Radicals

bababardwan

June 22, 2010, 05:17 AM posted in General Discussion

Orangina has taken a list of the 214 radicals from wikipedia and kindly arranged them in order of frequency here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfntqw3t_13dzdwtmm6

orangina

June 22, 2010, 05:34 AM

Thanks for posting this bababardwan!

I noticed this varies from lists of the most common radicals. My theory is that other lists are based on the most common radicals used in the most common characters, while this list is based on "all" characters, whether they are commonly used or not.

caveat emptor

bababardwan

No ,thankyou. Also ,you've anticipated a question I've been meaning to ask,namely just what is meant by "frequency"...exactly as you've referred to ...does it mean the radical at the top of the list appears in the most characters or does it means it is the radical that is most frequently encountered when reading Chinese. It'd be interesting to know for sure,but I think you are most likely right. Can I trouble you by asking where is this list of most common radicals you refer to?

orangina

Here is a list I found. The first radical 艸 (艹 cǎo, grass) on the other list isn't even on the list of 40 here.

Any list of most common something is only as reliable as it's source material, and I have no idea about that for either of these. Still a place to start.

bababardwan

Sorry orangina. That's right, you posted that the other day. Yeah, I think they are both good places to start and regardless of what common and frequency is actually referring to and what the source is I think they both are reflecting some commonly encountered radicals. I've been working on the 214 list already.

baomingguang

July 12, 2010, 11:58 PM

I noticed 共 appears as an example of 艸 (艹) whereas my dictionary shows that 八 is radical.

changye

Please be noted that the list is very good, except for example characters shown in it. I recommend you disregard those examples.