Comparing genomes and languages using current knowledge

In a recent correspondence, Hong‐Yu Zhang proposes an analogy between the evolutionary mechanisms of genomes and language, using the Chinese language as an example (Zhang, 2006). Although his idea—that the evolutionary strategies of both systems are themselves evolving—is interesting, we believe some of Zhang's analysis is based on incorrect information. This makes his arguments misleading, particularly to non‐Chinese‐speaking readers.Zhang bases many of his arguments on the extent and speed with which Chinese characters were created during different historical periods, using data taken from Ji (1989) and references therein. We doubt the validity of these data, and believe that Zhang's interpretation is mistaken. The superficial precision in these values masks their inaccuracies, which we demonstrate by redrawing Zhang's Table 1 (Fig 1). According to these data, the largest increase in the number of Chinese characters occurred during the Qing Dynasty: 13,856 characters were invented at a rate of more than 50 per year (Fig 1). This unprecedented peak …