Hello,
> Incorrect. Again, they are *not* separate languages, but two
> orthographic renditions of the same *written* language.
... yet there are a few differences in the vocabulary which actually require
entirely different characters - and I don't just mean the traditional and
the simplified version of a particular character. Take e.g. the word for
"bicycle".
But after all, it's AFAIK just a list - not too long - of words which has to
be replaced when doing a conversion, quite regularly.
As John Jenkins already pointed out on May 5,
> Partial data to interconvert between simplified and traditional
> characters is available through the Unihan database. However, the
> problem is not a simple one, as there are frequently multiple
> traditional forms that correspond to a single simplified form.
> Moreover, the vocabulary used in the PRC with simplified characters
> differs on occasion from the vocabulary used in Taiwan and elsewhere
> for traditional ones (e.g., the names of the chemical elements, until
> recently the word for "computer"). It really isn't possible to
> convert between simplified and traditional characters without doing a
> lexical analysis.
There are some solutions around, AFAIR it's also possible in current
versions of MS Office.
Regards,
Berthold
Japanese Studies, Free University Berlin
