The document discusses the Chinese language. It provides background on Chinese, noting that it has a history of thousands of years and is spoken by more people than any other language. It then discusses the origins and development of written Chinese characters, including the four main principles of character construction: pictographs, ideographs, logical aggregates, and phonetic complexes. The document encourages learning Chinese, stating reasons such as learning about Chinese history and culture, making friends with different cultures, benefits for business, ease of learning, improving artistic skills, and being able to communicate while traveling.

2. Presented by
Ripon Kumar Sikder, PhD Fellow
ICR, CAAS

3.  Language is at the heart of culture,
and culture is the glue of society;
 Without language we can not discover
a nation.
Justification of selection

4. A very old yet still living language:
Several thousand years long history, ever changing, but never
interrupted.
Belong to the “Sino-Tibetan” language system.
More people speak Chinese than any other language in the world.
One of the five official languages of UN.
60% of Korean vocabulary comes from Chinese.
Written Japanese has several thousand characters borrowed from
Chinese.
It has been estimated that until the 18th century more than half
of the world's printed books were in Chinese.

5. Genesis of Chinese Language

6. Mandarin
Cantonese
Shanghaiese
Other Dialects
CHINESE
Fig.2 Major spoken languages in China

7.  No later than 14 century B.C.
 Oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty
(1600 -1028 B.C.)
When did the earliest Chinese Characters appear?

8. Main 4 principles for character construction
 Pictographs (≈4%)
Horse 马
 Ideographs (≈1%)
Heaven天
 Logical Aggregates (≈13%)
Wood 木Small Forest 林Big Forest 森
 Phonetic Complexes (≈82%)
妈 码 玛 骂 蚂 吗 犸

9. Fig.3 Some Continents have more language than others
There are at least 7,102 living languages in the world

10. Fig.4 Some of the languages with most native speakers
Ofthe7.2billionpeopleonearth…..

11. Fig.5 Internet world users by language

12. China is the most widely spoken language in the
world
Learn about ancient history and culture of China
Make friends with different cultures
It is good for business
Learning Mandarin is easier than you think
Improve your artistic skills
Travel to beautiful countries knowing you can
communicate
Why you should learn Chinese?

13. Interesting Facts !!