Re: Half of all Chinese people can't speak Mandarin!


"Tak To" <takto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:nKadnTRQkb4EhgTfRVn-sg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> David Wright Sr. wrote:
>
>> "Dylan Sung" <dylanwhs.tsktsktsk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> news:d79q38$8v5$1
>> @news7.svr.pol.co.uk:
>>
>>
>>>>http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/05/23/2003256286
>>>>The National Language Commission's survey also found that many of the
>>>>53 percent of China's 1.3 billion people who can speak Mandarin are not
>>>>frequent Mandarin users.
>>>>
>>>
>>>Just taking your statement at face value, 47 percent of speakers must,
>>>therefore, be frequent speakers of Mandarin.
>>>
>> . . .
>>
>> I read the above as 53% *can* speak Mandarin implying that 47% *can't*
>> speak Mandarin. The rest of the passage was only about a certain number
>> of that 53% who *can* speak it, but don't use it frequently.
>
> See the original Chinese version in, for example,
>
> http://www.chinanews.com.hk/cgi-bin/shownews.pl?filename=1226003.cns&date=20041226&type=
>
> It says that 53% can use Putonghua "for social interaction"
> (<jiao1 ji4> ??). Presumably more people know PTH, but not
> as fluently. Also, 86% use a Sinitic (Han) language for
> social interaction.
>
> The $64,000,000 question is, of course, in this study, how
> is PTH differentiated from other dialects of Mandarin? IIRC,
> about 75% of all Chinese (Han) speakers speak a dialect of
> Mandarin. Given the scale of ths survey, the question is
> probably left for the surveyees themselves to decide. It is
> quite possible that over-confident fellow with a thick, say,
> Shaanxi accent may think himself capable of PTH whereas
> a timid guy with a mild Nanjing accent might think he has
> not mastered PTH yet.
>

The article in English in Taipei Times isn't a direct translation
of the one in Chinese in China News, but they clearly have a
common source.

The latter says 53% can speak Putonghua, 86% can speak
a Chinese dialect (Hanyu fangyan), and 5% can speak a
minority language. Lee Sau Dan pointed out that 86%
speaking a Han language seemed low, since over 90% were
ethnically Han and even more than that should speak a Han
language.

I wonder if all who said they spoke Putonghua were counted
as speaking a Chinese dialect (Hanyu fangyan). If not, and
if the questions were separate, maybe some Putonghua
speakers denied speaking any local dialect, and maybe some
failed to answer the question.

As for defining who speaks Putonghua vs Mandarin--in
English I can't even ask the question properly. For
"putonghua" I say "Mandarin," as did the Taipei Times.
How do you make the distinction in Chinese? I think I've
seen maps in Chinese showing where the major languages
are spoken, but I can't immediately find such a map and
can't remember what the Mandarin group is called.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Half of all Chinese people cant speak Mandarin!
    ... >>> speak Mandarin. ... >> See the original Chinese version in, for example, ... >> is PTH differentiated from other dialects of Mandarin? ... >> about 75% of all Chinese speakers speak a dialect of ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Daft figures!
    ... speak Chinese than Gaelic; six times as many speak Urdu; and eight times ... as many speak Punjabi. ... figures are down right lies) the number of speakers? ... speakers (and possibly some Chinese speakers) probably speak at least some ...
    (soc.culture.scottish)
  • Re: Is it possible to convert VB3 to .NET ?
    ... correct me if I'm wrong, but in the Chinese language, for example, ... And some Chinese people who speak one ... dialect, yet both are still referred to as speaking Chinese. ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)
  • Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)
    ... > to use Chinese and they do try to use English. ... Before I met my wife, my dialect of Chinese was the same as my parents, ... Now though, when we speak, we've modified how we speak so we've ended up ... We speak Cantonese also, both of us picked it up from tv media, and our ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)
    ... > to use Chinese and they do try to use English. ... Before I met my wife, my dialect of Chinese was the same as my parents, ... Now though, when we speak, we've modified how we speak so we've ended up ... We speak Cantonese also, both of us picked it up from tv media, and our ...
    (sci.anthropology)