How much do you know about the Chinese language? Is it just a language? Why is it so different from other languages? What characteristics does it have?

These ten characteristics of Chinese will help you undertand further and better the Chinese language.

10 characteristics of Chinese

1. Chinese is a three-dimensional language

Chinese is the only language in the world that combines “form”, “sound” and “meaning”.  There is a specific relationship between the writing, pronunciation and meaning of the character components.

2. Each Chinese character is a syllable

The pronunciation of each Chinese character has only one syllable, that is to say, the pronunciation of each Chinese character is monosyllabic.

3. Chinese pronunciation is full of changes, and vowels are dominant

Chinese (Mandarin) has 21 initial consonants, 39 vowels (simple and compound), and four tones. The pronunciation of each Chinese character must have at least one vowel.

4. Two-syllable words are dominant in Chinese

In the process of development of Chinese, its vocabulary gradually tends to be disyllabic. In modern Chinese, disyllabic vocabulary accounts for the majority.

5. One meaning, multiple words

In Chinese, one meaning can be expressed in many different words, for example, eg. there are hundreds of ways of saying “die”. 去世、离世、捐躯、仙逝、夭折、牺牲、做古、非命、罹难、殉职、逝世、升仙圆寂、凋零、阵亡、长辞，etc.

6. Unique grammar

Chinese words do not undergo morphological alterations for person, gender, tense, aspect, voice, etc. Word order and function words are the main means of expressing grammatical meaning.

7. Plenty of classifiers

One of the most distintive characteristics of Chinese is the richness of classifiers. In Chinese, different objects are modified by different quantifiers, such as 一棵树a tree, 一粒米a grain of rice, 一个人a person, 一张纸a piece of paper, 一片叶子a leaf, 一匹马a horse, 一杯水a glass of water, 一辆车a car, etc.

8. Flexible word formation

In modern Chinese, the word formation is very flexible. There are single-morpheme words, compound words and set phrases.

9. Chinese has spawned other art forms

Various other cultural and artistic forms such as poetry of eight lines, classical Chinese writing, traditional opera, storytelling, local drama, lantern riddles, cross talk, etc. are derived from Chinese language.

10. Chinese is more than a language

Chinese characters carry profound cultural connotations and philosophical thoughts, and contain rich aesthetic and poetic flavor. Chinese is a unity of abstraction, imagery, philosophy and art.

To sum up, Chinese is very unique language, and it is so different from other languages in many aspects. Actually, Chinese has more characteristics. These 10 are among the most important ones.  If you are reading this post, it means you are already in the world of this Chinese language! Let’s explore more of Chinese!

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