Två länder, två språk - en skrift

Sammanfattning: Although the Chinese Characters in East Asia had been rather stable in its orthography during the last thousand years, it faced a reform once the 20th century came along. This essay will give a historical background to these changes as well as explain the methods by which the changes of the orthography of the script were made. Previously conducted studies on this topic have found the methods used in China and Japan to be the same and that there are quite a few cases of identical changes in the script of both countries. The aim of this essay is thus to bring clarity as to why these cases are identical, with the theory being that these changes have a historical cause.