Does A Chinese Language Exist

1
Does A Chinese Language Exist?

• By Stan Yau

2
General Info

• Three Most Commonly Spoken Languages of China
• Mandarin 867 million speakers
• Wu (Shanghainese) 77 million
• Yue (Cantonese) 52 million

3
Does Chinese Exist?

• Two Aspects of Language Speech and Writing
• Ultimately, the answer is dependent upon whom you
  ask.

4
Speech and Writing

• Speech Languages evolved from Classical Chinese
  are mutually unintelligible.
• Writing Chinese languages use the same writing
  system, with the same grammar and characters.
• Or do they?

5
??? (Cantonese)

• Spoken mainly in Guangdong and Hong Kong
• Large diaspora population
• Lingua franca of southeastern China

6
Colloquial vs. Formal Cantonese

• Colloquial Cantonese Spoken, Written
  Occasionally
• Formal Cantonese Written, Spoken Occasionally
  (But Never in Causal Situations)

7
An Example

• Colloquial Cantonese on the left, Formal
  Cantonese/Mandarin on the right
• Who ??/?
• What ??/??
• When ??/????
• Where ??/??
• Why ??/???

8

• The following is Colloquial Cantonese
• ???????.
• He is not my husband.
• The following is the same sentence in Formal
  Cantonese/Mandarin
• ???????.

9
Confused? Wait, Theres More

• Many Colloquial Cantonese words do not have a
  corresponding character in Formal
  Cantonese/Mandarin.
• Sometimes another (Formal/Mandarin) character is
  used in place of the colloquial character. This
  is the equivalent of writing I bought a pear of
  pants in English.

10
Learning Chinese

• Learn A Chinese Language, Not Chinese
• The Colloquial and Formal variants of Chinese
  languages makes teaching Chinese difficult.
• Cantonese In schools, only the formal variant is
  taught.

11
Conclusion

• Does Chinese Exist?
• Sort Of
• However, its better to say that Chinese languages
  exist.