ài (love 爱 愛) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”
The Mandarin word for “love”, “ài (love 爱 愛)”, is undoubtedly one of the first Mandarin words learned by Mandarin field language-learners.
One noteworthy thing about the Mandarin word “ài (love 爱 愛)” is that just like the English word “love” can be used as either a verb, as in “to love and be loved”, or a noun, as in “a crazy little thing called love”, “ài (love 爱 愛)” can also be used as either a verb or a noun.
Also noteworthy about the Mandarin word “ài (love 爱 愛)” are the contrasting ways in which it is written using a Traditional Chinese character, a Simplified Chinese character, and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), and what those contrasting ways of writing tell us about those different writing systems:
“愛” is the Traditional Chinese character for “love”. It appropriately has the “heart” radical (“心”) in it, but it’s quite…complicated. 😓
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) February 20, 2017
“爱” is the Simplified Chinese character for “love”. It’s simpler, but omits the “heart” radical (“心”), and has been “friend” (“友”)-zoned. 💔
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) February 20, 2017
“Ài” is how Pīnyīn represents “love”. It doesn’t play the games the characters play—it helps you actually say “I love you” (“Wǒ ài nǐ”). ❤️
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) February 20, 2017
Besides Traditional Chinese characters, Simplified Chinese characters, and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), there is actually also another way in which the Mandarin word for “love” can be written:
⠪⠆
is the (Mainland) Chinese Braille representation ofài (love 爱 愛)
⠪ corresponds to “ai” in _Pīnyīn_, and
⠆ corresponds to 4th tone.Blind Mandarin-speaking people need to read and write about love too! https://t.co/sXSVzycXre
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) January 5, 2021
“_Chinese Braille_…is in principle a conversion of _Hanyu Pinyin_ into braille letters…If braille is a script [writing system], which no one doubts, especially not blind people, then _Hanyu Pinyin_ must also be a script [writing system].” https://t.co/EpGCXe7OOp
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) January 5, 2021
Blind Chinese people cannot see Chinese characters, but they can still read and write Mandarin with _Chinese Braille_.
_Chinese Braille_ is based on _Pīnyīn_—they both represent the sounds of Mandarin.
Since _Chinese Braille_ is obviously a writing system, so is _Pīnyīn_.
— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) January 5, 2021