Wa-pedia Home > Japan Forum & Europe Forum
Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Learning different chineses

  1. #1
    Banned justin9213's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 27, 2005
    Posts
    44

    Learning different chineses

    How difficult would it be for a Mandarin speaker to communicate to a Wu or Cantanese speaker?

    Do all of the different Chineses use the same characters?

    what is the difference between , Mandarin, Cantonese, and Wu?

    What is China`s official language?

  2. #2
    Banned ricecake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 13, 2006
    Location
    Dublin,California
    Posts
    174
    Mandarin is the official language in China and Taiwan.

    Chinese only has one written language with Traditional and Simplied characters,in Japanese is KANJI.

    Mandarin is a northern dialect,it can be broken down in 4 regions before modern time.

    Local Shanghai dialect belong to the Wu sub-group of Chinese language family.

    Cantonese is the standard dialect spoken in Canton and Kwangxi provinces,plus Hong Kong.
    Last edited by ricecake; Jun 26, 2006 at 11:38.

  3. #3
    Regular Member Gaijinian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 3, 2005
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Posts
    48
    Quote Originally Posted by ricecake
    Chinese only has one written language,in Japanese is KANJI.
    Yeah, PRC never simplified the characters... In fact, Mao is just a legend...
    これからも絶対頑張る〜

  4. #4
    Banned ricecake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 13, 2006
    Location
    Dublin,California
    Posts
    174
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaijinian
    Yeah, PRC never simplified the characters... In fact, Mao is just a legend...
    Oooops ... you just " ding'ed " me on the head.

    I was brought up on Traditional Chinese,I still find Simplified characters somewhat " eyesore ".

    PRC implemented the use of Simplified characters for the peasant contituency since 1949.

    Many Chinese wished he was just a legend,otherwise mainland wouldn't have gone through those nightmare events during his reign.
    Last edited by ricecake; Jun 27, 2006 at 01:46.

  5. #5
    Regular Member Supervin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 22, 2006
    Location
    London
    Posts
    98
    Quote Originally Posted by justin9213
    How difficult would it be for a Mandarin speaker to communicate to a Wu or Cantanese speaker?
    Do all of the different Chineses use the same characters?
    what is the difference between , Mandarin, Cantonese, and Wu?
    What is China`s official language?
    The spoken language is mutually unintelligible in all pairings of Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghainese (Wu). Thus, a pure speaker of one dialect would find it very difficult to comprehend what a speaker of another is saying.

    However, in reality, it's likely that Cantonese and Shanghainese speakers will understand at least some Mandarin considering that it's the 'official language' in China.

    Phonetically, they each sound very different (though they have occasional similarities here and there). Mandarin has four tones; Cantonese has anywhere from six to nine tones (different sources categorize the tones differently); and Shanghainese has five tones. Furthermore, in terms of grammatical structure, unlike Mandarin and Cantonese which are SVO dialects, Shanghainese is SOV like Japanese. A very rough analogy of each dialect compared to the other would be spoken English to spoken French. Practically, the so-called dialects qualify as different languages in reality when spoken.

    Nonetheless, the written language is identical amongst the three dialects, disregarding geographical considerations and the resulting difference between traditional and simplified characters.

  6. #6
    Banned ricecake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 13, 2006
    Location
    Dublin,California
    Posts
    174
    Superb in-depth explanation.

  7. #7
    Banned justin9213's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 27, 2005
    Posts
    44
    Quote Originally Posted by Supervin
    The spoken language is mutually unintelligible in all pairings of Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghainese (Wu). Thus, a pure speaker of one dialect would find it very difficult to comprehend what a speaker of another is saying.
    What do you mean by very difficult?
    they will be able to get the meaning of what another is saying?

    Quote Originally Posted by Supervin
    Phonetically, they each sound very different (though they have occasional similarities here and there). Mandarin has four tones; Cantonese has anywhere from six to nine tones (different sources categorize the tones differently); and Shanghainese has five tones.
    If they all have different tones, then how can they communicate at all?

    Quote Originally Posted by Supervin
    Furthermore, in terms of grammatical structure, unlike Mandarin and Cantonese which are SVO dialects, Shanghainese is SOV like Japanese. A very rough analogy of each dialect compared to the other would be spoken English to spoken French. Practically, the so-called dialects qualify as different languages in reality when spoken.
    So SVO is they way english is spoken???

    Quote Originally Posted by Supervin
    Nonetheless, the written language is identical amongst the three dialects, disregarding geographical considerations and the resulting difference between traditional and simplified characters.
    If Cantonese has six to nine tones wouldnt they need more characters than mandarin and wu???

  8. #8
    Resident Realist nice gaijin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 8, 2005
    Posts
    104
    Quote Originally Posted by justin9213
    What do you mean by very difficult? they will be able to get the meaning of what another is saying?
    Not without an understanding of how the other dialect works. If they only understand their own dialect, communication is only possible through writing.
    If they all have different tones, then how can they communicate at all?
    The tones are not the only difference; the key words in Supervin's statement are "mutually unintelligible"
    So SVO is they way english is spoken???
    yes, SVO means subject-verb-object sentence structure.
    If Cantonese has six to nine tones wouldnt they need more characters than mandarin and wu???
    No, the characters mean the same thing, they are just pronounced differently.
    Last edited by nice gaijin; Jun 27, 2006 at 20:28. Reason: (thx for pointing that out glenn)

  9. #9
    修行中
    Join Date
    Jan 8, 2004
    Posts
    158
    *ahem* SVO -> subject-verb-object

  10. #10
    Resident Realist nice gaijin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 8, 2005
    Posts
    104
    lol temporary dyslexia

Similar Threads

  1. Why are you learning Japanese ?
    By Maciamo in forum Japanese Language & Linguistics
    Replies: 367
    Last Post: Sep 11, 2013, 14:40
  2. can anybody tell some chinese learning forum?
    By jiao in forum Chinese language
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: Aug 22, 2007, 03:19
  3. Learning Chinese
    By Maciamo in forum Chinese language
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: Apr 20, 2006, 12:55

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •