Extreme simplification of characters

[Olle Linge]

I know I have seen lists of simplified versions of characters which were adopted (or at least seriously considered), but were then later removed (or never included, I don't remember) from the simplified character set. In other words, some characters which aren't simplified today were simplified at some point after 1956. A teacher once showed me some examples of fairly extreme simplifications, but I have tried to find such a list online and have been unable to. Does anyone know? Since this was many years ago, I don't really recall any specific characters, but I hope you understand what I mean.

[skylee]

There is at least one relevant old thread on this subject - extra-simplified characters

I am not sure if the links in that thread still work. But this is the info you want -> 第二次汉字简化方案 (updated, see #4 below)

Also, baidu is a useful search engine if you want to find something related to China/Chinese.

[外国赤佬]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-round_simplified_Chinese_character

Some have survided, such as 仃=停, 歺=餐, I'm sure you've seen them.

[skylee]

The second link in #2 has been updated as the last page was missing from the originally linked document.

[Kobo-Daishi]

外国赤佬 wrote:

Some have survided, such as 仃=停, 歺=餐, I'm sure you've seen them.

And I guess on Taiwan as well.

These are stills from the Taiwanese romantic comedy series "It Started With A Kiss".

For the longest time I couldn't figure out the character then I remembered that I might have seen it in "Chinese" by Jerry Norman put out by Cambridge University as a bunch of "unofficial simplified characters".

So, I opened my copy of Norman and sure enough, there it was on pg. 82.

I was going to post about it for people to guess, but, now I'm glad I didn't.

I learned so much from that series on the Chinese language.

Kobo.

[外国赤佬]

The one in the second picture looks similar to 飧/飱.

[Olle Linge]

Thanks everybody, this was exactly what I was looking for.

[Kobo-Daishi]

外国赤佬 wrote:

The one in the second picture looks similar to 飧/飱.

Oh, yeah. I forgot that.

Usually when I'm working on the computer and come across something interesting on a web site, video, e-book, dvd movie, what have you, I'd take a printscreen snapshot for later research.

I guess 飧 is just used as another variant for 餐 can1, "meal".

I looked it up using my current go to dictionary, the open source GoldenDict using dictionary files in the StarDict format.

飧/ has the definition of "supper, dinner" but literary usage from the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian.

The Kangxi dictionary says that 飱 is the vulgar form for 飧.

And the Kangxi citing the Jiyun says that 飧 may also be written 餐. I guess then it'll be pronounced "sun".

At the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants web site put out by Taiwan's Ministry of Education, they confirm that 餐 is a variant for 飧.

http://140.111.1.40

http://140.111.1.40/...ra/fra04583.htm

http://140.111.1.40/...ra/fra04601.htm

But nowhere does it say that 飧 is used for "meal" with a pronunciation of "can". I guess the people think that they're interchangeable.

And it illustrates that how much you learn Chinese you will never get to know the little shorthands that native writers will use.

Of course, all these simplifications have been used for centuries and maybe even millenia. Very few actually created with the language reforms of the early 20th century.

Kobo.

[Olle Linge]

Of course, all these simplifications have been used for centuries and maybe even millenia. Very few actually created with the language reforms of the early 20th century.

I'm not sure what "these simplifications" refer to, but if we're talking about the simplifications that Skylee linked to above, I doubt most of them are older than the language reform. Many of them look very contrived. Of course, I could be wrong, so please enlighten me.

[外国赤佬]

Yes, the second round of simplifications failed precisely because it consisted mostly of newly created characters. Everyone just got confused. Let's say I show you 氿, would you understand that it's supposed to mean 酒?