just what is it about written Chinese anyway? (was: Celtic influence)

[Glen Gordon]

JOATSIMEON at AOL.COM:

[ Moderator's note:
  Actually, Steven Schaufele <fcosw5 at mail.scu.edu.tw>.
  --rma ]

>One of my students, in her term paper last semester, raised the issue
>of the claim that written Chinese is equally intelligible to all
>literate Chinese people, but then noted that she, a native speaker of
>Mandarin and Taiwanese and about as well-educated as one can
>reasonably expect of a university undergraduate, found herself unable
>to read a Cantonese newspaper printed in Hong Kong.

Yes, exactly. There ARE symbols specific to Cantonese as opposed to
Mandarin. A good example is the word <mou> in Cantonese, meaning "to not
have, to lack, isn't there". The word is actually a contraction of the
negative plus the affirmative <yao>. In Mandarin, <mou> doesn't exist
but rather is equivalent to _two_ words <mei you>. So in Mandarin, two
words are printed. Step into Hong Kong or Taiwan however, where
Cantonese is more popular, only a single character is printed, an
invented character which is the sign for <yao> minus a few lines to
convey "emptiness" and hence <mou>.

You yisi ma?

I guess this is un-IE though... ;(

--------------------------------------------
Glen Gordon
glengordon01 at hotmail.com

[ Moderator's note:
  Yes, and we've moved too far from the topic.  Those interested should take
  the discussion to private e-mail, please.
  --rma ]