What are the similarities between Chinese and English? What is the difference?

Chinese and English are very similar: they are both languages.

Differences between Chinese and English:

1, different definitions

Chinese: Chinese, which literally means China characters (especially Chinese characters), is broadly defined as China language (including minority languages and literature).

As a hieroglyph, Chinese has the function of super-language communication, rather than simple language symbols. Historically, Zhuang language, Bai language, Miao language, Mongolian language, Manchu language areas and neighboring countries have the habit of using Chinese records. Chinese provides convenience for people with different languages and backgrounds to communicate in a way that transcends regions and time and space.

English: English is a language of Indo-European Germanic family, which consists of 26 letters. English is the official language designated internationally (as the mother tongue) and the most widely used language in the world. English contains about 490,000 words, plus about 300,000 technical terms.

It is the language with the largest vocabulary and the official language of the European Union, many international organizations and Commonwealth countries. It has the third largest number of native speakers in the world, second only to Chinese and Spanish.

2. Different origins

English: According to legend, there were "nations" in the era of the Yellow Emperor, 3,000 countries in the Xia Dynasty and 800 vassals in the early Zhou Dynasty, but in the Book of Rites, "the people of five parties can't speak".

China existed in the early and middle period of the Zhou Dynasty (1 1 to the 7th century BC), and written records included bronze inscriptions, the Book of Songs, history books and some Yijing. According to Chapter 28 of the Doctrine of the Mean, "Get off the train today, write the same book and do the same thing". It can be seen that the unification of language and writing began in the period of the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty.

English: English alphabet comes from Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet comes from Greek alphabet, and Greek alphabet evolved from Phoenician alphabet.

3, the use distribution is different

English: Chinese is mainly used in China (mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan provinces) and overseas Chinese areas such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Now Chinese can be roughly divided into simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese according to fonts. Simplified Chinese is the standard font used in Chinese mainland, Singapore and Malaysia.

Traditional Chinese is widely used in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Europe and America.

In recent years, with the extensive cultural exchanges in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have also begun to show the coexistence of simplicity and complexity, but the official documents are traditional.

Governments in Malaysia, Singapore and other countries promote simplified Chinese characters and use them in official documents, but people sometimes use traditional Chinese characters.

English: English is the first language in the following countries and regions: Britain, the United States, Australia, Bahamas, Ireland, Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago. 2 1 century, about 500 million people in the world speak English as their first language (mother tongue).

English is a common language in the following countries and regions, including Canada, Dominica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Micronesia (Federated States of), Ireland (together with Irish),

Liberia (along with African languages) and South Africa (along with Afrikaans and other African languages). The population as a second language (that is, not the mother tongue, but the language of the host country) is about 654.38 billion.

English is the official language (one) of the following countries and regions, but it is not the local language and common language: Fiji, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Malta,

Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Baidu Encyclopedia-English

Baidu Encyclopedia-Chinese