On 5 Jun 2002, Lars Marius Garshol wrote:

> * Lars Marius Garshol
> | It's somewhat annoying that the people writing the story haven't
> | figured out that it is a script, not a language, however.
>
> * John Hudson
> | This seems to be a common error in almost every news item I've seen
> | about Nushu.
>
> That could indicate that the problem might be with a single source for
> all these news stories. On the other hand, this is a very common
> mistake, I've found, and this second article seems to show

I think they are simply poor word choices on the part of an author or
translator not working in their native language. Take for instance the
chinavoc.com article. Although it's in English, there are Chinese
concepts and concerns, e.g., the second to last paragraph says "...
official writing of the Yi (ancient name for tribes in the east of
China)", which is certainly not a reference to today's Yi ethnic minority,
but a historic lumper term for various "barbarians" who live to the east
(which at times includes Koreans and Japanese); also, the "Yi" is a
different word and character. An article meant primarily for an
English-speaking audience wouldn't have fallen into the trap of this
ambiguity (and probably wouldn't reference an unfamiliar concept like
"dongyi"). The last paragraph says "Which dynasty did nushu originate
in?", which smacks of translationese--why would an English-speaking
reader care about that over a more precise idea of which century or
centuries it originated in? Obviously the intended word was "era", which
most Chinese are content to have pinned down to something as vague as a
dynasty.

Possibly, the word wen2 might have been used in an original article or
been in the mind of the writer, which can apply to both '(written)
language' and script.


> | This, rather better article, identifies Nushu as a
> | 'special written language', which is closer but still not quite
> | accurate:
> | http://www.chinavoc.com/life/focus/wmbook.asp
>
> This was a rather interesting article. Note that it also calls Nushu a
> 'calligraphy'. This snippet is also interesting:

That sentence seems a bit unclear. Is it expessing Gong and his students'
initial impression about the mystery and exoticism of the script? Note
that the most mundane Chinese writing or any script is often considered
"calligraphy" by those unfamiliar with it.


Thomas Chan
tc31@...