amount that is to be used at different levels of education: professional vs grade school. There have been several attempts at this, but they have mostly failed. One example was in 1921 where Lu Feikui called for a 2,000 character limit for common usage. Although an overall cap on the number of characters has never come about the modern answer to this question limits the number used at each level. Elementary school students need to know 2,500, 3,500 for junior high, and 7,000 characters for general usage. The important thing to remember about these numbers is that they act as a cap on the number to be used and do not necessarily represent the common number used.

Stabilization of pronunciation has come about due to the inability of the phonetic element of the character to accurately express the full phonetic value of the character. According to Zhou 81% of Chinese characters have these phonetic elements. This number is misleading in the fact that these phonetic radicals play a number of different roles. With 35% of the number, the correct initial and final sounds can be determined but not the tone. With 48%, some aspect (initial, final, or tone) of the pronunciation can be determined by the phonetic element. And with 17% of the characters, the phonetic element is actually misleading in knowing the pronunciation.  

Continued simplification throughout history

Zhou Youguang. The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2003.

Summary

Most of the current list of official simplified characters in use by the PRC today have ancient origins. Out of the 2,235 characters on the list 521 are directly from ancient sources, and most of the others are derived from them. These different derived forms were in use during the height of the standard script, but used mostly in the cursive form for faster writing. Many of these simplification have become standardized over history thus making characters easier to write and remember. As a general rule with characters, they should not possess more than seven strokes for left to right  and more than eight from top to bottom. This rule allows for the clear rioting of characters at any size being legible (some of the more complicated characters need to be written larger in order to distinguish the many individual strokes found within). Simplified characters add another advantage to reading, the simplified characters have clearer radicals and are therefore much easier to classify.

Although the advantages are many, there are equally as many disadvantages to this process of simplification. As the meanings of characters are combined and reduced, the number of look-alike characters is increased. An example of this is 巳,已, and 己. This is just one of the long list of look-alike characters that need to be carefully identified due to simplification. A second disadvantage is that some of these characters are created without thinking of the flow of the brush (classically), but just with how they look. This causes characters to be formed awkwardly as the strokes do not blend together as they should. Also many of these same characters (such as 长，为) contain no clear radical and are therefore harder to distinguish and order. The third problem with these simplifications is that previously they were not standardized. The standard script filled books, while these simplifications filled notes. With the Founding of the PRC and the official simplification of the character script, many books have been cast off as essentially being written in a foreign language.

Of the current PRC characters in use about 1/3 are simplifications with the majority still being in their transitional format. 

There had been a move to simplify the characters two times previously by the communist government but each timed failed. It was not until the government replaced the typeset that the simplification caught on. Once the typeset was changed, then all typed material had to use the simplified characters and now longer had a choice between the two scripts. As the majority of the works were then published in simplified characters the population just became used to reading and eventually writing it. Many people thought that this simplification would adversely affect the calligraphic tradition so prevalent in China. At first there was not any backlash as only a 1/3 of the characters actually changed, but as more and more calligraphers used them they realized that a good number of the characters do not lend themselves to calligraphy (for the reasons noted above). 

The Evolution from Clerical to Standard

Qiu Xigui. Chinese Writing. New Haven, CT: Birdtrack Press, 2000.
Summary

Just like other evolutionary scripts, the clerical script was not supplanted by the standard script overnight. The Eastern and Western Han Dynasty is when the clerical script was the primary style. As the script became more used a cursive style emerged. Also at this time a simpler-to-write version of the clerical script emerged called the neo-clerical script. This neo-clerical script merged with the cursive script to create standard script. Near the end of the life of the clerical it looked very similar to the standard script. The standard script did not become the primary script until around two hundred years later.

One theory for why the standard script became the most popular script was that a calligraphic master named Zhōng Yóu created it for his calligraphy. Later the renowned Eastern Jin calligrapher Wang Xizhi and his son built on the script to standardize it even more and to even out the strokes making it even "more pleasing to the eye." Even though the script had come into existence well before this time, it was mostly just used by men of letters. The average person used either the neo-clerical script or a variation of a semi-cursive script.

The meaning of the character "楷" is pattern, this meant that this style should serve as a guide or standard. By this early stage it had completely become separate from the other semi-cursive scripts but it had hardly become the model or standard script. Also during this early stage the quality of the script would change dramatically depending on who was writing it. If the script was written quickly it would look much more like the modern cursive, and if written with more car then it would be closer to the standard. It was not until the Song Dynasty that the specific script started to be called Kai Shu, before that time Kai Shu referred to any of the semi-cursive scripts that had become the standard of time.

The period when the clerical script stopped being used and the standard script became the primary script is hard to pinpoint. Most scholars place the date of the last official clerical script use was during the Wei-Jin period. This period was more than likely the transition stage between the two scripts. After the script was adopted the characters continued to be standardized and simplified, while the style that the characters when written in changed very little. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period has been accepted to be the first use of the script by the majority of people. 

What made the standard script so popular that it moved from just a script used by the literary elite to being the script of the masses? The script was able to make the leap due to (1) its relation to the clerical script with similar stroke orders (popular at the time), and (2) that it was more simplified, but also preserved the inherent beauty. 

From Oracle Bones to the Qin-Han Reforms

Boltz, William G. The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System. New Haven, CN: American Oriental Society, 1994.
Summary

Although the script of the oracle bones and the Zhou bronzes are fairly well documented there is a gap between them and the Qin standardized script. With this lack of evidence it is hard to show a direct line of evolution between the early scripts and the Qin-Han scripts. A further complication to the matter is that most of the pre-Han works were filtered through Han scribes who revised and altered the works to align with their script. Since the early 90s, however, more and more artifacts have been uncovered that have the original text forms from the pre-Han period. These artifacts found, written on wood, bamboo, or silk, have brought new light to the evolutionary process of the script. 

I order to show how the Kai Shu 楷书 (standard script) came into existence it is necessary to first look at Qin Shi Huang Di 秦始皇帝 and the reforms of Li Si 李斯. The author brings new light to the story of the Qin Emperor burning books. He argues that a main reason for the burning could have been to guarantee the success of his script standardization. At the time he came to power many different scripts were being used, but the burning of the books destroyed scholarship written in the Gu Wen 古文 (ancient script). Thereby making it useless to learn the script, as nothing was written in it. This reform led to a near millennium gap between the bone and bronze inscriptions and the Qin script. The author argues that the period of standardization lasted from Li Si (c. 200BCE) to Xu Shen 许慎 (c. 100CE). During this period there were still a number of variant scripts which slowly faded away. This variants might have had lexical differences to the standard script, but the author only focuses on the graphic variants in order to show the clear evolutionary pattern.  

Next the author looks at the Ma Wang Tui manuscripts which he shows can be accurately dated to the pre and early Han Dynasty because of their use of Han Emperor's given names (which would have been avoided after they were emperor). In these pre-reform manuscripts there are several cases of graphic variation. The main example of this variation is characterized by the characters 堇 and 勤. Both characters are pronounced the same, and both have the same meaning, they just look different. This shows that the 力 radical had not yet been standardized, and it remained in flux until after the reform period. This type of variation is to be expected because the longer the script was used the more characters needed to be created by adding pieces (radicals in this case) to preexisting characters. And although the process was used regularly, there was no standard way of adding radicals until after Xu Shen. Another variation is classified by the difference in uses between 而 and 能. The characters are used in the same way, but even now we are not sure if they were pronounced the same way, or if they had the same meaning. 

Chinese System Classification

DeFrancis, John. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.

There are many debates on what to call Chinese characters, and hope to classify them. There are many categories that linguists group Chinese into which DeFrancis explores: ideographic, logographic, morphographic, to name the main ones. Those that argue that Chinese is ideographic say that each character represents an idea. And although it can be pronounced differently using different dialects the same idea is still present. For logographic proponents say that the Chinese characters represent a word. 'The key point of disagreement leading to these terms is whether a character conveys meaning directly or through the intermediary of the word.' Mophographic comes from the argument, what is a word? Those that claim logography say that a word is one character, where those that favor morphogrphy say that word is more than one character. This view continues by claiming that each character is actually a morpheme, the smallest meaningful unit in the language. Due to the complex nature of the characters even more classifications arise. Phonograms comes from the phonetic element that is claimed to exist in some 90 percent of Chinese characters. This grouping is further elaborated by calling them syllabic phonograms. This points to the phonetic element but also link in that the words come in the form of syllables.

It is widely known that the characters have pictographic beginnings, but they soon evolved into stylized characters. Chinese characters can be broken up into individual units called 'strokes.' These units can be further broken up into three different categories:

Dots: 丶

Lines: l，一，𠄌

Hooks:亅，乛，乙

Although characters are made up of these strokes they themselves hold no inherent meaning or sound value, just as the "丶"part of "x" has no meaning or sound value. Strokes are made by having a starting point, the moving toward any direction from northeast to southwest.

In many dictionaries characters are classified by the number of strokes that they contain. Those wanting to look up a character will not only need to know how many strokes are in a character but also in what order they are written. Ah a general rule "top before bottom" and "left before right." As an example, the 人 character is comprised of two strokes in this order: 丿then丶. The 大, is 一，丿，then 丶. And 囗 is l，𠃍，then －. Simple characters, like these, are then combined with other simple characters to make complex characters. They are usually combined by left-right or top-bottom. 唔 is made up of three simple characters, two 口 and one 五. The two 口 are added to the left and bottom of the 五. Other examples include: 叶，佫，㭉. Using these principles you can keep adding on simple or even more complex characters to the left or top to create an infinite number of characters, 舞，遲，駴，鱡. Ninety percent of the characters in the Chinese dictionary used these two rules left-right or top-bottom.