In China, we often say, teochew, wu languages[shanghainese is one of them], Min Chinese, Hakka, Cantonese are dialects...do you [non Chinese/Chinese] think they are only dialects, too?
I am currently learning Cantonese, South Min, teochew and shanghainese...well, my mother tongue is southwestern mandarin(we have the trill r in here, but I cannot pronounce this sound T^T), and I can find many similarities [esp. vocabulary part]between cantonese and mandarin..but the other "dialects" are a little different from mandarin
Personally speaking, I'm from China, and I don't wanna say they are different languages, but after learning them, I kind of think their dissimilarities are more than similarities
Could ya tell me what you think about?
我的母語是西南官話, 跟普通話有著比較大的區別, 比如說我的母語有大舌顫音 rr[不過我本人不會這個音 T_T], 我的母語的聲調跟普通話也不完全一樣, 大體上是> 33, 13, 21, 41; 我最近在學習-->白話, 台語, 上海話和潮汕話..我發現這些"方言"跟普通話不能完全互通, 大家覺得普通話和這些方言真的只是主語言和方言的關係嗎? 我以前也這麼想, 但是學了后我已經不再這麼認為了..這些方言可能來自共同的祖先, 但是現在相互間的區別已經蠻大了...
西南官话里居然有大舌音，真的很神奇。
我听说吴语的分支徽语里也有，不过徽语已经濒危了。
我所知道的吴语和官话差异很大。有人指出，吴语的人称代词，是拥有与英语类似的曲折变化的，属格和复数是使用变换原因的方法得到，而不是像官话那样使用词语组合。
English Putonghua My mother language Cantonese Shanghainese
plz chhing chhin tsheng/tshing chhin
ask wa1n wa1n ma2n ma1n
family name sxing sxin sing sxin
call chiau chiau kiu chiɔ
sir sxia1n sxa1ng sxia1n sa1n sin saang sxi saa~
miss sxiau chie sxiau chie siu tse sxiɔ cha
busy maang maan mong ma~
go chheu khii heui chhi
sorry, i cannot upload the pic
Allow me to make a simple list[not considering their tones]
But here are some letters I wanna explain in my list
I use a1 to stand for schwa sound in again; and a2 = uh sound in but; aa= a sound
sx-> x in putonghua pinyin; chh=ch in change; ch=ch without aspiration, dj= dg in judgement
and ~ = nasal sound; x=ch in German word acht; eu=[y]sound in french word tu; ii=e in roses
Of course, they are only part of the whole vocabulary system, but in some aspects..this shows that the vocabulary similarities should not be neglected...
I'm sorry, you must have mixed the concepts of Mandarin and Standard Mandarin, they are quite different..Standard [Putonghua] Mandarin belongs to Mandarin. In fact, Mandarin has 8 sub-languages, among which is my mother tongue> southwestern M; and I don't really think I cannot understand a word of shanghainese...Before I learnt shanghainese, I did can understand little of it~ and little of cantonese.
LANGUAGE 和 DIALECT 在以西方觀點所寫成的語言學教科書裡 是有不一樣的定義
中文的 方言 也未必全然等於 英文的 DIALECT
事實上 挪威語 與 瑞典語 和 丹麥語 三語十分相似
操這三種語言的人也可以互相溝通
但是 教科書卻稱他們為 LANGUAGE
中文裡頭 閩 粵 客 吳 湘 贛被稱為 方言
但西方語言學家卻認為它們是 LANGUAGE
因為"不能彼此互通"的觀點
而 中國人視它們為 方言
卻是 獨尊"官話" 貶抑閩 粵 客 吳 湘 贛的結果
漢揚雄撰 <<方言>>十三卷 卻沒有貶抑其他語言的意思
雖說當時 閩 粵 客 吳 湘 贛還未成型
基於 <<語言平等法草案>>
台灣早已經不用 "方言" 這個詞了
<a href="http://mail.tku.edu.tw/cfshih/ln/">http://mail.tku.edu.tw/cfshih/ln/</a>;
(目前在中小學的課程裡 稱為 "鄉土語言")
