Re: Chinese languages or language?


"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43BF05C2.2225@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Augustus SFX van Dusen wrote:
>>
>> If it is just a pronunciation difference, then one could
>> trivially come
>> up with an unlimited number of varieties, just by assigning new, possibly
>> fanciful, pronunciations to existing Chinese ideograms. On this basis, my
>> inclination is to think that there is a single Chinese language, but I am
>> sure to be missing something here.
>
> Language vs. dialect is a strictly political question. There are a
> number (conventionally 7) of mutually unintelligible overall varieties.

When we were dating, my wife and I went to visit her mother near Longchuan,
Heyuan County. I couldn't understand the little old lady I met, even though
we were supposed to be speaking dialects from the same language. Both the
vocabulary and tones were different enough to make most of what she said
unintelligible. Several years on, when she phones her mum, and I listen in,
I still can't make out half the things she says....

Dyl.


.

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