The origin of Chinese

Your question is still a controversial issue in academic circles.

Chinese originated from direct onomatopoeia (onomatopoeia). Zhang (1868- 1936, Tai Yan) wrote in the book On the Balance of National Heritage? "The Origin of Language" advocates: "The language does not start in vain, call a horse a horse, call a cow a cow, and never call it anything" and finds many onomatopoeia words in Chinese as examples: "Why do you say' magpie'? Also called "namely foot" (according to "namely foot" as the arc tangent method to express sound); Why do you say' sparrow'? Call it' wrong'; Why did you say "crow"? Called "Ya Ya"; Why do you say' wild goose'? It is said that its sound "shore" is also ... "Now everyone agrees that there are many onomatopoeia in Chinese, and onomatopoeia is one of the theories of the origin of language, but onomatopoeia can only refer to something with sound, and its scope is limited. What do you mean by something that is not voiced?

It may be that Liang Qichao (1873- 1929) was the first to illustrate the phenomenon that Chinese words' sound is close to meaning'. 192 1 He wrote "Looking at the Source of China Characters from Pronunciation" ('Di' Liang Qichao's Collection of Drinking Rooms, No.36, page 37 1936), which listed many examples to illustrate "sound is close to meaning", such as "sound is"1936. "The 83 words mentioned above are all pronounced with the word' m', and their meanings can be summarized into two principles: first, objectively, it is difficult or impossible to see the subtle darkness of an object or material state; Second, there is a subjective observation state that is unknown in physiology or psychology. " Today, these are all examples of indirect onomatopoeic words (phonological synesthesia).