Celtic influence

[DFOKeefe at aol.com]

Hello I-E-ists,
          One nation with both a class and a regional based system of dialects
used to be pre-Revolutionary China.  The Classical Chinese of the early 1900s
was quite different from ordinary speech. It contained many older features
which were difficult for less educated folks to learn, and which separated
educated people from uneducated people. This isn't to say that many of the
local dialects had older features of their own, too. Add numerous local
dialects, often with millions of speakers, and you have a class & regional
based system of dialects.
          The Beijing tongue is now the standard. The standardized "PuTongHua"
now used by the professional Chinese is the same as ordinary speech.  For many
Chinese, simplified characters and PinYin promote a standard national
language, which still permits regional accents.  Traditional characters are
still used by many millions of overseas Chinese and in Taiwan.
         In Taiwan, Mandarin is the professional language and Fujian (or
Fukien) the actual major spoken language.  Literacy is universal on Taiwan, so
that the traditional characters are not symbolic of class differences. Add to
this the fact that Mandarin and Fujian both use the same characters and class
differences are somewhat lessened.  Hope this promotes the discussion at hand.

Regards,
David O'Keefe

[ Moderator's comment:
  I'm not sure that it does, but thanks for trying.  It appears to me that the
  discussion has come to an impasse, with neither interlocutor likely to change
  point of view, so I am going to suggest that we discontinue this thread on
  this list.
  --rma ]