Mandarin and Cantonese are two different spoken languages. They are as different as English and German (or more so). Written Chinese is yet a third language -- used by both Mandarin speakers and Cantonese speakers for writing. As far as I know, nobody actually *speaks* a language that maps to written Chinese. Literate Chinese from all parts of the world can communicate perfectly well in writing, but may not be able to understand each other when speaking.
Written Chinese was standardized thousands of years ago. Even then there were multiple versions of spoken Chinese. The written language was just the particular one in use at Court at the time. Spoken Chinese languages have continued to evolve. So has written Chinese. As is to be expected, they have taken different courses over the millennia. As Carlos explained, there are a few different scripts for writing written Chinese. Mainly "Traditional" and "Simplified", but there are others, including pin-yin, which is based on the Latin alphabet. Carlos gave a good explanation of where (geographically) the various scripts are mainly used. Since, as Carlos points out, computers only communicate in writing, the existence of a variety of spoken Chinese languages shouldn't enter into the discussion. Politics keeps them from requesting different country-codes. "Sigh!", indeed, but that's a fact of life and we have to live with it. Calling the different scripts by geographic designations will be sure to offend people. As in the West, ownership of trademarks (in this case, the name "China") is a hotly contested issue. It would be much safer to find a neutral designation (such as "Traditional" and "Simplified") that everybody can live with. If you want a practical reason, which is relevant to Debian Linux, for using a logically aberrant but politically neutral designation, try this: If you insist on using politically offensive codes for the various written Chinese scripts, you may endanger the acceptance of Debian Linux in the Far East. Does this help? Rick On Wed, 2004-02-18 at 03:00, Carlos Z.F. Liu wrote: > On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 07:59:19 +0100 > Christian Perrier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > There is also this mandarin/cantonese duality.....Indeed I don't > > really understand how Simplified/Traditional and mandarin/cantonese > > are related? > > > > Simplified is a simplified Chinese, yes. But which one? Mandarin or > > Cantonese? > > > > Traditional Chinese is the "good old" Chinese language. But, again, > > which one? Madarin or Cantonese? > > > > What will we do for people who speak > > Chinese in Hong-Kong (valid locale)? Carlos mentions they speak > > cantonese. So? > > Sorry for the confusion. > > Mandarin/Cantonese are two kinds of pronounce. > Simplified/Traditional Chinese are two kinds of writing method. > Because d-i can't SPEAK chinese ^_^, Please ignore what's mandarin/cantonese. > > -- > Best Regards, > Carlos > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
