Towards a Comparative Study of Sinographic Writing Strategies in Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese*

This comparative study of the adaptation of Chinese characters for writing the languages of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam concludes that language-typological VLPLODULWLHV DQG GLϱHUHQFHV ZHUH D SULPDU\ PRWLYDWRU DQG FRQVWUDLQW 7KH &KLQHVH ZULWLQJ V\VWHP DW WKH WLPH LW ZDV ILUVW ERUURZHG ZDV SULPDULO\ ORJRJUDSKLF ,Q Japan and Korea, where the indigenous languages were typologically distinct from the isolating, monosyllabic Chinese language but similar to each other, the processes of adaptation were remarkably parallel (although also marked by VPDOO EXW VLJQLILFDQW GLIIHUHQFHV ,Q 9LHWQDP, where the indigenous language was typologically similar to Chinese, the development of writing took a notably GLϱHUHQW SDWK Through a systematic analysis of the methods by which logographs in one writing system can be repurposed as logographs or phonographs in a second writing system, it is argued that typological factors played a crucial role in shaping what may be called the major sinographic writing systems of Asia: Japanese PDQ·\ڟJDQD Korean hyangchal, and Vietnamese FKࡢ Q{P 7\SRORJLFDO IDFWRUV also shaped subsequent script developments, explaining why kana syllabaries developed in Japan but not in Korea and accounting for the complexity of Vietnamese Q{P JUDSKV 7KHVH FRQFOXVLRQV KDYH EURDGHU LPSOLFDWLRQV IRU RXU XQGHUVWDQGLQJ RI WKH JHQHUDO PHFKDQLVPV RI VFULSW FKDQJH