On Thursday, March 21, 2002, at 04:02 , Doug Ewell wrote:
>> John Cowan:
>>> Traditional and Simplified characters are *not* unified in Unicode,
>>
>> Some characters, e.g. '一' (one), are used in *both* Traditional and
>> Simplified Chinese. The characters that are used in *both* systems
>> are indeed unified.
>
> Then there is no problem deciding which glyph to use, right?
Wrong. Try "People", For example.
Japanese:
http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/cgi-
bin/kanjibukuro.cgi/char/JIS-2916/UCS-8846/KYOIKU
Simplified Chinese (PRC):
http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/cgi-
bin/kanjibukuro.cgi/char/GB-5458/GBK-D6DA/UCS-4F17/JOYO
Traditional Chinese (ROC):
http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/cgi-
bin/kanjibukuro.cgi/char/CNS1-5C38/BIG5-B2B3/UCS-773E/JOYO
As you see, Simplified Chinese is not just "Simplified" but a complete
reinvention of the whole character.
Even better example is U+673A.
http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/cgi-
bin/kanjibukuro.cgi/data/UCS-673A
In Japanese this one means 'a desk'. In Simplified Chinese, however,
This one means 'a machine', or Simplified version of U+6A5F.
Actually, Character Unification is not the invention (and the problem)
of Unicode. Simplified Chinese is not only Simplified but Unified (not
Unicode's fault, FYI). Try beef noodle, one of my favorite fast food
when I was in China. You spell
U+725B U+8089 U+9762
First one is "Cow" (well, you can't tell Bovine gender and maturity in
Hanzi so it can mean an "Ox" or "Cub"), the second one is "Meet". So
far so good.
But check the last one. The last one is originally for 'Face' and it
still means 'Face'. but it is somehow unified that way. Nood was
originally
U+9EB5 and 'Face' was just a part of radical.
When I saw this at first in China, I can't help imagining how it is like
wearing a mask made of beef :)
Dan the Man with Beef Noodle on My Face
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