An assessment of the Unicode standard

[Christopher Culver]

Hyuga <hyugaricdeau at gmail.com> writes:
> I just wanted to add, in defense of the Chinese written language
> ... that I think it would make a fairly good candidate for use at
> least as a universal *written* language.  Particularly simplified
> Chinese since, well, it's simpler.
>
> The advantages are that the grammar is relatively simple, and it can
> be used to illustrate concepts independently of the writer's spoken
> language.

Musings about the universality of the Chinese writing system, once so
common among Western thinkers, nevertheless do not square with
reality. The Chinese writing system is in fact deeply linked to the
Chinese language, even to the specific dialect being spoken. See
Defrancis' _The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy_ (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1984):

http://preview.tinyurl.com/rbyuuk