够 vs. 夠

xiaophil
 May 15, 2012, 03:24 PM posted in I Have a Question

So, we have all heard how mainland China created the simplified system to make learning charactes easier. Thus naturally, simplified characters should be easier to write. But what about the following?

够 simplified, gòu, to be enough

夠 traditional, gòu, to be enough

Same pronunciation, same meaning, same radicals--the only difference is that the radicals are flip-flopped.

Can anyone explain why they bothered to make this change?

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toianw
 May 15, 2012, 04:39 PM

Hi Xiaophil, Welcome back!

I can't really answer your question but it's worth noting that this isn't stricly speaking a simplification in the sense that  够 and 夠 were both used prior to the PRC. Interestigly, in the Kangxi Dictionary the main entry is under 够 (the entry for 夠 is simply: 同够) which suggests 够 was more widely used (or perhas more "official") at that time.

I guess, during the standardization, they had to choose one to go with and opted for 够. I've no idea why Taiwan and Hong Kong use 夠 whereas the mainland uses 够 though. Perhaps there were regional differences or one "side" just wanted to be different but these are only wild guesses. Hope someone else can help you further...            

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xiaophil

Thanks for the welcome back, toianw. Wow, that is interesting. I can't help but wonder if someone with dyslexia caused this way back. I'm only half kidding.

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toianw

Yeah, you're probably not too far off the mark there. I've certainly got this one the wrong way round myself before.