Xinzi

From UniLang Wiki

Xinzi (新字) is the name given to research toward a system for using Chinese ideograms in the West. Just as China uses the Roman alphabet under the Pinyin system, so too can Chinese be used in the West. The idea is based on an interest in the success of using pictographic and conceptual-symbolic glyphs to integrate with a number of different spoken languages and dialects.

Recognizing that alphabets are analogs of spoken language and hence are easier to write, the very existence of Chinese han glyphs now attests to the persistent facility of ideographic characters, in spite of the efficiency of alphabets. Hence for the creation of an ideal internation auxiliary language, one need look no farther than Chinese to start.

But this requires the learning of basic understanding of Chinese characters, as they are representational of concepts and ideas, as well as their elemental structure (Chinese strokes) and how this structure allows for extensibility and life. This extensibility, as well as the long history of living Chinese development, is the inspiration for taking Chinese to develop further - outside of China's borders. This would not be Chinese, but rather a separate system based on Chinese, which could be easier to learn but lead toward a greater interest in learning the traditional Chinese language.

In order to accomplish this, the project merely needs to provide access to the edit the characters themselves, in their individual design, as well as their underlying systems. The stroke and radical sets must be editable, meaning that changes in these underlying glyphs must cascade into more developed charachters.

I am adding my research in this regard here, in the hope of seeding further interest, as well as for documenting my work so far. -Steven Cooney