Why is character simplification sometimes so inconsistant?

user76423
 March 28, 2010 at 09:26 PM posted in I Have a Question

專 simplifies to 专, 傳 to 传, 轉 to 转 and 磚 to 砖.

But why is 團 simplified to 团? 

Does anybody here knows something about the reason for this?

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user76423
 March 29, 2010 at 08:19 AM

Thank you, changye!

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changye
 March 29, 2010 at 12:23 AM

Hi hape2

The two characters “专” and “团” are both made based on their traditional cursive handwritings. “才” in “团” originates in the lower part of “專”, and “专” is based on a cursive form of “專”. The cursive forms have a long history, and this is the reason why they were adopted as the simplified characters of “專” and “團” in 1950s. It looks inconsistent but has a reason.