By: x31eq
卡拉OK is a Japanese word spelt phonetically. I don't know if it came in via English. It's the example I take as evidence that written Chinese has added 26 new characters that sit quite at home with the...
View ArticleBy: Acilius
"anglo-saxon scholars… imposing their theories to every country as if they were written in stone, with all the colonialist gusto of times past." Surely that's just another form of nationalism....
View ArticleBy: Chris Waugh
"Most importantly, however, pinyin is used by the overwhelming majority of the population for computer and cell phone inputting" And what of handwriting input on cellphones and tablets? I have a wealth...
View ArticleBy: Bob Violence
The language of a country with millennia of extremely rich culture, will be "enriched" by borrowing more English expressions? Psh, everyone knows Chinese went downhill when those colonialist...
View ArticleBy: derek smith
In reference to the reply to my mail above then, I challenge anyone here to name a language which is "impoverished" at this juncture, since we are seemingly able to locate the enriched ones. I do not...
View ArticleBy: J.W. Brewer
@derek smith: via google you can find a few brave souls willing to characterize Mandarin as "phonologically impoverished," especially by comparison to Middle Chinese. It's harder to find languages...
View ArticleBy: Bob Violence
via google you can find a few brave souls willing to characterize Mandarin as "phonologically impoverished," especially by comparison to Middle Chinese. This is actually seems to be a common notion...
View ArticleBy: June Teufel Dreyer
the goal of maintaining linguistic purity is (a) misplaced and (b) can't be done. A propos of (a), languages are enriched rather than diminished by foreign loan words. We can find English words for...
View ArticleBy: Victor Mair
South China Morning Post Keeping Chinese language free from outside influence an impossible goal Comment›Insight & Opinion SCMP Editorial Nations with a proud history and culture are also likely to...
View ArticleBy: Bruce
The 汉字 purists dare not let their mask slip. It is promoted as a unified writing system for the entire group of Sinitic languages even though it is a force fit at best for 广东话 (Cantonese) and...
View ArticleBy: derek smith
I think the charge that Mandarin is lexically impoverished is pretty daft - what linguists perhaps ought to maintain is that you shouldn't hurl these kind of negative terms at any language simply...
View ArticleBy: Gianni
Language purists never acknowledge that meaning is universal and one language is not. Even English is filled with written signs from outside. Forget about those "Arabic" letters, we have...
View ArticleBy: Victor Mair
From a friend: …nearly all countries think they have a proud history and culture. It is insecure nations, particularly those who fear they are losing their prestige, who become sensitive to...
View ArticleBy: derek smith
I'm sorry, I meant to say "phonologically" impoverished in my last post, responding to J.M.Brewer. Mandarin doesn't have a lot of phonemes, and that surely doesn't help Madarin speakers when they learn...
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