Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
... doubtless I'm about to make my inquiry dumber still:
Couldn't I just read 人 as "man", "雇工" as employment, "雇员" as employee (or even as 雇 "employed" and 员 "member")?
Would the phonetic aspects of Hanzi render such an approach untenable beyond the simplest elements?
- Ahi
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Sure you could, but you never would get past words to whole sentences. The languages are too different. Let us take a whole sentence "Ma, ni hao"
"媽, 你好" Three simple words. Mother, you, and good. In this order it means "Mother, hello". Next up, "Ni ma hao""你媽好" Now it means, "Your mother is good" (better style would be "你的媽很好", before someone corrects me!, but still it makes perfect sense like this, too). And there is "你好,媽?" "Are you ok, mother?". Again, before any rebuttal comes, "你還好,媽?" or "你好不好，媽?", would be better.