Chinese Characters
OriginChina
Earliest1200 BC
TypeLogographic
About Chinese Characters
Over 50,000 characters exist but literacy requires knowing only 3,000 to 4,000. The oldest continuous writing system still in use. Simplified characters were introduced in mainland China in the 1950s. Traditional characters are still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Each character represents a syllable and a morpheme. The most complex character has 57 strokes.
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