<p>This may be a stretch and probably not what you’re looking for, but:</p>
<p>Essentially, that’s what Japanese did. Japanese and Chinese have nothing in common, yet when the Chinese writing system made it to Japan over 1000 years ago it was the only one they had. Initially, it was used only to write Chinese, but then it was developed into a system suitable to write Japanese via many intermediate steps and multiple parallel paths. Now, centuries later, Japanese has:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>some characters that are identical to (traditional) Chinese ones with the meanings being preserved, e.g. 大 (large) or 中 (centre)</p>
</li>
<li><p>some characters whose written forms have been simplified from traditional Chinese but with the meanings being preserved, e.g. 国 (state) 売 (to sell)</p>
</li>
<li><p>two sets of characters that are radically simplified/modified from their traditional forms and used only for their phonetic value (katakana and hiragana)</p>
</li>
<li><p>some characters whose written forms are as in traditional Chinese but whose meanings have departed. The best example I could find was 豚 which means <em>pig</em> in Japanese but <em>piglet</em> in Chinese.</p>
<p>(Of course, some characters’ meanings departed in Chinese while they are still used in their original sense in Japanese like 湯 (<em>hot water</em> in Japanese and old Chinese; <em>soup</em> in modern Chinese; they shouldn’t be listed in a separate bullet point because they generally fit the first)</p>
</li>
<li><p>compound words composed of more than one character with a meaning akin to the Chinese one</p>
</li>
<li><p>compound words composed of more than one character with a completely different meaning (手紙 which in Japanese means <em>letter</em> (the one you send) but in Chinese is toilet paper)</p>
</li>
<li><p>entirely newly created written compounds, often spelt with hiragana and kanji to better reproduce Japanese grammar</p>
</li>
<li><p>new characters created by combining individual parts, e.g. 働 (to work) made from the individual symbols 人 (man, person) and 動 (to move); the former regularly becomes a ‘pole with a steep hat’ in compounds such as 休</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>As Japanese and Chinese are linguistically so different (Chinese can have closed syllables, it has tones, the vowel registers differ and more), the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese characters obviously differs substantially from their original at the time of borrowing. In general, most characters can be pronounced in two or more ways depending on their surrounding. These pronunciations are grouped into <em>kun</em> (have nothing to do with the Chinese original pronunciation; this is a Japanese word with a similar or identical meaning) and <em>on</em> (more or less loosely modelled on the Chinese pronunciation when the character was borrowed which may have happened more than once). However, even <em>on</em> pronunciations can be considered a simplification at best; a bastardisation of th original pronunciation may be more accurate.</p>
<p>Differences notwithstanding, I know one Chinese who claims to be able to get the basic gist of written Japanese and with some crude knowledge of Japanese I was able to grasp the meanings of some things written in Chinese on Taiwan recently. So a certain degree of intelligibility seems to be conserved.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-11T19:37:27.430Z
Very creative, +1
Dr. Shmuel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-11T12:28:46.117Z
2019-10-11T12:28:46.117Z
2020-06-18T08:37:27.510Z
Jan
<p>Toki pona is a minimalist language with a ~125 word vocabulary that can be written using a proposed system of either Chinese or Japanese characters, although it is officially written in the Latin alphabet.</p>
<p>On <a href="http://tokipona.net/tp/Compress.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">tokipona.net</a>, click on &quot;Word List&quot; in the group of links at the top for the full list of words, or compress for ways to write it using different alphabets. 言良り良去私 (toki pona li pona tawa mi)='I like toki pona.', literally 'toki pona is good to me'.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-12T23:13:59.097Z
Wow that’s great thank you.
Dr. Shmuel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-12T23:15:52.660Z
Would you know that example sentence in the  Chinese version?
Dr. Shmuel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-13T05:22:44.887Z
Do you mean using Chinese characters? 言好哩好去我。You can type any toki pona word into the text box on the site I linked above, and press compress to see the equivalent Chinese or Japanese character.
bahrta sai
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-12T22:04:53.190Z
2020-12-31T14:27:28.697Z
2020-12-31T14:27:28.697Z
bahrta sai
<p>Outright Chinese characters? I am not aware of one (Though you might want to look up <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Book_from_the_Sky" rel="noreferrer">A Book from the Sky</a></em>). Conlangs using Chinese-<strong>style</strong> characters? Certainly. Mark Rosenfelder, in <em><a href="https://www.zompist.com/lck2.html" rel="noreferrer">Advanced Language Construction</a></em>, draws examples from his own <a href="http://almeopedia.com/almeo.html?Uyse%25u0294" rel="noreferrer">Uyseʔ</a> and <a href="https://www.zompist.com/wedei.html#script" rel="noreferrer">Wede:i</a>. While the Grammar of Wede:i is available, only a little of its written system us described, and Uyseʔ is hardly online at all. This reflects more on the sheer amount of work to make an ideogram system presentable to the reader though.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-09T11:46:37.850Z
There are also three scripts on [Omniglot](https://omniglot.com) that arguably use "Chinese-_style_" characters - [Chữ Vòng](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/chuvong.php) (a con_script_ used for writing Vietnamese, rather than being for a con_lang_), [Trantanese](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/trantanese.htm), and possibly [Gagrite](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/gagrite.htm).
Jeff Zeitlin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-13T19:19:20.637Z
In addition to the languages/writing systems from my previous comment, there is also the real language ***Nüshu*** [(Wikipedia link)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCshu) [(Omniglot link)](https://omniglot.com/writing/nushu.htm), whose writing is derived from Chinese characters, but is phonetic rather than ideographic/logographic.
Jeff Zeitlin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-16T01:58:07.453Z
Adding one more example of the work done by Mark Rosenfelder: [Yingzi](https://www.zompist.com/yingzi/yingzi.htm). He created a written script in the style of Chinese characters for the English language.
C.J. Jackson
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-08T15:03:51.933Z
2019-08-08T15:03:51.933Z
Circeus
<p>I made a language using Chinese characters, I named the language</p>
<p>Yinhan language (印汉语)</p>
<p>Example sentences:</p>
<p>Hello, what are you doing? = 汝好，汝何做？</p>
<p>I'm fine = 吾好</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-14T10:34:56.023Z
Is there a place where we can learn more about the Yinhan language? It would be nice to have a link to it in the answer.
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-15T03:45:34.213Z
2021-08-13T16:22:00.907Z
2021-08-13T16:22:00.907Z
Tyo wahyu
<p>The Chinese character system is one that is universal to many Chinese dialects. Two people can pronounce the same character in two different ways, but when writing to each other it is intelligible. </p>

<p>Have people used this opportunity to create a sort of conlang dialect of the language, and in doing so making up entirely new sound for the characters, and perhaps even making up new grammar too. I could image it even being a serious bastardizing of the characters too take on new meanings that would bring it closer to, say, a European language. Like how one uses the Latin alphabet to create a conlang. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-08T11:40:00.477Z
Note that written Chinese is intelligible only because people learn it as they would any language. Written Chinese is really written Mandarin; [Cantonese is also written](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese) but often socially stigmatised, and other dialects probably are too, without being mutually intelligible.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-08T19:07:53.427Z
@curiousdannii I am aware of the points you mentioned, and I tried to convey that in the OP. Was I u clear?
Dr. Shmuel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-08T22:23:32.420Z
You made it sound like it's naturally universal to the many Chinese dialects. But it's not, no more than English is in Europe.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-08T22:29:12.133Z
@curiousdannii I see. Though are mandarin and Cantonese the *only* two?
Dr. Shmuel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-08T22:30:18.857Z
No many, probably most, Chinese dialects/languages would get written, with very levels of stigmatisation.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-09T14:49:25.233Z
For those interested in the topic of writing Chinese topolects, Language Log writer Victor Mair has written on it quite a bit (sadly [this link](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?author=13) that should be a list of his post is nonfunctional, but searching the blog for "topolect" should get you quite a few posts)
Circeus
<conlang-creation><history><writing-systems>
Are there any Conlangs using Chinese characters?
# Are there any Conlangs using Chinese characters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-08-08)

The Chinese character system is one that is universal to many Chinese dialects. Two people can pronounce the same character in two different ways, but when writing to each other it is intelligible.

Have people used this opportunity to create a sort of conlang dialect of the language, and in doing so making up entirely new sound for the characters, and perhaps even making up new grammar too. I could image it even being a serious bastardizing of the characters too take on new meanings that would bring it closer to, say, a European language. Like how one uses the Latin alphabet to create a conlang.

**Tags:** conlang-creation, history, writing-systems

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Note that written Chinese is intelligible only because people learn it as they would any language. Written Chinese is really written Mandarin; [Cantonese is also written](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese) but often socially stigmatised, and other dialects probably are too, without being mutually intelligible.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I am aware of the points you mentioned, and I tried to convey that in the OP. Was I u clear?  
> **username_1**: You made it sound like it's naturally universal to the many Chinese dialects. But it's not, no more than English is in Europe.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I see. Though are mandarin and Cantonese the *only* two?  
> **username_1**: No many, probably most, Chinese dialects/languages would get written, with very levels of stigmatisation.  
> **username_2**: For those interested in the topic of writing Chinese topolects, Language Log writer Victor Mair has written on it quite a bit (sadly [this link](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?author=13) that should be a list of his post is nonfunctional, but searching the blog for "topolect" should get you quite a few posts)  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-10-11. Score: 7

This may be a stretch and probably not what you’re looking for, but:

Essentially, that’s what Japanese did. Japanese and Chinese have nothing in common, yet when the Chinese writing system made it to Japan over 1000 years ago it was the only one they had. Initially, it was used only to write Chinese, but then it was developed into a system suitable to write Japanese via many intermediate steps and multiple parallel paths. Now, centuries later, Japanese has:

* some characters that are identical to (traditional) Chinese ones with the meanings being preserved, e.g. 大 (large) or 中 (centre)
* some characters whose written forms have been simplified from traditional Chinese but with the meanings being preserved, e.g. 国 (state) 売 (to sell)
* two sets of characters that are radically simplified/modified from their traditional forms and used only for their phonetic value (katakana and hiragana)
* some characters whose written forms are as in traditional Chinese but whose meanings have departed. The best example I could find was 豚 which means *pig* in Japanese but *piglet* in Chinese.

  (Of course, some characters’ meanings departed in Chinese while they are still used in their original sense in Japanese like 湯 (*hot water* in Japanese and old Chinese; *soup* in modern Chinese; they shouldn’t be listed in a separate bullet point because they generally fit the first)
* compound words composed of more than one character with a meaning akin to the Chinese one
* compound words composed of more than one character with a completely different meaning (手紙 which in Japanese means *letter* (the one you send) but in Chinese is toilet paper)
* entirely newly created written compounds, often spelt with hiragana and kanji to better reproduce Japanese grammar
* new characters created by combining individual parts, e.g. 働 (to work) made from the individual symbols 人 (man, person) and 動 (to move); the former regularly becomes a ‘pole with a steep hat’ in compounds such as 休

As Japanese and Chinese are linguistically so different (Chinese can have closed syllables, it has tones, the vowel registers differ and more), the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese characters obviously differs substantially from their original at the time of borrowing. In general, most characters can be pronounced in two or more ways depending on their surrounding. These pronunciations are grouped into *kun* (have nothing to do with the Chinese original pronunciation; this is a Japanese word with a similar or identical meaning) and *on* (more or less loosely modelled on the Chinese pronunciation when the character was borrowed which may have happened more than once). However, even *on* pronunciations can be considered a simplification at best; a bastardisation of th original pronunciation may be more accurate.

Differences notwithstanding, I know one Chinese who claims to be able to get the basic gist of written Japanese and with some crude knowledge of Japanese I was able to grasp the meanings of some things written in Chinese on Taiwan recently. So a certain degree of intelligibility seems to be conserved.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Very creative, +1  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2019-08-12. Score: 7

Toki pona is a minimalist language with a ~125 word vocabulary that can be written using a proposed system of either Chinese or Japanese characters, although it is officially written in the Latin alphabet.

On [tokipona.net](http://tokipona.net/tp/Compress.aspx), click on "Word List" in the group of links at the top for the full list of words, or compress for ways to write it using different alphabets. 言良り良去私 (toki pona li pona tawa mi)='I like toki pona.', literally 'toki pona is good to me'.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Wow that’s great thank you.  
> **username_0**: Would you know that example sentence in the  Chinese version?  
> **username_4**: Do you mean using Chinese characters? 言好哩好去我。You can type any toki pona word into the text box on the site I linked above, and press compress to see the equivalent Chinese or Japanese character.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-08-08. Score: 5

Outright Chinese characters? I am not aware of one (Though you might want to look up *[A Book from the Sky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Book_from_the_Sky)*). Conlangs using Chinese-**style** characters? Certainly. Mark Rosenfelder, in *[Advanced Language Construction](https://www.zompist.com/lck2.html)*, draws examples from his own [Uyseʔ](http://almeopedia.com/almeo.html?Uyse%25u0294) and [Wede:i](https://www.zompist.com/wedei.html#script). While the Grammar of Wede:i is available, only a little of its written system us described, and Uyseʔ is hardly online at all. This reflects more on the sheer amount of work to make an ideogram system presentable to the reader though.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: There are also three scripts on [Omniglot](https://omniglot.com) that arguably use "Chinese-_style_" characters - [Chữ Vòng](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/chuvong.php) (a con_script_ used for writing Vietnamese, rather than being for a con_lang_), [Trantanese](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/trantanese.htm), and possibly [Gagrite](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/gagrite.htm).  
> **username_5**: In addition to the languages/writing systems from my previous comment, there is also the real language ***Nüshu*** [(Wikipedia link)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCshu) [(Omniglot link)](https://omniglot.com/writing/nushu.htm), whose writing is derived from Chinese characters, but is phonetic rather than ideographic/logographic.  
> **username_6**: Adding one more example of the work done by Mark Rosenfelder: [Yingzi](https://www.zompist.com/yingzi/yingzi.htm). He created a written script in the style of Chinese characters for the English language.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2021-07-15. Score: 0

I made a language using Chinese characters, I named the language

Yinhan language (印汉语)

Example sentences:

Hello, what are you doing? = 汝好，汝何做？

I'm fine = 吾好

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: Is there a place where we can learn more about the Yinhan language? It would be nice to have a link to it in the answer.  

---

