The Effects the Nature of the Language Had on the Devolpment of China

The Effects the Nature of the Language Had on the Devolpment of China

Omar Khurshid
09/18/08
History Essay 2
What effects has the nature of the Chinese language had on the development of China?
The nature of the Chinese language has greatly affected the development of China. Some of the more distinct effects of the language on China are the decentralized government, the literacy issues and a trend to keep traditional values. The language is non-phonetic and very difficult to learn. Firstly, if anyone would attack China, the government would not be able to communicate and assemble a resistance to the whole nation due to the communication difficulties. As a result, the government was very weak and vulnerable. Because of low literacy rates, there was not a sense of nationalism amongst the people of China. China was not really a nation because the primary language was barely spoken by the majority of the nation, and the country was not very unified under their elites. The majority of the inhabitants of China only accepted that there were people who regulated their land were in control. The majority didn’t really care what happened to the nation as long as they could continue living and doing their job. For instance, there was the genuine problem of the language in relation to the development of China which was the low literacy rates. This caused the economic growth to be very gradual. This in turn caused trade to be difficult with other nations because old ideas were kept so it was unlikely for change, such as trade/new ideas, to happen. There were old values embedded into the language which hasn’t changed, even in the present day after people noticed all the faults in it ethically. Lastly, the Chinese language promoted a sense of traditionalism or otherwise a slowness to change. Acculturation never transpired and neither did much trade, which could be the catalyst for change, due to the fact of the inability to expand the language. In conclusion, change did not occur as fast as in many other nations, and this caused the...

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