User talk:Hexagonss
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Thanks for your edits so far! There's no doubt that linguistically, Han people speak different languages in different parts of China, though it serves the traveler well to point out that they are all called "dialects" in China, mainly for political reasons. It's as if Europe were still largely controlled by the Roman Empire, and Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Provencal, Romansh and Romanian - and perhaps English, too - were all called "dialects". But politics is part of the equation, because one way to understand the difference between a dialect and a language is "A language is a dialect with an army and navy".
All the best,
Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:42, 30 September 2016 (UTC)
Hi,
Thanks for your comment. I'd like to address some of the points that you brought up.
I do agree that the distinction between a language and dialect is very much political, as you pointed out. I would also argue that just because they are called "dialects" in China doesn't mean that they're actually dialects. Also, the "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is not a definition by any means, but rather a comment on how political this issue is.
Additionally, I would also argue that it serves well to distinguish each Chinese language as it's own language, simply because from the viewpoint of a traveler, they're not mutually intelligible. A Mandarin speaker wandering into the page for Cantonese might think they know some Cantonese, but both languages have different pronunciations, writing systems (though very related), and grammar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_grammar
In my opinion, it would best serve the reader to know that they have to learn Cantonese if they want to understand it, and not some other Chinese language.
Finally, I want to thank you again for the points that you brought up. —The preceding comment was added by Hexagonss (talk • contribs)
- Certainly. I agree with your points, too. (By the way, just FYI, on Wikis, it's customary to sign your username on Talk pages like this one, by typing 4 tildes [~] in a row at the end of your post.) Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:13, 1 October 2016 (UTC)