Sawndip

Zhuang characters or Sawndip ( pronunciation: [ u ː? A ˨ ˦ ɗip ] ) are composed of Chinese characters logograms and used by the Zhuang in the Chinese province of Guangxi. In Chinese they are called gǔ Zhuangzi (古 壮 字) or Fāngkuài Zhuangzi (方块 壮 字).

History

Although it is unclear when the script is created, the oldest known inscription has been found on a Stelebau of 689 (Tang Dynasty ). These ideograms are thus older than the Vietnamese Chu Nom.

They were used over 1300 years ago by Zhuang singers and shamans to write their poems. Although in 1975 a romanized script as the official script was introduced Sawndip is still used by an intellectual minority.

After a preparatory period of five years, the Sawndip Sawdenj ( Sawndip Dictionary, Chinese:古 壮 字 字典, gǔ Zhuangzi zidian, Lexicon old Zhuang characters ') was published. It contains over 10,000 characters and is still the first and only dictionary for Zhuang characters. 2008, the work was announced at a second dictionary called The Large Chinese Ancient Zhuang Dictionary "中华 古 壮 字 大 字典".

Characteristics

After Zhang Yuánshēng ,张元生, Sawndip texts usually have about 20% of non-Han characters, although some texts consist almost entirely of Han characters. Some of these ideograms are also used in the Chinese names for places in Guangxi, such as岜bya "mountain" or崬ndoeng " forest " and therefore can also be found in Chinese dictionaries and character fonts.

To date, however, only those Zhuang characters are included in Unicode, which also appear in Chinese dictionaries, because they occur in place names.

Sample text

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1:

• Latin alphabet ". Boux Boux ma daengz lajmbwn couh miz cwyouz, cinhyenz caeuq genzli bouxboux bingzdaengj Gyoengq vunz miz lijsing caeuq liengzsim, wngdang Daih gyoengq de lumj beixnuengx ityiengh. "

• Chinese Writing
• Zhuang