http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/09/10/chinese-dialects/ Tips, tricks and cultural insights on learning Mandarin Chinese Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:12:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/09/10/chinese-dialects/#comment-95 Adam Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:28:43 +0000 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/09/10/chinese-dialects/#comment-95 This is a point of contention among many. For me, a dialect is a variant of an existing language. So if someone speaks to me with a different dialect of English, I should still be able to understand them, albeit with some difficulty. However, as you said most Chinese "dialects" are quite distinct from each other, which leads to the controversy of whether they should be called "dialects." I have also heard Chinese being regarded as a family of languages. Part of the reason might be political as you said to keep the Han Chinese race unified. This is a point of contention among many. For me, a dialect is a variant of an existing language. So if someone speaks to me with a different dialect of English, I should still be able to understand them, albeit with some difficulty. However, as you said most Chinese “dialects” are quite distinct from each other, which leads to the controversy of whether they should be called “dialects.” I have also heard Chinese being regarded as a family of languages. Part of the reason might be political as you said to keep the Han Chinese race unified.

]]> http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/09/10/chinese-dialects/#comment-94 Naruwan Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:37:55 +0000 http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/09/10/chinese-dialects/#comment-94 But is Taiwanese or Fujianese or whatever you want to call it really a "dialect"? Is cantonese a dialect? Or are they in fact separate languages? Perhaps they are termed "dialects" rather than "languages" for political purposes. Of course they do share common features of syntax (as do French, Spanish and English, for example) but they are by and large mutually unintelligible. But is Taiwanese or Fujianese or whatever you want to call it really a “dialect”? Is cantonese a dialect? Or are they in fact separate languages? Perhaps they are termed “dialects” rather than “languages” for political purposes. Of course they do share common features of syntax (as do French, Spanish and English, for example) but they are by and large mutually unintelligible.

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