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I don't know if simplification has broken a great deal of the relationships, but it certainly has broken some.

Here is a specific example:

    Traditional Chinese

    車禍 [che1 huo4] (car accident)
    不過 [bu2 guo4] (however, but)

    Simplified Chinese

    车祸 (same meaning/pronunciation)
    不过 (same meaning/pronunciation)
Notice the 咼 in the Traditional 過 and 禍. This phonetic component gives you some indication that is is pronounced like "luo, huo, guo, wo".

In the Simplified, you lose that relation, because you have the 寸 and 呙 units, respectively.

The phonetic components of Chinese characters don't always give you an exact reading, but they can help you get a good idea of what a character should sound like. There are exceptions, of course.




But even in that case the relationships weren't completely broken. While 过 changed, 娲wa, 祸 huo,涡 wo,窝wo,锅 guo,蜗 wo,etc. still share the radical to the right, and 过 is a very common character, you shouldn't need to guess how to read it.




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