Happy year of the rat, everyone! <\/p>\n
Several years ago I made some resolutions for Chinese New Year that others might find useful, if you haven’t adopted similar ones already. <\/p>\n
Pretty basic. But these greatly help clarity. And they have the benefit of being correct. <\/p>\n
The reason you’ll sometimes find the phrase “Mandarin Chinese” rather than just “Mandarin” on my site is I want to help people find this through search engines. But for the most part the inclusion of the word “Chinese” is easily accomplished through tags or mention of “Chinese characters.” <\/p>\n
I’d like to note that even many of those who really should know better have things backwards. They might note that “Chinese” is not a language but a family of languages — and even then one that should be known as Sinitic rather than “Chinese.” And they tend to spend a line or so explaining that what many people refer to as Chinese “dialects” are really languages. This is all well and good. But then they go on to use “Chinese” and “dialects” over and over. <\/p>\n
The messages they’re sending out: <\/p>\n
Chinese Chinese Chinese Mandarin Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
and <\/p>\n
Dialect dialect language dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect dialect. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So what people hear is “Chinese” and “dialect” — both of which are usually wrong. <\/p>\n
I have made some resolutions of my own for this year: the first being to answer e-mail messages much quicker than my present average of three or more months behind when I should. Although I’m terrible at writing, I am indeed grateful for all of the messages I receive. <\/p>\n
Xinnian kuaile<\/em>! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happy year of the rat, everyone! Several years ago I made some resolutions for Chinese New Year that others might find useful, if you haven’t adopted similar ones already. If I’m referring to Mandarin I will use the word “Mandarin,” … Continue reading