Category Archives: Mandarin

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

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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

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

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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

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Filed under Asia, Cantonese, China, Chinese language, Dialectology, Indonesia, Language Classification, Language Families, Linguistics, Malaysia, Mandarin, Min Nan, Philippines, Regional, Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan, Thailand, Vietnam