“The same binome is printed in as many as half-a-dozen or more different combinations of characters that have been used throughout history lo write it out. This indicates powerfully the primacy of sound over written form as the ultimate determinant of Chinese language.”

—  Victor H. Mair

The Need for an Alphabetically Arranged General Usage Dictionary of Mandarin Chinese (February 1986) http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp001_chinese_dictionary.pdf.

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Victor H. Mair 5
American sinologist and linguist 1943

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