Category Archives: Chinese language
More On The Hardest Languages To Learn – Non-Indo-European Languages
Note: Unbelievably, the PC nutjobs have accused this post, a Linguistics post of all things, of racism. See here for my position statement on racism. Caution: This post is very long. It runs to 75 pages on the Net. This … Continue reading
Filed under !Xóõ, Afroasiatic, Algonquian, Altaic, Arabic, Austro-Asiatic, Austro-Tai, Austronesian, Bahasa Indonesian, Bakjalukasha, Bantu, Basque, Cantonese, Cherokee, Chinantec, Chinese language, Chukchi, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Cree, Dene-Yenisien, Descriptive, Dravidian, Eskimo-Aleut, Finnic, Finnish, Finno-Ugric Languages, Hebrew, Hmong, Hmong-Mien, Hopi, Hungarian, Inuktitut, Iriquoian, Isolates, Japanese, Japonic, Khmer, Khoisan, Kootenai, Korean language, Language Families, Language Learning, Language Samples, Linguistics, Malayalam, Malayo-Polynesian, Malaysian, Maltese, Mandarin, Maori, Min Nan, Mon-Khmer, Na-Dene, Navajo, NE Caucasian, Nguni, Niger-Congo, Niger-Kordofanian, Ojibwa, Oto-Manguean, Paleosiberian, Philippine, Quechua, Quechuan, Salishan, Semitic, Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan, Slavey, Tabasaran, Tamil, Tsez, Turkic, Turkish, Ugric, Vietnamese, Xhosa, Yamana
Response To Mike Campbell on Chinese Language Classification
An autodidact named Mike Campbell has issued a long critique of my Chinese language classification. There are problems with his analysis. First of all, Campbell says we need to defer to the Chinese on what is a dialect and what … Continue reading
Filed under Asia, China, Chinese language, Language Classification, Language Families, Linguistics, Regional, Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan
The Place of Mandarin in Sinitic
In the comments, James Schipper suggests that Mandarin is to Sinitic what German and Russian are to Germanic and Slavic. He also offers that most Sinitic speakers also speak Mandarin and makes a comparison with Welsh and English and Frisian … Continue reading
Filed under Asia, China, Chinese language, Language Classification, Linguistics, Mandarin, Regional, Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan
A Reworking of Chinese Language Classification
As of April 1, 2012, this post is being continuously updated. This post runs to 115 pages so far. On March 6, 2011, Sinologist Victor Mair took on the question of Mutual Intelligibility of Sinitic Languages. The Chinese languages have … Continue reading
