Mike,
> Chinese is basically common in writing. There are differences, but none
> that truly impede communication[2].
>
> [2] - The exception appears to be Cantonese and its dialects. While
> linguists slice Chinese dialects every which way, Chinese speakers seem to
> distinguish only between Mandarin and Cantonese. Apparently there are
> enough differences between the two, and similarities within the two, to
> prevent communication even in writing, although limited communication is
> possible.
I agree with almost everything you said, but I would shade this
one a little differently.
Chinese speakers, even Cantonese Chinese speakers are aware of,
and distinguish lots of different "dialects" of spoken Chinese. So a
Cantonese speaker will be aware of regional variants of the Yue
(~Cantonese) language, including many dialects that they find
difficult or impossible to understand. They are also aware that
other "dialects" (actually languages) of Chinese, such as
Minnan (~Taiwanese), Wu (~Shanghainese), and yes, Mandarin, are
even *more* distinct, and also find them difficult or impossible
to understand. (Except that nearly everybody undersands Mandarin
to some extent, since a particular variety of it is the standard
national language.)
When it comes to the *written* language, however, Cantonese is
in a somewhat unique position, since Cantonese writers seem
to have a fairly long tradition of writing *Cantonese*
explicitly, including the use of many additional characters
(most traditional, but some invented explicitly for Cantonese)
not used in standard (Mandarin-derived) written Chinese. If
you look hard enough, you can find such traditions for other
Chinese languages. For example, in Fujian province or Taiwan,
it is possible to find dictionaries of Minnan dialect
characters, and documents explicitly written in Minnanhua,
which Mandarin speakers would find very quaint or difficult
to understand in written form, because of the different
character usage and grammatical constructions that occasionally
occur. [Example: In Taiwanese, there is a very common sentence
ending, ...sibo, which means something like "...isn't it?"
and the like. Written out, it is U+662F U+5426, Mandarin shi4fou3.
Mandarin does use shi4fou3, but it is a kind of hifalutin'
classical form, and never in the position Taiwanese does,
where Mandarin would instead use something like dui4budui4.]
But such written dialect traditions other than
Cantonese are very much sub rosa, unlike the mainstream
Cantonese literature.
--Ken
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Oct 18 2001 - 16:43:31 EDT