Writing

I read somewhere on the web last week that the number of syllables in Mandarin is approximately 1700, much less than in English (around 8000), and I guess other indoeuropean languages. I am not sure if they count the tones there, but the truth is that you notice that really fast and makes it hard to remember the words.

I also read that making use of that, a chinese writer, Zhao Yuanren, wrote a book only using the sound shi (with different tones, it can be to be, ten, stone, lion, etc). As a result, the book is readable, because the characters are different, but it is impossible to understand if it is read out loud. As it happens, a couple of days later, while I was having dinner with people of my group here, one of the students was smiling as he was reading a newspaper. When I asked him why, he showed me a short text, two or three lines, that was an example of that book. Yes, I could recognize several characters that sound as shi.

Anyway, that is like those french books by Perec —a book written without using the letter e, the most frequent in French, or one where the only vowel used is the letter e— or so many other experiments. It is a human constant; we like to play with words and we are sick in the head.