All About China > Chinese Culture And Festivals
Guangdong province migration
David5o:
Since writing my last post on this thread I've spoken to Lucy, and what she told me really shocked me.
here goes .... she says there are 56 different peoples in china, each with there own language. The family of Han is the largest of those families and 90% of the people of China are from that family. The 55 other families make up the other 10%.
Now i think that what OILER has said above may account for what i think are the main Languages of China, and what Lucy was saying is that there are 56 dialects.. all derived from the main Languages (at least he knew how to spell ''Fukienese'') His is also stating 5 Main languages, where i thought only 4, i bow to his superior knowledge. I know for a fact that he is right about Fukienese being spoken by the Chinese in the Philippines....
Lucy also said that even though Mandarin is the main language of China there are many that don't know it too well, they tend to stick to there own dialect. .... So this just gets more confusing, the deeper you dig and look into it. For me, i think i know enough now, any more, and I'll know less than when this thread started!! hahaha!!
David.....
Oiler1:
--- Quote from: 'David5o' pid='12399' dateline='1250104721' ---Since writing my last post on this thread I've spoken to Lucy, and what she told me really shocked me.
here goes .... she says there are 56 different peoples in china, each with there own language. The family of Han is the largest of those families and 90% of the people of China are from that family. The 55 other families make up the other 10%.
Now i think that what OILER has said above may account for what i think are the main Languages of China, and what Lucy was saying is that there are 56 dialects.. all derived from the main Languages (at least he knew how to spell ''Fukienese'') His is also stating 5 Main languages, where i thought only 4, i bow to his superior knowledge. I know for a fact that he is right about Fukienese being spoken by the Chinese in the Philippines....
Lucy also said that even though Mandarin is the main language of China there are many that don't know it too well, they tend to stick to there own dialect. .... So this just gets more confusing, the deeper you dig and look into it. For me, i think i know enough now, any more, and I'll know less than when this thread started!! hahaha!!
David.....
--- End quote ---
There are 56 different ethnic groups in China. I had no idea within these group how many dialects or sub-dialects there are. There are variations of pronunciation from even the same dialect!
It gets confusing when they are transliterated into English. For a long time the Cantonese pronunciation held sway but now it is the PinYin system. For example Cantonese Chan is really Chen in Mandarin as a surname. Wong is Mandarin Huang. Wang is also pronounced like Wong except it is a different character etc. etc.
David5o:
OILER,
That's why i have given up on trying to work out what's what!!.... Too dam confusing for my liking. I like things that you can see where there going, .....but all i can see here is a big can of worms haha!! I'll let you Chinese sort it all out for the rest of us!! ...hahaha!!
David.....
raymond-:
oiler1 -
small point, but shouldn't the comparison be pinyin v wade-giles, instead of pinyin v Cantonese?
Oiler1:
--- Quote from: 'raymond-' pid='12428' dateline='1250116269' ---
oiler1 -
small point, but shouldn't the comparison be pinyin v wade-giles, instead of pinyin v Cantonese?
--- End quote ---
Yes you are right. I am so used to referring to Chinese people as Cantonese that I sometimes forget.
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