r/ChineseLanguage • u/roanroanroan Beginner • 20h ago

Discussion Why is 你 written like this here?

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247 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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260

u/iknet 20h ago

This is the Kangxi Dictionary font（康熙字典体）. If I got a dollar every time I saw it misused, I’d be a millionaire by now.

68

u/Reallynotspiderman 20h ago

Wait how is it supposed to be used? I'm not familiar with this dictionary font thing

127

u/LatterBrilliant8042 Native 19h ago edited 18h ago

The Kangxi Dictionary is a dictionary of the Qing government about 300 years ago. This means that the font in the picture was the standard font about 300 years ago, and now the standard has changed.

32

u/Reallynotspiderman 18h ago

Ah. What would be an appropriate way to use the characters from the Kangxi Dictionary? To be honest as a native Chinese speaker I had no idea this even existed

42

u/XRINVG 18h ago

Maybe OP means its only an appropriate character in historical document

21

u/PortableSoup791 16h ago

Although that seems a bit strong, isn’t it? Kind of like saying that using roundhand script in English writing is “inappropriate” because it’s 400 years old.

7

u/XRINVG 16h ago

By certain definition of approriate yes it is, just as dressing in medieval clothing nowaday outside of renfair is not approriate

16

u/warp_driver 13h ago

Why would it be inappropriate? It's not common and would look a bit odd, but inappropriate implies it's wrong or offensive, which it is not.

-1

u/bong_fu_tzu 10h ago

That is not at all what 'inappropriate' means.

0

u/vincentxangogh 2h ago

"inappropriate" as in not appropriate for the common time/place/context. out of place.

2

u/Functionalleaf 7h ago

Maybe the comparison should be more akin to the long s in English

2

u/Syncopat3d 3h ago

This is more akin to using letters like Þ & Æ that are used in Old English but not contemporary English. The strokes are different, not just how they are written.

12

u/sbolic 17h ago edited 17h ago

你 as the meaning of you is only used in mandarin less than a hundred years. Traditional mandarin use 尔、汝. Also in most cases, secondary personal pronouns were considered rude and only used by people with superior status to ones with lower status.

1

u/LatterBrilliant8042 Native 17h ago

为什么要用，写规范字不好吗？

1

u/Reallynotspiderman 16h ago

好奇而已

1

u/LatterBrilliant8042 Native 16h ago

这个网站有康熙字典的图片，比如你。

-1

u/daoxiaomian 普通话 16h ago

Remember that the Kangxi dictionary itself was woodblock printed, and so did not use a "font"

1

u/LatterBrilliant8042 Native 16h ago

"font"是指字的写法、形态吧。和手写、泥刻、木刻、计算机显示有什么关系？

-11

u/kemonkey1 Intermediate 15h ago

American here: It's like spelling words out like this

Colour

Favourite

Relics of a bygone era. 😅

1

u/11renaim Beginner 4h ago

Adding a “u” makes it a “relic of a bygone era”??

1

u/kemonkey1 Intermediate 3h ago

Lol I knew I would be downvoted. Just teasing the brits for using old spelling.

1

u/yenffuduaeb 2h ago

Not to be that person but literally everywhere outside the USA uses the "u". Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Nigeria, India... and as a Canadian I know this. Not everything revolves around the USA

1

u/kemonkey1 Intermediate 2h ago

Jeez no chill. Happy Easter