chesebert
18 Years An Extra-Hardcore Head-Fi'er
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- May 17, 2004
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Quote:
I understand Cantonese is a dialect of the Chinese language; I am not contesting that point. What I am contesting is that people claming different dialects as if they were wholly seperate languages, which they are not.
So which part of the word "Chinese" should I take away to mean "its not really Chinese, but Cantonese, Shanghainese, and etc"?
And as far as I can tell from the map, HK is still part of the China mainland (unlike Taiwan), unless it has seperated itself and formed its own island since the last time I checked (a whole 2 min ago).
Originally Posted by fatko /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Hong Kong Basic Law states that the official languages are "Chinese and English." It does not explicitly specify the standard for "Chinese". While Standard Mandarin and Simplified Chinese characters are used as the spoken and written standards in mainland China, Cantonese and Traditional Chinese characters are the long-established de facto standards in Hong Kong. btw, as i have said so , it is complicated... |
I understand Cantonese is a dialect of the Chinese language; I am not contesting that point. What I am contesting is that people claming different dialects as if they were wholly seperate languages, which they are not.
So which part of the word "Chinese" should I take away to mean "its not really Chinese, but Cantonese, Shanghainese, and etc"?
And as far as I can tell from the map, HK is still part of the China mainland (unlike Taiwan), unless it has seperated itself and formed its own island since the last time I checked (a whole 2 min ago).