Chinese characters

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/chinese-characters

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary system type?Logographic, with characters representing morphemes and syllables
2. What is the influence on neighboring scripts?Formed the basis for Japanese Kanji, Korean Hanja, and Vietnamese Chữ Nôm
3. How did Chinese characters begin?They started over 3,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty, written on oracle bones and turtle shells to ask questions to spirits.
4. Why are some Chinese characters pictures of things?Early characters were pictographs that looked like the objects they meant, such as a picture of a horse for the word horse.

Logogram: A written symbol that represents a word or a meaningful linguistic unit.
Pictograph: A character that originated as a pictorial representation of an object or concept.
Radical: A fundamental graphical component of a Chinese character, often indicating semantic category or phonetic value.
Morpheme: The smallest unit of language that carries meaning.