正体中文 = 繁体中文？

[hughitt1]

Mostly i just use either '繁体字' or '简体字‘， but every now and then i see '正体‘. anyone know how this would translate into english?

[adrianlondon]

I think it means characters which are written in a, oh how to describe ... not in a handwriting form. So all the strokes are written correctly and clearly.

[chinesetools]

In Taiwan, I have sometimes heard traditional characters referred to as 正体. The English translation would be "orthodox". It's a politically loaded term.

[Ian_Lee]

正体 may be translated as "Formal Transcript". Recently this term is commonly used in Taiwan because 繁体 carries a negative meaning = "Complicated Script" even though in English the latter is usually translated as "Traditional Script".

[Jose]

Ma Ying-jeou, the Kuomintang leader, has been one of the most vocal advocates of the term zhengtizi, even presenting the choice of term as an exercise in Confucian rectification of names (正名). You can read about Ma's views in this interesting article here (in orthodox Chinese ).

The term zhengtizi seems to have become much more common recently, and is also sometimes used by mainlanders who support the reintroduction of traditional characters (I have found it a few times in the Peking University language forums). In Chinese Wikipedia there have even been some edit wars about whether traditional characters should be referred to as zhengti or fanti.

I think the English terms "simplified" and "traditional" are much less politically-charged than the Chinese terms. The problem in Chinese is that the choice of name can actually influence people's perceptions. If traditional characters are called "complicated characters", many people may agree that using a complicated version of characters, there being a simple one, is silly. But if traditional characters are regarded as the "orthodox characters", they appear much more respectable, as the authentic, time-honoured version of the marvellous Chinese script. It is not surprising that Taiwan authorities have favoured the use of the term zhengti, whereas the Mainland uses fanti. To complicate matters more, on the Mainland zhengtizi is occasionally used to refer to the standard form of characters, which in that context means simplified, of course.

[djwebb2004]

Zhengti means "proper" Chinese characters.

[中文的力量]

Yes i confirm 正体 means standart caracters:mrgreen:

[Koneko]

正体 can be interpreted as "the correct form" here.

As opposed to 反 for "simplified form" in Taiwan, interestingly 繁 shares the same reading.

Am I correct?!?

K.

[shibo77]

This is politically motivated:

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Mainland:

繁体字 Traditional characters

简体字 (简化字) Simplified characters

Together they are called 繁简字

In specialised fields:

Definition 1: 本字 also called 正字. You may know something called 通假字, listed by 许慎 as one of the ways of forming Chinese characters. You will have a 本字(正字) for example 板, and instead of writing 板, one writes 版. 版 is the 通假字, 板 is the 本字 or 正字.

Definition 2: 本字 is sometimes referred to as 正字, but 正字 also has its own meaning:

正字 also called 正文 or 正体 or 正体字. This is in the same category as 异体字、俗体字、讹读字、别字. Since when China was first united in the Qin dynasty, Chinese characters have been standardised by the authorities. The characters that are standardised are called 正字 (正文, 正体, 正体字). After 许慎's dictionary (and subsequent dictionaries) during the Han dynasty, whichever form of the character that is listed as the headword on his dictionary, is considered the 正字 (正文, 正体, 正体字) form. Whichever forms of the character that is listed after the headword, usually in brackets or parenthesis, is considered a 异体字, which can be further classified as 别字, 讹读, 俗体, 通假 and so forth.

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Taiwan: (I don't know much...)

正體字 (全體字, 繁體字) Traditional characters

簡體字 Simplified characters

I think originally there wasn't a word to refer to the traditional characters, since it was the only one used, but more recently 正體字 has been used, I'm not sure...

Other than these, people may also informally call traditional characters 老字, 正字, 真字, 全字, 旧字 and maybe some others. Also, older people like to say 笔 to replace 体, 简笔字, 繁笔字 for 简体字, 繁体字.

-Shibo

[hughitt1]

neat. hehe, before long we will have phrases such as "好字", or "酷字“ which will mean traditional characters if you live in Taiwan, or simplified character if you live in the mainland >.