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Thread: Is the Chinese language dead?
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[quote=GRIZ326,227885]No offense is intended here.... But in discussing the Chinese language with a friend yesterday, the question I posed here came into my mind: Is Chinese a dead language? Obviously, it is still in wide usage...so in that regard is certainly is NOT dead. However, does the Chinese language invent new words? Or does it only use existing words to describe new things? Consider these words: network - 联机.....联 - unite/join 机 - machine radio - 无线电.....无 - without/nothingness 线 - line/thread 电 - lightening/electricity airplane - 飞机.....飞 - fly 机 - machine skeet - word not found in the Wenlin dictionary - however my translator gave me this meaning "shooting the flying disk" biotechnology - word not found in the Wenlin dictionary bytes - word not found in the Wenlin dictionary How would the Chinese language invent new words? Wouldn't new characters need to be created? Is the lack of such a mechanism an indication that the Chinese language is dead? Or is there such a mechanism in place and I simply do not know of it. What happens when China - which is educating far more citizens in the sciences than the United States - over takes American dominance of technology and begins to be the creator of new technologies... How will those Chinese inventors pick new words for their inventions? I hope you have as much fun thinking about this as me... [/quote]
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