How to Use Variant Characters

[Lanchong]

Reading opinion pieces in HK newspapers, you often see variant characters. Sometimes even both the standard character, and the variant, appear in the same article. The most common example is perhaps using 箇 instead of 個.

Are there any rules regarding the use of variant characters? I've never seen it mentioned in a textbook. And what kind of impression do they give the average Chinese reader?

[Basil]

木＝没 

 

see it all the time 。really annoys me。

[Takeshi]

I don't think that's a variant character, that seems more like netspeak to me...

[Michaelyus]

With regard to mixing character variants (usually called 異體字, and much more applicable to traditional script as well as historical Chinese writing; in the official simplified script as used in the PRC, I believe all variants have been standardised so it's not an issue), I'd see it as slightly unprofessional, but otherwise inoffensive. No more jarring than single storey and double storey lower case "a". 

 

 

If one consistent version were used, I'm not sure I'd notice. The one I'm most familiar with is the versions of 兑 e.g. in 說 vs 説, 悅 vs 悦, but I'd barely notice those. The use of the former in 箇/個, 裏/裡, 羣/群, 滙/匯, even 臺/台 makes me do a double-take, and I'd probably think "oh, how quaint". A bit like reading American vs British (vs Canadian vs Australian...) spellings. 

 

For the record, no I do not know which ones of each of the pairs above are 正字 and which are 俗字. I mainly read in simplified, but the traditional I come into contact with is mainly HK-based. If I write in traditional, I consistently use the latter of each of the pairs above (even for the word 台湾), unless I'm quoting verbatim of course!

[Takeshi]

Since nobody said it yet, I'll say this but. I think sometimes (classical) texts will use a variant character when two characters appear in a row, something about proving it is not a mistype. This isn't really done in modern texts at all though.

[WindyZhang]

 

木＝没 

 

see it all the time 。really annoys me。

 

It's a netspeak. mu and mei is similar.  and there are different dialects in China.

[889]

I believe that in calligraphy there’s an occasionally followed tradition of not repeating a character, so a variant would be used the second time a character appears.

[Angelina]

Even in Ancient China people would make mistakes when copying a text. The mistake might end up being the new standard. Or both variants would be used at the same time. Or one of the variants would 'get' a new meaning.

 

I don't think there are any rules regarding the use of variant characters. It all depends on language use. Dictionaries are there to help us, not to force language upon us. Try this dictionary if you want to learn more about variant characters:  http://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/main.htm

 

889 has a good point about stylistics. 

 

木／没 is a different phenomenon. 

[Shelley]

I would also recommend searching out OneEye's posts, he has done quite about about this topic and characters in general.

 

This is one of his posts, have a look http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/45912-outlier-linguistic-solutions/