Chinese Writing: a 100% Syllabic Script

Figure 18. Examples of Chinese characters, which always represent syllables, showing their derivation (except for the 1% noted in Figure 17) from two elements -- a primary phonetic element (i.e., one of the 895 syllabic elements in the "Soothill Syllabary"), and an added semantic element (i.e., one of the 214 elements traditionally called radicals or keys).

return to the excerpt from Visible Speech.