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

>>>>> "Dylan" == Dylan Sung <dylanwhs.tsktsktsk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Dylan> LSD says "guanhua" (the language of the officials, i.e. the
Dylan> mandarins),

Because that's the Chinese term.

Dylan> but that's kinda dated.

Also in Chinese?



Dylan> I prefer to call Mandarin like that of Beijing dialect,
Dylan> beifanghua (northern dialects). Even that is a bit of a
Dylan> misnomer. The Mandarin speaking group is generally split
Dylan> into several regions, and some have occlusive endings, thus
Dylan> a Ru tone, so far from Beijing-like. They span from Sichuan
Dylan> to Heilongjiang.

And also from Nanking (Jiangsu) to Urumqi (Uygul). That's a pretty
vast area. But the difference between the extreme points may be even
larger than the difference between the Scandinavian languages!


Dylan> Southern Chinese dialects occupy the south eastern quarter
Dylan> of the country, if you want to schematically represent
Dylan> China as a square divided into four regions.

And the division between "south" and "north" can be vaguely defined by
the river Yangtze, although it is very blurred in the upstream
(western) part of the river.



--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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